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We did it! We took our oaths yesterday morning in a truly wonderful ceremony with some truly wonderful fellow Americans! Listening to all the incredible and moving stories shared by our fellow freshly minted citizens, friends, and families, really drove home just how fortunate we are. Especially, those of us lucky enough to have DV Visas! Our journey from first letter of notification to citizenship was a little over 7 years in total, while others in our group spoke of up to 25 years, with tales of deportation, strife, and life’s many tragedies in between! Can you even imagine a quarter of a century journey to citizenship!?! Our group spanned the global, from Iran, Pakistan, and Macedonia, to Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, UK, Liberia, Morocco, and more! Complete strangers welcomed us as family, and others remembered departed friends, family, and servicemen who had fallen along the way serving the country we now call home. Even an old cynic, like myself, was rather moved by the experience. Thanks again to all on this forum who have shared in this journey and adventure with us, and I look forward to hearing more of your own journeys and helping out where and when I can.

I will definitely be trying again - maybe 12th time lucky!

Seven years and one month ago, on a lazy Saturday (much like today), our life took a complete change of course when my wife and I logged in to the EDV page and saw that crazy notification letter that I had been selected for DV2012. This week we both had our Naturalization interviews and have been recommended for US Citizenship! What a long, crazy, and uncertain journey it has been. So much has changed since that sunny but wintery Saturday morning in Johannesburg. We have travelled lots. We have made many new and fabulous friends. We have three happy little doggies, one of which is our 13-year-old dachshund who has shared this entire incredible journey with us. We also have a tiny all American ‘threenager’ full of personality and sass, who, in all likelihood we may never have decided to bring into this world had we not had such good fortune and incredible luck all these years. One last step remains. One last “hurry up and wait”. With just a little more patience and perseverance, our Oath Ceremony notification letters should arrive in the coming weeks and we’ll be sworn in shortly thereafter. The finish line is soooo close now! Thanks to all here who have shared this long journey with us, and thanks for the help, advice, and words of encouragement these last seven years! Jason.

Yaaaay! Personally, I’d take that estimate with a grain of salt. My original estimate was something like 9-13 months. In fact I logged in to the portal last week to print out one of the notification letters on file and my estimate was still 4 Months! Hahahahahaha!

Not sure about the “almost” with my FO estimating 12-15.5 months processing!!!! , but hoping I’ll be as lucky as some of the others here and get it done sooner.

FYI I got an error message the day I was eligible, telling me I couldn’t file before that day (!), but I filled it in and just tried to submit the next day and it worked fine. So it seems there is a tiny glitch with the 90 days before filing online, but you can do it 89 days before

Congrats. I am truly happy for you. I cannot wait for the moment I can give my son his US passport. This entire journey is a true blessing. Enjoy every minute. Sure this "high" will last a while. Well it has to seeing that all is now legal in SA. whahahahahahhahahahaha.

Congrats, must be an awesome feeling

I know right? Now we will always... “remember the 21st night of September”! Hahahaha! It’s like the ultimate dad joke!

Yes, I filed online. Didn’t frontload withtax transcripts or anything other than the requested docs, which were birth and marriage certificates, green card etc. The interview notification requests that you take along the originals of these documents, plus any passports you have used to enter the US during the last 5 years, if I remember correctly.

I’ve seem a number of people filing online 90 days before so I think it’s fixed. I know it doesn’t allow you to start the process if you are not exactly within that 90 days.... but I’ll come back and report by the end of this week what happened our FO says 12-15 months Congrats on your citizenship too!!

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!