Told you there’d be some changes this year. One of them: I’ll become a citizen of the United States (the INS willing). I’ve just filed my N-400 application - have a read if you want to have some fun. It’s a ton of paperwork, and it’s expensive. $695 filing fee. I’ll expect to get a gold-plated receipt, at the very least.
Add the lawyer cost on top of it, and it starts being quite a bit of money. Then again, it’s definitely worth it for me. Can’t wait till I can tell you guys that I took my oath. Of course, since the government is involved, there’ll be a rather long wait before that happens… Current estimates are around 10-12 months. (Which unfortunately puts it after the presidential election)
So, “yay citizenship application!”. I’ll be celebrating tonight - have a glass too!
You posted something non-technical that I can actually relate to, yay!
They just raised the prices to ridiculous proportions as of July 30th, 2007. I started the application process for my fiance’s visa right around that time last year and only just got the thing postmarked before they went up. It went from something like $170 to $450 overnight. The supposed reason for the increase is that USCIS (formerly INS) was planning to hire a bunch of people and start getting applications moving faster. Naturally, everything just started moving slower for a significant amount of time and nearly 3/4ths of a year later, the times are pretty much still not quite back to what they were before the price increase. Gee, that helped us out SO much….
Good luck, keep an eye on their website when you get your receipt number, and if you get stonewalled, http://www.visajourney.com is an invaluable resource.
Congrats!
But why’d you need the lawyer?
@Siel: I simply want to make sure things go exactly the way they should go. When dealing with the law, getting a lawyer is always a good idea.
@AtlantiCat: Great to see you again, and thanks for the link.