N-400 Application - Detroit
Jul 7th 2007, 4:37 pm
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
N-400 Application - Detroit
My husband and I are completing our immigration journey, and just
filed his n-400 last month. He immigrated here in 2002 via K-1 visa
from Toronto, Canada. We now have 2 children (ages 3 years and 20
months) and almost five years of marriage under our belts. We
procrastinated for over 18 months waiting to filing for his
citizenship (too busy changing diapers, I guess) but got off our butts
due to the soon-to-increase fees.
Although I haven't been around in a long time, this group was probably
invaluable in applying for my K-1 and at every step in this process
since, so I figured I'd come back to share as we go through the last
stage, which hopefully will be over in the next nine months, if not
sooner. I've seen some Detroit timelines since January 2007 of 4 to 5
months from notice date to oath, which is amazing.
Our timeline is below, with K-1 stuff as well for completeness! It's
kind of hard to believe it's been so long since we did the K-1 and
AOS; I hardly remember it now. I think I'm just blocking it out
though... Good luck to all! Kristin
February 6, 2002: I-129F petition mailed to Nebraska
July 26, 2002: Receive K-1 after successful interview in Montreal
October 20, 2002: Entered on K-1 via Port Huron
November 30, 2002: Wedding!
December 17, 2002: Filed AOS in person at Detroit INS; receive
interview date.
January 6, 2003: AOS Interview - approved pending security checks.
March 26, 2003: 2 year green card issued
February 2005: Application to remove conditions filed
June 2005: Removal of conditions approved, 10 year green card issued
N-400 Timeline
5/31/07: N-400 mailed to Nebraska
6/4/07: Notification issued by NCS, check cashed
6/7/07: Fingerprint appointment notice for 6/30/07 issued
6/30/07: Fingerprints taken in Detroit
filed his n-400 last month. He immigrated here in 2002 via K-1 visa
from Toronto, Canada. We now have 2 children (ages 3 years and 20
months) and almost five years of marriage under our belts. We
procrastinated for over 18 months waiting to filing for his
citizenship (too busy changing diapers, I guess) but got off our butts
due to the soon-to-increase fees.
Although I haven't been around in a long time, this group was probably
invaluable in applying for my K-1 and at every step in this process
since, so I figured I'd come back to share as we go through the last
stage, which hopefully will be over in the next nine months, if not
sooner. I've seen some Detroit timelines since January 2007 of 4 to 5
months from notice date to oath, which is amazing.
Our timeline is below, with K-1 stuff as well for completeness! It's
kind of hard to believe it's been so long since we did the K-1 and
AOS; I hardly remember it now. I think I'm just blocking it out
though... Good luck to all! Kristin
February 6, 2002: I-129F petition mailed to Nebraska
July 26, 2002: Receive K-1 after successful interview in Montreal
October 20, 2002: Entered on K-1 via Port Huron
November 30, 2002: Wedding!
December 17, 2002: Filed AOS in person at Detroit INS; receive
interview date.
January 6, 2003: AOS Interview - approved pending security checks.
March 26, 2003: 2 year green card issued
February 2005: Application to remove conditions filed
June 2005: Removal of conditions approved, 10 year green card issued
N-400 Timeline
5/31/07: N-400 mailed to Nebraska
6/4/07: Notification issued by NCS, check cashed
6/7/07: Fingerprint appointment notice for 6/30/07 issued
6/30/07: Fingerprints taken in Detroit
Jul 8th 2007, 7:08 am
#2
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 35,082
Re: N-400 Application - Detroit
W00t! Congrats, Kristin & Co!
What a nice, happy immigration love story
What a nice, happy immigration love story
Jan 14th 2008, 9:17 am
#3
Just Joined
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 6
Citizenship interview in Detroit - passed!
Yay! We're in the home stretch! I thought I would post an update on our progress, for anyone looking for recent Detroit n-400 processing experiences.
N-400 Timeline:
5/31/07: N-400 mailed to Nebraska
6/4/07: Notification issued by NCS, check cashed
6/7/07: Fingerprint appointment notice for 6/30/07 issued
6/30/07: Fingerprints taken in Detroit
10/30/07: Citizenship Interview letter issued
1/10/08: Citizenship interview in Detroit, passed!
The interview was at 2:30, and we arrived at the parking lot at about 1:50 p.m. The parking guard let us in and we parked in a back lot where there were plenty of spaces. Once inside, the security guard asked us for our appointment letter (no letter, no getting in), and instructed my husband to put his letter into the appropriate basked (I think there were only two: Green Card and Citizenship but there might have been one more) and wait to be called.
His name was called at about 2:20 and he asked if I could join him for the interview but as we expected, he was told no (it never hurts to ask, right?). He was with the officer for almost 30 minutes, until 2:45, and I was starting to get worried, but I guess the officer was both thorough and disorganized, so it took a little while to get through everything. My husband has also changed jobs and been to Canada a number of times since we filed the N-400 with Nebraska, so that info was updated.
According to my husband, the questions the officer seemed to concentrate the most on where the trips outside the US (he kept verifying that he had not been outside the US for more than 6 months), was meticulous in asking all of the character questions on the N-400, and made sure anything that was different from what was on the N-400 was updated. The questions were very straight-forward, though, and just took a lot longer than I had thought. We did provide evidence of our marriage photos of our kids, our mortgage, bank account, tax returns, etc. The officer did not keep any of it, just looked at them. We had forgotten to include my son's birth certificate, so he asked for a copy of that (and looked at the originals for the others).
My husband wrote and spoke two brief sentences about giving something to his brother. He was asked about 8 questions from the "citizenship test":
Who is the president?
Who becomes president if the Pres and VP both die?
Who was MLK Jr.
What is the purpose of the UN?
Who wrote the constitution?
What is one of the rights of citizenship?
and two more that neither of us can remember!
At the end, the officer stamped his paper and checked "Congratulations! etc." He should receive his oath date in the next two to three weeks. I can't believe it's almost over!
We had not been inside the Detroit office since our AOS interview in January 2003 and it have things changed! There are no more bays for processing in the waiting room. There are no more hoards of people waiting for hours on end to be seen. There were no more old and blurry Disney VCR tapes playing at full volume on the TV! That was my favorite change. :-) I am really impressed with how much better the service was and how quickly everything went. Parking was plentiful, the officers were very helpful (I observed several of them assisting other immigrants while I waited anxiously for DH to come out!). There were no more than 15-20 people waiting at any one time and most of them were in groups of 2-3.
All in all, a very positive experience. Knock on wood, my husband will get to vote in the 2008 presidential election. Thanks again for all the help we've gotten from this site. Especially to Rene, Noorah, Meauxna, and all the other folks who provided their experiences and support as we went through this processes. Our complete timeline is below, and I will post again once we get through the oath. :-) Kristin
2/6/02: I-129F petition mailed to Nebraska
7/26/02: Receive K-1 after successful interview in Montreal
10/20/02: Enter on K-1 via Port Huron
11/30/02: Wedding!
12/17/02: File AOS in person at Detroit INS; receive interview date
1/6/03: AOS Interview - approved pending security checks
3/26/03: 2 year green card issued
2/2005: I-797 application to remove conditions filed
6/2005: Removal of conditions approved, 10 year green card issued
5/31/07: N-400 mailed to Nebraska
6/4/07: Notification letter issued
6/7/07: Fingerprint appointment notice for 6/30/07 issued
6/30/07: Fingerprints taken in Detroit
10/3/07: Interview appointment issues for 1/10/08
1/10/08: Successful interview in Detroit!
Oath date: pending notification from Detroit INS
N-400 Timeline:
5/31/07: N-400 mailed to Nebraska
6/4/07: Notification issued by NCS, check cashed
6/7/07: Fingerprint appointment notice for 6/30/07 issued
6/30/07: Fingerprints taken in Detroit
10/30/07: Citizenship Interview letter issued
1/10/08: Citizenship interview in Detroit, passed!
The interview was at 2:30, and we arrived at the parking lot at about 1:50 p.m. The parking guard let us in and we parked in a back lot where there were plenty of spaces. Once inside, the security guard asked us for our appointment letter (no letter, no getting in), and instructed my husband to put his letter into the appropriate basked (I think there were only two: Green Card and Citizenship but there might have been one more) and wait to be called.
