Hello friends,
Just came back from Charleston. Interview went great but NO OATH (you were right Adina.) they said they WERE doing it during summer when they were in mad rush to get a lot of applications complete. no they have no rush (dang it!) so .. he said I can expect oath within 2 months.
Interview experience:
we both + kids reached the office at 12:45. mine was at 1:15 and my husband's was at 1:40. at the reception, NO CELL PHONES are allowed. so my husband had to go back to the car and put them back. we went in. there are 3 or 4 counters. only one was open. there are two rows of seats. one was for finger print check in and the other was for info pass. we did not know where to sit. they asked us to sit at the fingerprint check in row. we were not given any token numbers. there was a lady at the counter talking to the immi, officer so, once they were done, i walked up to him and gave the interview letters. he said someone will call us. at sharp 1:15, an officer called me in. I left the kids with my husband and went in with him. he asked me to raise my hand and swear that i was telling the truth.
he looked through the application, went through it line by line (often painfully... like asking me how much i weigh and looking at me like to confirm... what my eye color was.... and staring into my eyes...etc)
at that time, I heard a lady officer calling my husband's name. then my officer told her that if she can wait for a few minutes he will be done with me so i can go out and switch the kids with my husband. so she waited until I was done. that was nice coz he then started going through the application a little speedily.
he verified my birth certificate. asked me when i came here and on what visa. then verified where i work and address etc., then he came to the section where I put that I received 1 traffic ticket and did not even bother. then he asked abt my trips. I had taken back to back trips for 5 months and 4 months and he asked me the reason. and asked me civic questions and read a eng sentence and write one. that is it!
my husband's was quite different. his officer (the lady) was already in a pi$$ed mode since someone came in with an attorney and fought with her. we saw all that. so when my husband went in, she was not friendly. threw a hissy fit abt his name. he has a loooooooong name and it is abbreviated in most of the indian documents. so she was kind of pain in verifying all the docs and making sure it as my husband etc. then came the section of traffic tickets. she asked for proof that he paid all the tickets. he said he had for one but none for the other. so he showed her the driving records. she KEPT all of them. and he ofcourse nailed all the questions and written and spoken english. so she signed and gave a letter that he passed.
other than that, everything was great.
we were in and out within one hour. they were patient to wait until I was done so i can hold the kids. it would have been nice if we had the oath too.. but atleast one thing was over. now it is a mere formality.
we stayed at a very nice resort so it was like a mini vacation on the ocean.
there is are two desi restaurants too.. so food was not an issue as well.
please let me know if you need more info.
my timeline:
applied in Jan 2006
Fingerprints (in charlotte) march 24, 2006
interview: jan 24, 2007
waiting for oath
Just came back from Charleston. Interview went great but NO OATH (you were right Adina.) they said they WERE doing it during summer when they were in mad rush to get a lot of applications complete. no they have no rush (dang it!) so .. he said I can expect oath within 2 months.
Interview experience:
we both + kids reached the office at 12:45. mine was at 1:15 and my husband's was at 1:40. at the reception, NO CELL PHONES are allowed. so my husband had to go back to the car and put them back. we went in. there are 3 or 4 counters. only one was open. there are two rows of seats. one was for finger print check in and the other was for info pass. we did not know where to sit. they asked us to sit at the fingerprint check in row. we were not given any token numbers. there was a lady at the counter talking to the immi, officer so, once they were done, i walked up to him and gave the interview letters. he said someone will call us. at sharp 1:15, an officer called me in. I left the kids with my husband and went in with him. he asked me to raise my hand and swear that i was telling the truth.
he looked through the application, went through it line by line (often painfully... like asking me how much i weigh and looking at me like to confirm... what my eye color was.... and staring into my eyes...etc)
at that time, I heard a lady officer calling my husband's name. then my officer told her that if she can wait for a few minutes he will be done with me so i can go out and switch the kids with my husband. so she waited until I was done. that was nice coz he then started going through the application a little speedily.
he verified my birth certificate. asked me when i came here and on what visa. then verified where i work and address etc., then he came to the section where I put that I received 1 traffic ticket and did not even bother. then he asked abt my trips. I had taken back to back trips for 5 months and 4 months and he asked me the reason. and asked me civic questions and read a eng sentence and write one. that is it!
my husband's was quite different. his officer (the lady) was already in a pi$$ed mode since someone came in with an attorney and fought with her. we saw all that. so when my husband went in, she was not friendly. threw a hissy fit abt his name. he has a loooooooong name and it is abbreviated in most of the indian documents. so she was kind of pain in verifying all the docs and making sure it as my husband etc. then came the section of traffic tickets. she asked for proof that he paid all the tickets. he said he had for one but none for the other. so he showed her the driving records. she KEPT all of them. and he ofcourse nailed all the questions and written and spoken english. so she signed and gave a letter that he passed.
other than that, everything was great.
we were in and out within one hour. they were patient to wait until I was done so i can hold the kids. it would have been nice if we had the oath too.. but atleast one thing was over. now it is a mere formality.
we stayed at a very nice resort so it was like a mini vacation on the ocean.
there is are two desi restaurants too.. so food was not an issue as well.
please let me know if you need more info.
my timeline:
applied in Jan 2006
Fingerprints (in charlotte) march 24, 2006
interview: jan 24, 2007
waiting for oath
