I had successful interview at Park Lake Drive, Atlanta, GA. I arrived 15 minutes earlier. The security at gate asked me to show Driver's ID. After that, he asked me to screen the bag through X-Ray Machine. Because I was carrying lot of documents, I put them into my laptop bag (without laptop). He also, asked me to empty pockets, take the Wrist Watch out, Belt and Shoes. This is very similar to airport security. After going though metal detector, I was asked to go to the Reception on First Floor (Walk-in Level) on left hand side. Luckily there was no queue and I was asked to show the Appointment Letter by the lady at the counter. She immediately printed a token and asked me to go to the Second Floor. One can take elevator or staircase to the Second Floor.
I suggest that those who are scheduled at this place should make a dry run. Get to know the building, the parking place, entrance etc. You can also go inside and checkout first floor and second floor (after going through security). I had done the same one-week prior to my scheduled interview.
On the Second Floor, there were nearly 50 people already waiting. I asked the guy sitting next to me, “Which number is currently being going on?” He told me that the numbers are not necessarily called in serial order but sometimes the order can vary by a number or two. Every 3 to 4 minutes one officer used to come into the waiting area and Call-out the number. The officer asked to show the Token Number and the Appointment Letter. After that the officer took the interviewee to the office. There were nearly 7 or 8 officers taking turns to take the interviews. One officer is assigned to one interviewee. Some people came with their spouses but I did not see any children. Though no one was talking on the phone, many were texting, surfing or playing games on the phone. Some were busy reading the Civic Test Handbook. There are restrooms on the same floor. After waiting for nearly 45 minutes, my turn came.
The lady took me to her office after verifying my Token Number and Appointment Letter. She greeted me and I did the same. She already had my file. Before I was allowed to sit, she asked me to remain standing and raise my right hand. I affirmed that whatever I was going to say was truth. Then I was asked to sit.
The officer did not waste any second and immediately started her routine questions. She asked me to produce Green Card, Social Security Card, Passport and Driver's License. I placed all of them on the desk. She saw only the Driver's License and Green Card and nothing else. No other document was asked even though I had a big file filled with documents. I had taken precautions to carry all the relevant originals as well as photocopies of each of those originals. I had spent nearly 2 days preparing my documents. But she did ask questions about those documents such as Tax Returns etc.
The questions that she asked were all from the form N-400 that I had filled-up. She started with my name and so on till last page noting all the answers that I gave with a red pen. She asked only few questions from major sections of the form. She was very young lady, may be in her late 20's but she knew a lot. I guess, after interviewing nearly 10 candidates per day, they know everything that needs to be done. Another officer could have reviewed my file earlier before coming to her but it appeared to me that she was looking at the information in form N-400 for the first time. She had a bigger file. I could recognize some of my old documents during H1 visa. It appears that she had all the papers right from day one of my arrival in USA.
She asked me Civic Questions. I do not remember all six but here are those that I remember,
- Who were brought as slaves to America?
- Who is Vice President of America?
- Who makes laws?
- How many amendments the constitution has?
- Why did American fight to get independence from British?
She quickly took a printout and asked me to verify the information. It had my name and A#. She asked me too sign that paper. After that she took the last page of the N-400 form and asked me to sign. At that point, I felt relieved as I could tell that my interview is going to be successful.
She quickly took out one more paper. It had a pre-printed question, "Who can Vote?" She asked me to write, "Any Citizen above 18 years can vote". I realized afterwards that it was part of English Reading/Writing Test.
She went over all the attachments into my N-400 file. She went through the entire file two - three times glancing. She stopped by at some point and was reading carefully at two to three pages. I never got to see those pages but they were little different in color.
At last she took another printout, N-652 with a check box Congratulations! Looks like my case was similar to all other cases, plain, simple and straightforward.
I asked her about Oath and she told me that I would get a letter in the mail within 30 days. I also asked about location and she told me that those details would be written on the letter. The whole interview lasted about 30 minutes or so. I thanked her, wished a pleasant day ahead and left with a smile.