His name was called at about 2:20 and he asked if I could join him for the interview but as we expected, he was told no (it never hurts to ask, right?). He was with the officer for almost 30 minutes, until 2:45, and I was starting to get worried, but I guess the officer was both thorough and disorganized, so it took a little while to get through everything. My husband has also changed jobs and been to Canada a number of times since we filed the N-400 with Nebraska, so that info was updated.
According to my husband, the questions the officer seemed to concentrate the most on where the trips outside the US (he kept verifying that he had not been outside the US for more than 6 months), was meticulous in asking all of the character questions on the N-400, and made sure anything that was different from what was on the N-400 was updated. The questions were very straight-forward, though, and just took a lot longer than I had thought. We did provide evidence of our marriage photos of our kids, our mortgage, bank account, tax returns, etc. The officer did not keep any of it, just looked at them. We had forgotten to include my son's birth certificate, so he asked for a copy of that (and looked at the originals for the others).
My husband wrote and spoke two brief sentences about giving something to his brother. He was asked about 8 questions from the "citizenship test":
Who is the president?
Who becomes president if the Pres and VP both die?
Who was MLK Jr.
What is the purpose of the UN?
Who wrote the constitution?
What is one of the rights of citizenship?
and two more that neither of us can remember!
At the end, the officer stamped his paper and checked "Congratulations! etc." He should receive his oath date in the next two to three weeks. I can't believe it's almost over!
We had not been inside the Detroit office since our AOS interview in January 2003 and it have things changed! There are no more bays for processing in the waiting room. There are no more hoards of people waiting for hours on end to be seen. There were no more old and blurry Disney VCR tapes playing at full volume on the TV! That was my favorite change. :-) I am really impressed with how much better the service was and how quickly everything went. Parking was plentiful, the officers were very helpful (I observed several of them assisting other immigrants while I waited anxiously for DH to come out!). There were no more than 15-20 people waiting at any one time and most of them were in groups of 2-3.
All in all, a very positive experience. Knock on wood, my husband will get to vote in the 2008 presidential election. Thanks again for all the help we've gotten from this site. Especially to Rene, Noorah, Meauxna, and all the other folks who provided their experiences and support as we went through this processes. Our complete timeline is below, and I will post again once we get through the oath. :-) Kristin
2/6/02: I-129F petition mailed to Nebraska
7/26/02: Receive K-1 after successful interview in Montreal
10/20/02: Enter on K-1 via Port Huron
11/30/02: Wedding!
12/17/02: File AOS in person at Detroit INS; receive interview date
1/6/03: AOS Interview - approved pending security checks
3/26/03: 2 year green card issued
2/2005: I-797 application to remove conditions filed
6/2005: Removal of conditions approved, 10 year green card issued
5/31/07: N-400 mailed to Nebraska
6/4/07: Notification letter issued
6/7/07: Fingerprint appointment notice for 6/30/07 issued
6/30/07: Fingerprints taken in Detroit
10/3/07: Interview appointment issues for 1/10/08
1/10/08: Successful interview in Detroit!
Oath date: pending notification from Detroit INS
Jan 14th 2008, 10:39 am
#4
MODERATOR
Joined: Apr 2003
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Posts: 58,687
Re: Citizenship interview in Detroit - passed!
Congratulations on the success! Yay!
Rene
Rene
Jan 24th 2008, 7:18 am
#5
Just Joined
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 6
Re: N-400 Application - Detroit
Hi all - thanks for the good wishes, Noorah!
My DH got his oath letter on Tuesday, Jan. 22nd. His oath is in Detroit at the federal courthouse on Monday, February 11th at 8:30 a.m.
Thanks again for all the help, especially to Rete, who always answered my questions about her experience faithfully. Good luck to everyone! Kristin
My DH got his oath letter on Tuesday, Jan. 22nd. His oath is in Detroit at the federal courthouse on Monday, February 11th at 8:30 a.m.
Thanks again for all the help, especially to Rete, who always answered my questions about her experience faithfully. Good luck to everyone! Kristin
