Wife decided to file for citizenship - any idea of timeline?

[True Blue]

I presume we will get a receipt and find the cancelled check in 3-4 weeks. Then the request for yet another obligatory bio-metrics appointment. We sent in the copy of the 10 year green card, 2 passport photos and the filing fee check with the form N-400.

 

How much more documentation will we need to provide to the government? Hopefully, they won't ask for yet another set of the copies of the stuff that we already sent them in the K-1 and 10 year green card process.

 

Any idea of when (e.g. approximately how many months?) it will be before my wife can test to become a citizen?

 

I'm assuming she is smarter than me and can pass the test. I looked over a few of the examination questions and some of them looked pretty tough. For example, I didn't know we had 435 congressmen.

 

Regards,

 

True Blue

[Yuanyang]

About 3 to 6 months.

[warpedbored]

Ours took a little over 5 months. It depends mostly on your local service center.

[dnoblett]

Click the link in my signature below, it will give you a timeline for my wife's citizenship process, 5 months total.

 

If filing for citizenship between 3 and 5 years the only extra thing needed are 3 years IRS returns or transcripts and some evidence of living together for the three years.

 

Provided several study aids in the links pinned at the top of the Citizenship forum.

[ameriken]

We applied for Jie in mid-December 2011 and she had her citizenship by early April 2012.

[True Blue]

Thanks everyone! Sounds like she might have it by Halloween - just in time to go Trick or Treating dressed up as Uncle Sam (or more appropriately Aunt Samantha) --- a real bona-fide US Citizen!!

 

Now I get to have my wife teach me all those things that I overlooked while in 10th grade Civics class.

 

While I thought this would be a slam dunk, it is surprisingly difficult. I took a 20 question internet practice test and barely (15 out of 20) passed and I grew up in Washington DC so I think I might have an edge over the average Joe. I can imagine a lot of it doesn't make sense to someone who grew up halfway across the world. Heck, a lot of it doesn't make sense to me either.

 

True Blue

[tsap seui]

Thanks everyone! Sounds like she might have it by Halloween - just in time to go Trick or Treating dressed up as Uncle Sam (or more appropriately Aunt Samantha) --- a real bona-fide US Citizen!!

 

Now I get to have my wife teach me all those things that I overlooked while in 10th grade Civics class.

 

While I thought this would be a slam dunk, it is surprisingly difficult. I took a 20 question internet practice test and barely (15 out of 20) passed and I grew up in Washington DC so I think I might have an edge over the average Joe. I can imagine a lot of it doesn't make sense to someone who grew up halfway across the world. Heck, a lot of it doesn't make sense to me either.

 

True Blue

Good luck to your wife buddy.

 

I hear ya about being able to pass the test ourselves. I know for sure I would flunk it outright....lol

 

Did you grow up in the city limits of DC or in a burb? I lived most of my life in upper Montgomery County Maryland, often played down in DC, mainly Georgetown but heck, we'd skip school and go downtown to see the sights and drink. Saw tent city back in the day, burned out blocks in South East, peace marches, the whole 9 yards. Of course we went to the Smithsonian museum where they have all the weird stuff in jars and asked if they had John Dillinger's you know what in a 55 gallon drum in the back...LOL...we had heard it wouldn't fit in a regular mason jar like all the other stuff they had in formaldehyde. I swear we did more tourist junk skipping school than most tourists do, of course with the drinking age being 18 and our using older guys non photo draft card and drivers licenses we were in party mode. I didn't know you were from DC. Mick and Kim went to school in DC and have some tales too.

 

Again, good luck with the citizenship stuff.

 

tsap seui

[True Blue]

 

Thanks everyone! Sounds like she might have it by Halloween - just in time to go Trick or Treating dressed up as Uncle Sam (or more appropriately Aunt Samantha) --- a real bona-fide US Citizen!!

 

Now I get to have my wife teach me all those things that I overlooked while in 10th grade Civics class.

 

While I thought this would be a slam dunk, it is surprisingly difficult. I took a 20 question internet practice test and barely (15 out of 20) passed and I grew up in Washington DC so I think I might have an edge over the average Joe. I can imagine a lot of it doesn't make sense to someone who grew up halfway across the world. Heck, a lot of it doesn't make sense to me either.

 

True Blue

Good luck to your wife buddy.

