🔺 r/USCISuSaumitra19·9 days ago
19 years, aging out, lawyer mistakes, and endless delays: I finally took the oath this month!
Hey guys, I’ve spent so many late nights doom-scrolling this sub when I felt completely hopeless, so writing this feels surreal. After almost 19 years in immigration limbo, I took my Oath of Allegiance this month (September 2026) and officially became a US citizen. I first arrived in 2007 as a kid on an A-2 dependent visa because of my parents' work. I grew up around DC and went to college in PA. Going back was never a safe option for us since we're an ethnic minority back home, so my family looked for legal ways to stay permanently. A business owner agreed to sponsor my dad, and we thought we were set. But the lawyer messed up the filing timeline by just 3 to 4 months. Because of that small delay, I turned 21 before things went through and aged out of the petition. My parents got their status, and I was suddenly stranded with zero legal standing. I had to beg that same business owner to sponsor me directly for an employment-based green card. That took years of convincing and paperwork. To make matters worse, I hired a different lawyer based in DC for my own case, and their office made critical mistakes that caused the entire application to fall apart. We had to refile from scr…