My interview was yesterday scheduled for 9:05am at the Chicago DO. The location was 101 W Congress Pkwy, Chicago. Traffic was not that bad and I was able to park and get into the building by 8:20am. We (me and my USC wife) took the escalators to the third floor and checked-in at the registration desk. I was given a pager and was told to wait for the pager to go off. Once it goes off, I was to go and stand outside Door 2 and an officer would come and get me.
We waited for about an hour and at around 9:30am my pager still hadn't gone off. We noticed that people who came after me were being called for an interview. My wife was getting worried and she decided to walk up to the registration desk to find out. As she was talking to the desk clerk, the pager went off
.
I grabbed the pager and all my documents, walked up to Door 2 to wait there. After about 5 minutes, a middle aged officer opened the door and walked me in. He appeared grumpy at best and it made me a little nervous. Mine is based on 3 yrs marriage - the more difficult one I guess compared to the 5yr based.
He must have been a senior officer as he appeared to have the biggest office there. There were a number of offices but none as big as his. He made me put down all my documents and asked me to provide my interview letter, green card and driver's license. Once I gave them to him, he asked me to take an oath with my right hand raised.
Once the oath was done, he sat me down and started with the test. These were the questions, not exactly in this order:
1. Who takes over if the President is unable to serve?
2. Name one reason the colonists came to America.
3. What was the main concern of the United States during the cold war?
4. Name one right specified in the first four ammendments to the Constitution.
5. Who is the head of the executive branch?
6. What is the "rule of law"?
I got all the answers correct. He moved on to the reading and written test. He asked me to read: "What state has the most people?". He then asked me to write: "The state of California has the most people."
He told me that I have passed the civic and history test and the english test. Next, he wanted to go over my application line by line. This took the longest. He went through each line in the application and made me answer all the "Yes/No" questions again. He had the application in plain sight, so I was literally looking at the application while I was giving him the Yes/No answers. He just circled what I had already checked on the application. I had marked "No" for traffic violations and he didn't ask a thing. In fact he went through it in a rushed fashion.
Once this was done, I was preparing myself to provide all the evidence I had brought along as proof of my marriage and residence. I had two bags full of documents. Here's what I had brought along (hopefully this list helps give an idea to people in my situtation):
1. Birth certificates of both me and my wife and copies
2. Marriage certificate and copies
3. SSN cards for both of us and copies
4. Both our passports and copies
5. Tax transcripts for the last four years showing we filed jointly and copies
6. Tax returns and W2s for the last five years and copies
7. 401k for the both of us indicating the spouse is the benficiary
8. Home mortgage documents showing we jointly own the house
9. Property tax documents in both our names for the last three years
10. Car titles for two cars in both our names
11. Home owners and car insurance papers in both our names and copies
12. Utility bills in both our names and copies
13. Wedding and reception pictures and copies
14. Miscellaneous mail in both our names
15. Bank statements for the last five years from THREE banks showing joint accounts and copies
16. And much more, just too much to list here...
And to my dismay AND joy, the officer did NOT ask me for anything!!! Right after the application review, he said I was APPROVED and my Oath is on Dec 18th. I was a little shocked and dissapointed as all my preparation was useless
But hey, being over-prepared is better than being under prepared!
He gave me a receipt stating I had passed my test and that I was being recommended for approval for Naturaliation. He said I was done and all I have to do now is wait outside for about 45 minutes until someone comes out, calls my name and hands me my Oath letter. I was ecstatic!!
I thanked him, picked up my stuff and left his office. He walked me all the way to the door and congratulated me before he shut the door behind me.
I went back into the waiting room and then sat with my wife for about 45 minutes before someone called my name. I walked up to the person and she handed me an Oath letter with the ceremony on Dec 21st!?! I was not going to be in town on that day and the officer originally had told me I will be scheduled for an Oath on Dec 18th. She said I will have to speak to the officer about that and told me that she will inform him about my dilemma. The officer walked out 10 minutes later and told me that Dec 18th was full and the next available date was Dec 21st. He said he could not schedule me for anything beyond that at the moment and the only option for me was to cancel my scheduled Oath ceremony and wait for the "system" to send me a different date through the mail I reluctantly gave him back my Oath notice and he said he will have the "system" schedule me for a different date.
