One of the items in the meaty stack of mail delivered whilst on the cruise was an invitation from the INS to have a chat about my US citizenship application aka ‘the interview’. Scheduled for October 10th I had plenty of time to study the question bank, but this weekend I got another letter saying that ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’ my interview had been canceled. The letter says they will be in touch should they reschedule.
Citizenship Interview…. Almost.
September 17th, 2007 — General
Back from Alaska
September 8th, 2007 — General
Arrived back from Alaska in the wee hours of the morning after a long day’s traveling (though nothing compared to my Dad’s). No near-naked girls to report this time, instead a broken water heater leaking into the garage; just never possible to ease back into reality it seems. Hopefully the plumber man will return to install the new heater any moment, he needs to as we have piles of laundry like you wouldn’t believe.
Obviously there will be more Alaska posts to come. Right now I am sorting through 896 pictures to come up with those worth keeping. I’ll post some here but you’ll need to check out my flickr page to see them all.
Toodles for now.
Citizenship Update
May 7th, 2007 — General
Finally managed to get my application sent and received by the INS/USCIS and have a receipt notice. The notice lists my priority date as April 9th, but the online case tracking system lists it as April 16th. A quick look at the current priority dates being processed shows San Diego is working on September 12 2006 so it looks like there is a 7-8 month turnaround time right now. Plenty of time to learn my US history…
Getting More Expensive to Come to America
February 6th, 2007 — General
The USCIS recently published a Proposed Rule to increase filing fees for immigration forms. If you have any idea about applying for some immigration-related benefit I suggest you do it before April when these might come into effect.
| Form | Old Fee | Proposed Fee |
|---|---|---|
| N-400 Application for Citizenship | $330 | $595 |
| I-485 Application for Permanent Resident Status | $325 | $905 |
| I-140 Immigrant Worker Petition | $195 | $475 |
| I-765 Employment Authorisation | $180 | $340 |
| I-751 Application to Remove Condition of Residence | $205 | $465 |
| I-829 Petition by Entrepreneur to Remove Conditions | $475 | $2,850 |
My N-400 is complete and awaiting a stamp, and a $330 cheque.
Proud To Be An Ugly American!
January 13th, 2007 — General
No, not me, not yet anyways…. but our good friend Eric Galvan from the local rag. Its Friday so it must be rant ‘o’ the week time and Mr G doesn’t disappoint. If you want to read it, go ahead and take a look after the jump. Of course he’s trying to be provocative but I don’t think he has the intelligence to pull it off without looking like an angry jerk. I’d say but at least it sells news papers except that I don’t know anyone who admits to reading what he writes.