 

I hear ya about being able to pass the test ourselves. I know for sure I would flunk it outright....lol

 

Did you grow up in the city limits of DC or in a burb? I lived most of my life in upper Montgomery County Maryland, often played down in DC, mainly Georgetown but heck, we'd skip school and go downtown to see the sights and drink. Saw tent city back in the day, burned out blocks in South East, peace marches, the whole 9 yards. Of course we went to the Smithsonian museum where they have all the weird stuff in jars and asked if they had John Dillinger's you know what in a 55 gallon drum in the back...LOL...we had heard it wouldn't fit in a regular mason jar like all the other stuff they had in formaldehyde. I swear we did more tourist junk skipping school than most tourists do, of course with the drinking age being 18 and our using older guys non photo draft card and drivers licenses we were in party mode. I didn't know you were from DC. Mick and Kim went to school in DC and have some tales too.

 

Again, good luck with the citizenship stuff.

 

tsap seui

 

So your from the rich side of town - Monkey County with all the Senators homes, Ambassador's families, Fred Flintstone's home town (Rockville) and the name sake fake birth places of Will Weaton and Chevy Chase. I'm from the poor redneck suburbs in PG County. I'm a Bladensburg Sr, High school grad (lowest GPA and lowest graduation rate in the entire DC area including even Cardoza -where we learned brick layin', mine layin' and coed layin'. The old building ain't there anymore - the students burned it down a few years ago.

 

Best regards

True Blue

[tsap seui]

lol....PG county. You didn't have to go to war, you lived in it....lol My dad brought us up from NC back in 1964 when he went to work for Colonial Pipeline and it was pure chance that we moved to Damascus, Maryland in upper "Monkey" county as they called it. Back then it wa a lil' one horse town 30 miles away from downtown Baltimore and uptown DC. Our buddy from Candle Kim grew up in Saint Mary's county. We used to go down to Chuck Leavens music store in Wheaton/Silver Spring to buy our gear....sometimes you'd meet some names there when they were in town playing and needed something. Yeah, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, College Park.....Rockville....I dropped out of Montgomery Junior College at the Rockville campus and drove down to the old post office to join the Army....so many memories of those places.

[True Blue]

lol....PG county. You didn't have to go to war, you lived in it....lol My dad brought us up from NC back in 1964 when he went to work for Colonial Pipeline and it was pure chance that we moved to Damascus, Maryland in upper "Monkey" county as they called it. Back then it wa a lil' one horse town 30 miles away from downtown Baltimore and uptown DC. Our buddy from Candle Kim grew up in Saint Mary's county. We used to go down to Chuck Leavens music store in Wheaton/Silver Spring to buy our gear....sometimes you'd meet some names there when they were in town playing and needed something. Yeah, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, College Park.....Rockville....I dropped out of Montgomery Junior College at the Rockville campus and drove down to the old post office to join the Army....so many memories of those places.

For those who love music and guitars, PG County in the 1960's featured several players.

 

Roy Clark is probably the best known and he didn't even make the Rolling Stone list of 100 greatest guitar players. But he did win multiple Country Music Association " Instrumentalist Of The Year" awards and by age 15 he had already won two National Banjo Championships and world banjo/guitar flatpick championships. He was simultaneously pursuing a sporting career, first as a baseball player, and then as a boxer, before dedicating himself solely to music. At 17, he had his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.

 

Then we have 2 of the best unknown guitar pickers ever both of whom did make the Rolling Stone list of the 100 greatest guitar players -

http://www.ranker.com/list/rolling-stone_s-top-100-guitarists-of-all-time/music-lover?page=3

 

At #57 in the top 100 Roy Buchanan led the house band at the Crossroads Bar in Bladensburg, MD for many years. In addition to being a famous Blues guitarist, he was declined an offer to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones (the spot eventually taken by Ronnie Wood of Faces)

 

At the #63 spot is Roy Buchanan's ex roommate - Danny "the Humbler" Gatton who actually bested Roy Buchanan in many guitar play offs. Danny Gatton topped Roy Buchanan on this list of 100 top guitarists http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_newguitar.html ranking 23rd to Buchanan's 24th

Danny was into street rods and guitars but not so much fame -check out his story http://www.dannygatton.com/ and his music.

 

Best regards,

True Blue

[warpedbored]

I'm not putting much stock in this list of best guitarists. Leo Kotke didn't even make the list and Neil Young is 83rd. Now I like Neil's music but a great guitar player he isn't.

