Successful Interview!!!! Oath in 2 days. Pretty smooth experience.
Here's a quick summary of our experience:
Travel & Parking :
Drove from Northwest suburbs to Downtown. Started from home about 7.45am for interview slot of 9.25am. Reached downtown in about 45-50 minutes. Parked right adjacent to the 101 Congress Pkwy building in a paid parking called "Immigration parking...". If you reach before 8am, you get a early bird price for parking of $10.99 . If not, its about $19 for 2+ hours.
Interview Facility:
The building's pretty nice & non-intimidating. Much nicer & friendlier than the Federal building on Jackson street. We had to pass thru the security checkin and then thru the escalators to the 3rd floor. We walked in about 30 minutes prior to our interview time.
Check-in & Interview Process:
Once on the 3rd floor you will find a queue/line or will be told to check-in with the lady at front desk. Keep your interview letter & GC ready. That's where you receive the buzzer & will be told what door you need to sit close to, where the officer will call for you. If you have family or spouse together, you will get a green colored family appt card that basically tells your interviewing officer that you would want your oath to be scheduled together.
There's a huge waiting area which was packed surprisingly at 9am. Most likely with people who came in for oath at 8am earlier and rest of the interview candidates.
We were pleasantly surprised when I was called ahead of scheduled interview time, at 9.10. The officer who interviewed me was exceptionally good. Probably the best government officer i have ever dealt with. Very pleasant demeanor & extremely friendly. Did some small talk with him, before we reached his office.
First thing once we reached his office, he asked me to reach my hand out & take the truth oath . He reached out and got my file, pretty thick file, so they probably have my full US life history, just like the rest of us. Asked me to take my passport, Driver license, GC and keep it on the table. Went through some basic Q&A on the N400 application and then we jumped into the 6 interview questions, in rapid fire succession. My officer wrote my responses for each question on the sheet. Once we were done with the 6 questions, he asked me to write a sentence on sheet of paper & then asked me to read a sentence from a written sheet.
Once that was completed, we continued some more small talk , some history about my employment and my name etc...He asked me bunch of questions, from the N400. Confirmed all my answers to the Yes,No questions in the N400 was valid. Asked me to sign on the last sheet of the N400 at a couple of spots.
Took out the 2 photos that I had submitted, and made me sign on the 2 photos. Signed some more papers and then handed me the printed results saying I was recommended for approval and that my oath would be in 2 days. Told me to wait for a few minutes to get the oath letter and not to leave without it. Had some more small talk and dropped me off back to the place where he picked me up.
All done in about 15/20 minutes or so I thought....
Then the long wait started. We were giving a heads-up by one of our friends so we were kinda prepared to wait for the oath letter. We received the oath letter at about 12noon, after about 2.5 hours after the interview was done.
No complains. The place is nice, its good to see all our future fellow country men from all walks of life & diverse backgrounds/ethnicities.
Only in America. Amazing!!!!
We are excited to become citizens of this great & wonderful country!!!
All of the best to anyone reading this!
Be Good, Do Good!!!