 In the previous episode, I did share with you guys a step-by-step process to do the whole application online all by yourself. So if you have not watched that video, make sure to do so. It's gonna be right there. And if you do have any questions, do let me know in comments. We do reply to every single comment within 24 hours. So the first step after you finish your online application you submit your M400 form and you pay the fee for the citizenship application. There are six steps that are going to happen. So the next step is going to be going to your biometrics appointment if it's applicable to you. The next step is going to be completing the interview, then receiving a decision from the USCIs on your form N400. From there, the next step is receiving a notice to take the oath of allegiance and then take the oath of allegiance to the United States. And finally, understanding US citizenship and taking some additional steps once you become a citizen. So these are the six steps that are going to happen. We're going to talk about each one of them in details. If not in this episode in an upcoming one, but the first step once you submit your application online you are going to receive your first notice. This notice is going to be sent to you via email to the address that you used but it's going to be also available on your USCIs account under documents. And that's why it's important to have that account. It's going to make things a lot easier for you. So before you receive any letters by mail they are going to be actually available in your account. So if you go right here to your account you log into your account there are three main tabs to look at. There's case status, case history and documents. And under documents there will be a trail for you to see all of the documents on all the mail that was sent to you to your address. So this is the perfect space just to keep track of everything. So let's take a look at the first notice. So the first notice pretty much just says, thank you, we received your application, we received the fee and here are the next steps. And by the way, they are very good at communicating everything. I really was impressed by how well their communication is. So in the notice they will say to you what are the next step, basically two next step. They say we will schedule you for an appointment that is the biometrics appointment and then they say that you are going to receive that notice separately. So that's step one. So there's nothing for you to do right there. You're pretty much just gonna wait for the next step is to receive your biometrics appointment. That is a second notice that it's going to be sent to you by email available on the account as well. But on that notice they are going to say, hey, you were scheduled for a biometrics appointment and they do dictate the place, the location, the time and the date. So they already set up that information and if for some reason you can't make it to the appointment that they scheduled for you, you can still reach out, communicate, explain why you won't be able and they can do the rescheduling for you if it's necessary. But basically the biometrics appointment is where you go to the USCIS office and then they need three main things from you. They need your fingerprints, they need your signature and they need to take a photograph from you. So if you read the biometrics notice it's going to have all the details. They are going to ask you to bring the printed notice as you receive it in the mail or you can print it by yourself and they are also going to ask you to bring some sort of ID or driver's license or even green card just so that they know it's you. So that's for the biometrics appointment. Now, when you go to the biometrics appointment it's going to be very straightforward to just get that information from you and you are good to go, but they do give you a package and that package have some information about what the next steps are and I believe the most important thing in that package is this little booklet right here for preparing for the naturalization test. So this book is really important and we are going to have another episode in which we're going to talk about how to prepare for the naturalization test. I'm going to share with you step by step everything that I did, it was not time consuming at all and I'm going to share with you a lot of tips and tricks in there so keep an eye out for that one and if you're not already a subscriber make sure to subscribe. So that's going to be part of the package that they are going to give you and that is going to be your next step. So same thing for scheduling your naturalization test they are going to send you another notice that says, hey, you were scheduled for this date, this location and this is what you should bring with you. So all right, so let's take a look at the notice and what it's saying right here. They give you information about the location again and then they list down everything that you should bring with you depending on your case. But basically in this paragraph here you must bring the following with you to the interview. You must bring this letter which is the printed notice, your alien registration card, that's your green card. You should bring any evidence of selective service registration. You should bring your passport or any other document you use in connection with any entrance into the United States. Those items needed below which are applicable to you. So some additional items if you are applying for naturalization as a spouse of someone who is already in the United States season but basically they list down everything that you need to bring with you. During your naturalization test you go in there, take all the documents and make sure that you're prepared for the test and all of the questions. We will talk about that in a separate episode but you go to your naturalization test. So the only difference right now with the pandemic is usually they would schedule you for the naturalization test. You go there, you take it and then you go home and then they schedule you for the oath ceremony. You go there with friends and family and then you do the whole ceremony and then you become a U.S. season. But right now with the pandemic things are a little bit different. Unfortunately you can't have friends and family you go with you. At least that's how it worked for me. So when I went for the naturalization test I took my test and then I was waiting in the wait room for about one to two hours because they had to process some paperwork and the system was actually done. So I waited there for a little bit and then we jumped to the oath ceremony right there. So with the group of people who were taking the test if you pass your test with new issues you will go straight to the oath ceremony right there and then you become a citizen right then and then you receive your citizenship certification right there. So they skipped a lot of steps that used to take a couple of days or weeks to happen into one big interview or one big session where you do the naturalization test, the oath ceremony and you become a citizen. If you go to Google and search for how long it takes for U.S. citizenship application the average processing time for citizenship or naturalization applications is eight months as of May 31st, 2020. However, that is just how long it takes to SCIS to process form N400. The entire naturalization process has several steps and takes an average of 15 months. So pretty much between eight months to 15 months and obviously it's just different from one case to the other, one person to the other. So let's go right now and take a look at my case history and how long it took me this year, 2020 to become a U.S. citizen. All right, so this is my whole case history and how long it took me for the whole process. So I did submit my online application in February 1st, 2020. This is when they sent me a notice saying that, okay, your application of naturalization was received and mailed you a receipt notice. So in February 8th, 2020 is when they scheduled me for a biometrics appointment. So pretty much one week between the time of submission and the time when you are scheduled for a biometrics appointment. And then on February 24th, they sent me a notice saying that they are actively reviewing you in your form, application for naturalization, our record showed nothing is outstanding at this time. So in this scenario, they did not need any additional information from me because I was very thorough making sure I'm answering every single question and adding support in documentation. I talk about this in the previous episode. But the end of February, one month for them to kind of start reviewing the process. And then you can see here that in September 2nd, 2020, they scheduled my interview. Now there are a couple of things that happened behind the scenes because of the pandemic. My initial appointment was scheduled for April. So end of February and then March, April, two months until they scheduled my interview. But then because of the pandemic, they had to de-schedule and reschedule again. So they scheduled my actual official interview for September 2nd. They said that is when they scheduled the interview for me. And then September 30th was my actual interview. And you will see here that everything else happened on September 30th, which is not normally the case, but it's great. I mean, you're gonna have the test, you're gonna have the out of allegiance, you're gonna become a citizen, get your certificate all in one day. So I started the process February 1st. And then I got my certificate of naturalization that was issued in September 30th. So February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, eight months in total. But again, this is different from one case to the other, but this is still the national average. Don't worry if it takes longer than eight months, up to 15 months, that is not a problem. In the next one, we will talk about preparing for the naturalization test. I'm going to share with you the details of everything that I did in order to prepare for the test and how I passed it successfully from the get-go. Hope that you guys found this video to be useful. And if you did, please give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing to our channel. And again, if you do have any questions, leave us a comment. We do answer every single comment within 24 hours. Thank you again for watching and we'll see you soon in the next episode.