Eric S

From today's Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...r_citizenship/

It's not clear if this will help people already waiting, or just new applicants.

Also seems like the N-400 backlog from last year has more or less been cleaned up.

- Eric S.

meauxna

Oh good, I was looking for a place to put this announcement from USCIS:

News Release
August 11, 2008
USCIS UPDATES PROJECTED NATURALIZATION PROCESSING TIMES

blah blah blah,

Last year’s application surge did not impact USCIS offices evenly across the country. Although most offices have already processed cases received during the 2007 filing surge, a handful of offices will have a small percentage of their 2007 cases pending at the end of Fiscal Year 2008. That will result in processing times longer than the 10-12 month national average. USCIS will continue to shift resources to ensure that all local offices achieve the goal of five month processing times.
USCIS field office projections are listed below. These projections indicate the average time it will take to complete a naturalization case as of the end of September 2008.
(see chart)

AlanR

Quick question. What's the basis of the calculation? Application received to oath ceremony? Reason I ask is that I've been waiting 5 weeks from interview (and apparent success there) for an oath ceremony letter. My N-400 application was 7th November 2007, and local office Boston, MA, so their date of 9 months or so looks about spot-on for me. So I'm Mr. Average. 9An, of course it's probably a Poisson distribution with small numbers scaled out to the next Millenium).

Brit3964

This is rubbish! They aren't doing anything to clear out the so-called "namecheck" backlog. I should know. It's been more than 2yrs and I've had enough so WoM will be filed on them all by the end of this month. The only bit I agree with is the:

"Still, he acknowledged an audience member's concern that federal officers are still taking several years to decide a case even after the FBI check is completed.

"The experience you just described should not be happening," he said. Once the FBI check is completed, he said, the immigration officer should "make a decision, one way or the other."

The USCIS just aren't doing the job they are paid to do. Disgraceful. Check out the recent DOJ report on the FBI's poor showing on the namecheck process itself which doesn't help much either:

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a0824/final.pdf

zargof

It's handy that they are clearing the N-400 backlog just in time for the election...

I went for an Infopass appointment last week to find out what was taking my AOS so long, and it seems that at the Des Moines office they have four adjudicators, and three of them have been working on N-400, which leaves one left to deal with everything else... it's frustrating considering it's now been almost a year since my interview and there is still no sign that it will be approved any time soon.

I know, I know, I'n not the only one, but I felt like I needed to vent...

Brit3964

Not only vent to us all but vent to your Congressman, Senator and anybody else you can think of. I even vented to Al Gore (not that it did me much good!).

Marmalade

This is the official processing time I have been given (5 months). So, hopefully that will hold true.