[True Blue]

I'm not putting much stock in this list of best guitarists. Leo Kotke didn't even make the list and Neil Young is 83rd. Now I like Neil's music but a great guitar player he isn't.

You build em and I only listen to them so I would defer to you on the Rolling Stone guitarist list. My point was to show that my hometown had some pretty good guitar pickers back in the day. And if you are not familiar with Danny Gatton or Roy Buchanan - i think they are worth checking out. Some youtube clips exist..

 

As for lists, the second link digital dream door link (which ranks Gatton and Buchanan in the top 25) may be more credible. It is for Rock guitarists only and drops Neil Young down to 91st. Neil Young invented grunge guitar so while it is a bit of noise (in fact one of his recent grunge albums is actually titles :Le Noise") with his prolific solo work, work with Crazy Horse and body of work as the CSNY lead guitar - he probably has to place somewhere I suppose.

 

Leo Kottke isn't listed on the rock guitar list. It is not because he isn't a great guitarist, but because his style isn't considered "rock". He's #2 on their acoustic list http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_jazz/best_acousticddd.html. I'm a Kottke fan too he's in pretty good company with Michael Hedges and Chet Atkins who are #1 and #3 on their acoustic list.

 

They have a lot of music lists at http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/music0.html and most of them seem to be pretty decent. Ray Manzarek of the Doors passed away this week. I am a keyboard fan too so I checked out where he was on their keyboard list. Fourth, after Keith Emerson (ELP), Rick Wakeman (Yes) and Jon Lord (Deep Purple) isn't too shabby. http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_keyboard.html

 

Best regards,

True Blue

[tsap seui]

Hey, don't forget backwards flipping NIls Lofgren wiht his band Grin from our area True Blue. He later played in Bruce Springsteen's band and I got to see him play with Joe Walsh in one of Ringo's Allstar Bands.. Man, I can remember going down to Georgetown and hearing Danny Gatton play, and ol'' Roy Buchanan. Incredible players....yes, lots of good youtube footage of them playing.

 

No matter which side of the beltway you lived in around DC we had some great players from that area.

 

tsap seui

[True Blue]

Hey, don't forget backwards flipping NIls Lofgren wiht his band Grin from our area True Blue. He later played in Bruce Springsteen's band and I got to see him play with Joe Walsh in one of Ringo's Allstar Bands.. Man, I can remember going down to Georgetown and hearing Danny Gatton play, and ol'' Roy Buchanan. Incredible players....yes, lots of good youtube footage of them playing.

 

No matter which side of the beltway you lived in around DC we had some great players from that area.

 

tsap seui

Tsap,

 

You bring back some good memories. Nils Lofgren and Grin now that is going back a bit. They had a local hit (maybe you remember it or maybe you had already left for the service) with this song White Lies. For those of you who haven;'t heard it it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2AE_ydq2Ls

 

As for anyone reading this thread expecting to find information on citizenship process -it's been 3 weeks but we haven't seen an email from USCIS. Fortunately we sent the N-400 package by registered mail so we can see it was delivered and I can check with our bank to see when the cash was checked. I think the holiday weekend slowed everything down and maybe USCIS is swamped with more paperwork than usual given all of the recent publicity about the new immigration reform bill.

 

Regards all,

 

True Blue

[tsap seui]

Oh man, thanks for that memory of White Lies...what some great times we both lived through in that ol' DC area. Great times, great players. NIls did backflips like they were nothing on stage, and not lose a note....LOL

 

Here is that particular Ringo's All Starr Band that I took my then 6 year old daughter to see. We went to Merriweather Post Pavillion outside Baltimore and sat in the 4th row center of the "pit" right there where you see ever crease in every smile from the players. Just look at the lineup we got to see as Ringo calls them off....it was unbelievable. They played Ringo's hits and then one or two songs of each person in the band. I was in heaven to be that close to people like that. NIls trading off licks with Joe Walsh...man oh man. Ringo and his son playing drums together.

 

I was holding my daughter in my arms at one point and she bouncing around clapping her hands ot the music....Ringo looks down at her, smiles and waves to her....I could have passed out....LOL Then he says to the crowd, I want all of you to sing along with me on this next song, everyone of you should know the songs but maybe this little girl down front here and he points at my kid....I"m swooning, the kid doesn't have a clue who Ringo Starr is.....LOL What a fantastic night that was