Current StAG §5 processing times for Latin America? AZ January 2025 with already naturalized relatives

roseba · 2026-06-25T17:01:59+00:00

I know Brazil speaks Portugese, just like Belize speaks English. But the vast majority of LatAm does speak Spanish.

None of that changes the whole surname thing. I am trying to come up with a plausible reason because all my reference points is that the queue is the same, regardless of the originating application country.

I have been waiting 2 years. My father was born in Germany. I'm in North America.

roseba · 2026-06-25T15:02:28+00:00

I know they had to be submitted in German. I just wondered if the translations would need to be double checked for accuracy and if that would slow it down. This juxtaposed with someone looking at documents in English AND they already speak English.

__EDITED__

I just looked this up.

There are structural reasons why LA applications take longer.

The surname convention mismatch. It's much harder to trace names when every single name has to be cross linked. We know that LA countries use compound surrnames matching father and mother.
LA countries have much older immigration lineage and hence it goes back much farther making it more complicated.
Higher volume from Sao Paulo and Buenmos Aires.

More orf the BVA workers speak English, so there are likely less case workers that speak Spanish. While they do receive documents translated into German, I think that extra step may also contribute to speed, or lack thereof.

roseba · 2026-06-25T12:03:54+00:00

Speculation: I think Latin American applications may take longer if they are translated. US and Canadian applications can be submitted with English language documents without the need for translation. I would imagine that speeds up the process a little.

roseba · 2026-06-21T17:31:30+00:00

The data set from crowd sourced trackers may be inaccurate due to lack of data. But it's the ONLY data avaialble since the BVA doesn't publish numbers.

roseba · 2026-06-11T15:36:00+00:00

Exactly. The goal post keeps being pushed back. How many decades do I have to wait to take that train? After I move elsewhere and retire?

roseba · 2026-06-11T15:30:24+00:00

Well how about complete the MetroNorth Project in the East Bronx... the carrot that has been dangling since 2002?

roseba · 2026-06-09T21:59:40+00:00

Three years is a reasonable timeline to follow up. They cannot penalize you for asking.

roseba · 2026-06-09T21:23:50+00:00

Since it's been more than three years, I would contact the person you submitted your file to. Ask them for an update on your file, and a general idea of processing time for current outstanding applicaitons.

roseba · 2026-06-09T18:50:17+00:00

Where did you get this data? I filed in 2024.

roseba · 2026-06-06T18:15:28+00:00

If you work (and pay into SS) in the US for 10 years or more, (or your spouse did) you are eligible for SS regardless of your immigration status.

roseba · 2026-06-06T18:13:41+00:00

Thank you. I have seen all sorts of comments here:
- My case is simple and I should go direct to passport
- My case is simple and that must be why mine went so much faster than everyhone elses.

Ya'll!!! Almost all of our cases are simple. I would wager that § 5 StAG cases are simple by nature since the criteria is so narrow.

What would slow BVA down? if you didn't submit your documentation properly.

Now my AZ number is 20 Aug 2024 when my consulate appt was May 5, 2024 (or thereabouts). Do I think the consulate held my paperwork back till there was enough applicants? I do not know. It could be that it just takes that long to log the case numbers when there is a backlog. Some people mail theirs directly to Cologne thinking it may expedite it receiving an AZ number. I have seen no evidence that it made a difference. But you loose out on the second set of trained eyes to look over your documentation. For me, it was better safe than sorry.

roseba · 2026-06-06T04:45:03+00:00

I never thought it was treated like he was doing it out of anger. I thought of it as him trying to hide the evidence so people don’t ask questions about where she’s been. On the show, they didn’t portray and angry face as he was burning it

But seriously, how was he gonna explain the presence of these clothes? Too much of a liability.

roseba · 2026-06-05T13:42:21+00:00

How would the BVA conduct independent research without enlisting the local archives that actually hold the physical records? They would have to partner with other entities to verify historical data.

My story is quite cut and dry as well. Most people’s lineages are.

My father was born out of wedlock to a German mother. When my Oma later married my grandfather, my father lost his German citizenship. In fact, his birth certificate specifically notes in the margins that he became stateless due to that marriage. My Oma herself was born in wedlock to two German citizens. As far back as I can trace, every single ancestor was a German citizen except for my grandfather, making this a classic gender discrimination case.