So now, the wait begins for my Oath letter
We waited for about an hour and at around 9:30am my pager still hadn't gone off. We noticed that people who came after me were being called for an interview. My wife was getting worried and she decided to walk up to the registration desk to find out. As she was talking to the desk clerk, the pager went off
. I grabbed the pager and all my documents, walked up to Door 2 to wait there. After about 5 minutes, a middle aged officer opened the door and walked me in. He appeared grumpy at best and it made me a little nervous. Mine is based on 3 yrs marriage - the more difficult one I guess compared to the 5yr based.
He must have been a senior officer as he appeared to have the biggest office there. There were a number of offices but none as big as his. He made me put down all my documents and asked me to provide my interview letter, green card and driver's license. Once I gave them to him, he asked me to take an oath with my right hand raised.
Once the oath was done, he sat me down and started with the test. These were the questions, not exactly in this order:
1. Who takes over if the President is unable to serve?
2. Name one reason the colonists came to America.
3. What was the main concern of the United States during the cold war?
4. Name one right specified in the first four ammendments to the Constitution.
5. Who is the head of the executive branch?
6. What is the "rule of law"?
I got all the answers correct. He moved on to the reading and written test. He asked me to read: "What state has the most people?". He then asked me to write: "The state of California has the most people."
He told me that I have passed the civic and history test and the english test. Next, he wanted to go over my application line by line. This took the longest. He went through each line in the application and made me answer all the "Yes/No" questions again. He had the application in plain sight, so I was literally looking at the application while I was giving him the Yes/No answers. He just circled what I had already checked on the application. I had marked "No" for traffic violations and he didn't ask a thing. In fact he went through it in a rushed fashion.
Once this was done, I was preparing myself to provide all the evidence I had brought along as proof of my marriage and residence. I had two bags full of documents. Here's what I had brought along (hopefully this list helps give an idea to people in my situtation):
1. Birth certificates of both me and my wife and copies
2. Marriage certificate and copies
3. SSN cards for both of us and copies
4. Both our passports and copies
5. Tax transcripts for the last four years showing we filed jointly and copies
6. Tax returns and W2s for the last five years and copies
7. 401k for the both of us indicating the spouse is the benficiary
8. Home mortgage documents showing we jointly own the house
9. Property tax documents in both our names for the last three years
10. Car titles for two cars in both our names
11. Home owners and car insurance papers in both our names and copies
12. Utility bills in both our names and copies
13. Wedding and reception pictures and copies
14. Miscellaneous mail in both our names
15. Bank statements for the last five years from THREE banks showing joint accounts and copies
16. And much more, just too much to list here...
And to my dismay AND joy, the officer did NOT ask me for anything!!! Right after the application review, he said I was APPROVED and my Oath is on Dec 18th. I was a little shocked and dissapointed as all my preparation was useless
But hey, being over-prepared is better than being under prepared!He gave me a receipt stating I had passed my test and that I was being recommended for approval for Naturaliation. He said I was done and all I have to do now is wait outside for about 45 minutes until someone comes out, calls my name and hands me my Oath letter. I was ecstatic!!
I thanked him, picked up my stuff and left his office. He walked me all the way to the door and congratulated me before he shut the door behind me.
I went back into the waiting room and then sat with my wife for about 45 minutes before someone called my name. I walked up to the person and she handed me an Oath letter with the ceremony on Dec 21st!?! I was not going to be in town on that day and the officer originally had told me I will be scheduled for an Oath on Dec 18th. She said I will have to speak to the officer about that and told me that she will inform him about my dilemma. The officer walked out 10 minutes later and told me that Dec 18th was full and the next available date was Dec 21st. He said he could not schedule me for anything beyond that at the moment and the only option for me was to cancel my scheduled Oath ceremony and wait for the "system" to send me a different date through the mail
I reluctantly gave him back my Oath notice and he said he will have the "system" schedule me for a different date. So now, the wait begins for my Oath letter
Last edited by a moderator:
