Waterpony

Hi all,
As some of you know, I live in Metairie (New Orleans metro area). I have evacuated before the storm. Just a few weeks ago I have passed the citizenship interview and was to scheduled for an oath (within 120 days). As it seems now, New Orleans district office may not reopen in a long time. Does anyone know what is the procedure after the interview? What happens with the file - does it stay in the DO or is sent to the service center. I did take all my immigration records with me, so I do have the copy of all I have ever filed and the interview letter (recommended for citizenship). Under the circumstances, would it be possible to obtain the certificate of naturalization without an oath through some other district office? Honestly, my company is working on many govt. contracts, and I am looking to relocate, however, my chances would be much better if I could get my citizenship certificate as soon as possible,because that would allow me to get a security clearance. As the situation is now, I am staying in the hotel in Little Rock, AR, where I am working at our company's offsite (thank God I have a job and a place to stay... However, this is not my permanent address, and it may change soon, depending on the siuation. I know that our house was flooded, but it seemes the water has recedeed, however, it may be months before we are able to return to the area. The uscis site does not have any information yet.
I would appreciate any suggestions.
Many thanks!

meauxna

WP,
I'm so glad to see you surface! I've been keeping an eye out for you.

There was a thread on visajourney that didn't have much more than good wishes in the way of info, but someone did add this:

"WASHINGTON — The post office set up locations Thursday for residents of the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina to pick up their first-of-the-month checks, and said it is no longer accepting magazines or bulk mail for delivery to the damaged area.

"We realize how important it is to get this mail through," Deputy Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe said in a telephone interview. Vital mail includes such things as Social Security and pension checks, paychecks, insurance forms and medicine shipped by mail.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and Donahoe urged them to contact the post office with their new address, even if it is temporary.

"Change your address, the mail will follow you," he said.

First-class mail for New Orleans is currently being held in Dallas and will be forwarded from there, Donahoe said."

I don't know where it came from.

I think you're just going to have to watch the uscis.gov page for a bit.. I'm sure they'll post there as soon as there is some idea of what will happen.
What a nightmare.

Rete

Thank goodness you are alright. Have been wondering and worrying about you. As for the USCIS and NO DO, don't have a clue but would assume that within the next ten days or so that the website will have something up and running about what will happen to the files and the people there. Yes, the file remains at the DO office until after your oath ceremony. Lets hope it was on an upper floor of one of the larger buildlings.

Give it until Friday and try calling the 1-800 number. I don't believe your Congressperson is going to be of much assistance but it worth a shot at e-mailing them and/or calling them for assistance.

Rita

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Glad to hear you are physically well and sound.

Based on past experience, there will be adjustments and accomodations. This was true after 9/11. There may very well be delays, but it will work out.

Matthew Udall

Another good thing is that he says he has copies of everything (I assume that also included copies of his N-400 submission and supporting documentation).

As Folinskyinla said, accomodations will be made. After 911, the CIS was very helpful in this regard, and allowed AILA members to "reconstruct" the files with copies they had at their offices. I'm sure they will do this for DIY'ers as well.

Folinskyinla

Hey Matt:

Speaking of the aftermath of 9/11, the paper used by Charlie Chan Printing who I use for my 9th Circuit Briefs apparently doesn't stand up all that well to radiation. I had to supply several extra copies of briefs filed in late 2001 and served on the Office of Immigration Litigation in DC. They may have been antrhax free, but they were reduced to dust.

Matthew Udall

While touring the VSC, I made a stop at their mailroom. The head of that department gave me the low down on what they do, and he mentioned an interesting story.

Seems that they get “thank you� letters sometimes, or even I-129f submission that might have cards included as supporting documentation. Some of these letters/cards have candy hearts glued to them. The candy hearts get pulverized to a fine powder during the trip through the U.S. postal service and when they open them up at the VSC’S mailroom all they find is a fine dust/powder.

And of course, they don’t know what the powder is and they have had to shut down the facility a few times due to this while a hazardous material team comes in to investigate.

He made it a point to specifically ask AILA members to make sure they don’t submit any evidenced containing candy hearts :-).

Waterpony

Big thanks to everybody for their replies and concerns...the current uncertainty and damage to the house (that, btw, we just bought two months ago) did not bring the tears to my eyes, but your concern did...
I am actually quite lucky because my company is paying for the hotel and my job is secure. However, if I have to stay here for any longer period of time, I would rather relocate and start all over, preferably in VA where we lived before moving to New Orleans a few years ago.
Rete, fortunately NO DO is in the post office building on Loyola street on the 10th floor. It is quite close to the Superdome, so it may have some window damage. As far as I know, there was no extensive flooding on that side. My husband, who works for dept. of health and hospitals and was stationed as a part of emergency response team in the Superdome until Thursday morning used Loyola to drive out of town. The danger, however, may be looting, but I'm trying to comfort myself thinking that there is no power, no elevators working, and those animals would be too lazy to climb up.
I'll wait for a week or so, if I find out anything, I'll surely post here.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Having gone through the 1994 Northridge earthquake, I can tell you to keep talking about it -- it helps in the long run and you'd be surprised how many people are willing to let you vent.

Its been over 11 years now and out-of-town friends and I now laugh about one part of the damage to my house -- has it ever occurred to anybody that toilets are made out of porcelin and the top of the tank is also porcelin and is NOT tied down. The up and down movement of our house tossed the tank tops in the air and when they came down they shattered the tanks, and then the valve opened to fill the now shattered tank. While we were without power, we were able to buy flex tubing for the hot-water tank and buy two new toilets [the hardware and Home Depot came through even though THEY had no power and their employees had to enter the buildings with flashlights to bring the goods out to sell -- at normal prices, and making out credit card reciepts the old fashioned way with impression printers by hand.] I was a pretty good plumber that day. We had running water before we had power back.

It was also curious that our phone service came back only four hours after the earthquake and out-of-town relatives were telling US what was on the TV.

Rete

Glad hubby got out okay, WP. My daughter, thankfully, had moved from Long Beach, MS last September and she, after a few months in Tahoe, moved back to Vegas. Her Mississippian significant other are marrying on the 17th in Vegas and he was there with her when Katrina hit so he was out of harm's way. He lost everything (his apartment building and personal home) but the worse is that his manager for the building is a single mom with one daughter. She and her daugther were to leave that Sunday for Jackson, MS in Joe's truck and never made it there. No one has heard from them since and they don't know if they made it to safety and just are unable to contact anyone.

Rete

Waterpony

Rete, I was thinking about your daughter a lot...I knew she was somewhere in Mississippi. I'm really glad she is not there anymore. I hope that the manager lady is safe but unable to get in touch with somebody. We still do not know whereabouts of some of our employees, but they are appearing each day - my coworker who was in Mississippi joined us today. Hope everything turns out well.

AlmostThere1

I hope you are faring reasonably well.
USCIS has updated their web-site with some information.


This document has all the details. Their main page is here: http://uscis.gov/graphics/katrina.htm

They also have a FAQ:
http://uscis.gov/graphics/publicaffa...katrinafaq.pdf

some highlights:
On Friday, September 2, 2005, USCIS surveyed the status of the USCIS District Office in New Orleans (NOL) at 701 Loyola Avenue. There was no window damage, no water damage, and the office was secure. It appears that nothing was disrupted, and the files and security items are safe.

As for for oath ceremony:
Has USCIS cancelled naturalization ceremonies in the affected areas?
All naturalization ceremonies in the affected areas have been cancelled until further notice and will be rescheduled. Customers with pending appointments for naturalization interviews and adjustment of status interviews will be contacted as soon as information becomes available.

Hypertweeky

Oh my!! I am so happy to hear you are safe and well!!
I don't know about how the goverment is going to handle this situation but I am sure they will figure something out..
Keep us updated!!, it is nice to see you around here!

meauxna

karma rain-check for you.. thanks for posting that!

katesuitersback

I don't have an answer for you, unfortunately, but I just wanted to say that I'm glad you got out ok. The storm hit us (Ft. Lauderdale) just as it turned into a Cat 1 and we lost power for 2 days, and seeing the damage up in the Gulf Coast sobered me up and stopped me complaining about being a bit uncomfortable while we were out of power. I hope everything works out for you in every way.

Kate. xxx