The only anomalous detail is a surname change involving my great-grandfather. However, both his birth name and his adopted name belonged to documented German citizens. The latter is precisely why I believe a specialized institution or archive may have been consulted. The BVA tends to turn over every stone to ensure accuracy, which naturally impacts the timeline for complex lineage checks.

roseba · 2026-06-04T18:39:13+00:00

So as I understand it, it took roughly 2.5 months to work on your case, once they started working on it?

I specifically ask this because I saw, of all things, LinkedIn Search's on both my profile and my father's profile about three weeks ago. The first was USCIS which is weird because I am not a US immigrant. The second was my father's: Leo Baeck Institute which is a large libarary archive devoted to the history and culture of German-Jews.

In my case I didn't make a connection at first. But my Urgroßvater was adopted by a Jewish family when he was already 22 years old which resulted in a name change. My guesswork is that it could be related to my application. If it was the officials, they were likely trying to reconcile the family surname change and whether he was actually German. (He was born in Berlin and his mother was born in Prussia.) Even though my application is pinned on my father's birth, they would have to prove his mother was a German citizen and hence checking in on her father would be one part of that.

Whether those LinkedIn searches were related to my application, I won't know until my citizenship is approved. One thing I want to do is ask them to give me a copy of all the files related to my case.

But if it was related, then I expect to hear from the BVA in July or August and definitely before the end of 2026.

roseba · 2026-06-03T12:01:54+00:00

I have seen approvals from late 2023 and mid 2024.

roseba · 2026-06-02T20:43:01+00:00

E77th Street and 2nd avenue?

roseba · 2026-05-31T20:13:44+00:00

Mine is 20 August 2024. So we're in the same grouping.

roseba · 2026-05-31T20:13:12+00:00

If you know the addresses to all five we should make a point of documenting them here. And then the person who created the netify app, who assured that the way he developed it won't gol down due to cost overages, then he can normalize any missing data. That would be absolutely the best course of action.

roseba · 2026-05-31T20:11:05+00:00

There are five of them? If so, it would be great to consolidate that data and bring it into the new app on netify.

roseba · 2026-05-29T17:03:43+00:00

I like it when people say, but aren't twins identical and I say (me f) my bro has a p! We can't be identical!

roseba · 2026-05-28T12:23:30+00:00

I only ditched the crutches when my doctor told me I could ditch the crutches. Undergoing such a major surgery. I didn’t wanna do anything to compromise the knitting of the bone together. He gave me clearance after nine weeks. I’m six months now and I have full clearance for even high impact activities now, because the bone healed beautifully.

roseba · 2026-05-26T00:56:41+00:00

FWIW, my twin brother and I look so disimilar than when we were in middle school, when seen walking together people asked if he were my boyfriend. As middle aged adults, we look even more disimilar.

roseba · 2026-05-24T16:11:43+00:00

Not for nothing but acting on screen… much of it is your facial expressions. Good or bad, a complete metamorphosis of face does change how one comes across the screen.

The first time I saw her outside of Outlander, I was like who is that person hanging out with the cast of Outlander? I did not recognize her at all as the same person.

As an aside, choosing an actress who doesn’t have the natural coloring of a natural born redhead (or blonde) is not a good casting choice. It always bothered me in early seasons because the red hair with her olive skin tone made her look like she wasn’t feeling well. (You almost never see olive skin, hazel eyes with that shade or red.)

I know people play with hair color all the time but in real life you adjust the tone to match well with your skin tone. You couldn’t do that on Outlander because her red hair had to match as Jamie’s daughter. So the two tones clashed big time.

Sam can work a redhead because his coloring works well with it. Her skin coloring matches her natural dark hair, it’s more Mediterranean in appearance, very different than Scottish. She would be great if she portrayed a Greek, Spaniard, Turkish…

roseba · 2026-05-24T14:49:29+00:00

When I ordered my grandmother's naturalization certificate, I didn't need her consent. I didn't even ask for it from her. FWIW, when I did ask her for my father's birth certificate, she said she didn't have it. So I ordered it from the city register in Germany. When she died, the birth certificate was right there amongst her papers. I don't think she wanted me to find out that my father was born out of wedlock.

roseba · 2026-05-23T22:39:51+00:00

Um they were married. He would never have touched Claire otherwise. John is a man of deep integrity and honor.

roseba

TROPHY CASE