Both me and my wife had interview at the same date/time in San Francisco last week. Overall, the process went very fast (<12min) and easy. I think 2 things helped right at the start to set a good tone for the interview:
1) I work for a big name MNC, so I wore the company badge.
2) I was dressed in formal pant/shirt.
My officer was some Asian guy (probably Korean) in 40s. He was nice and courteous.
Here’re the details and some tips:
-START EARLY: Parking: USCIS doesn’t have its own parking. There is street parking, but you cant park on Sansome St itself (USCIS building is located on Sansome St). U could park on another cross-street, but it has a 1 hr limit! So, u cant use ANY street parking. There is a parking facility across the street from USCIS, but that was full. So, we drove 2 blocks and found another parking (768 Sansome St, takes credit cards, $24 daily max) and parked there. The interview went so fast that we ended up paying only $10.
-Getting in: The line starts outside the building door (on the pavement). I was first surprised that this is the entrance! But the line was short and we got in quickly. Reached there 40min before the appt time. After getting thru the security area, I went to the 2nd floor. I was told to go to area C, my wife to area D. The IO later told me that areas are pre-assigned. After 20min of waiting, my wife was called in by a lady (Scottish or American). We had 2 Fedex envelopes full of too many papers (employment proof, paystubs, proof of address, SSN card, itineraries of our trips, etc), so the IO was surprised to see so many papers and infact even teased her why she was carrying so many papers because the Interview Letter only asked for basic stuff (green card, passport, Int Letter)…She also said ur daughter is also a US citizen, u didn’t need to bring all these papers. The lesson is that if your case is simple and straight-forward like ours (got green card thru a company and stayed at 1 company for >5yrs, 6-7 vacation trips outside US in last 5 yrs….), just take very few papers or take them in a bag. Though, my IO made no remark about the 2 envelopes full of papers…Note that both me and my wife didn’t have to show ANY paper!
-1st part: Oath: As soon as we entered his room, he asked me to raise my right hand (while standing). Then, he said something like ‘will you speak truth and only the truth?’. I said Yes. Then he asked me to sit down. He had a very thick file (stacked papers) on his desk, on top of the stack was my N400 application that I had filed. I am guessing the whole stack was papers about me that USCIS had gathered (green card app, etc..).
-2nd part: Application review: He started walking thru the app. Since I didn’t have it in front of me, I had to reply on my memory. So, MAKE SURE U REMEMBER WHAT U WROTE IN UR APP (INCL WEIGHT, ETC). For some of the Qs, he was himself saying the answer and just verifying with me.
He asked me the foll Qs:
-Whats ur home address, DOB, Weight, Height?
-Where were you born?
-How many times have you been married? 1
-How many times has your wife been married? 1
-Have you ever been to Canada? No.
-Are you still married? Yes.
-How many kids do you have?
-Who do u live with at ur home?
-Has your wife also applied for citizenship? I said yes, she’s interviewing right now as well.
While reviewing the section for trips outside the US, he compared the dates with the passport. But since some of my trips were on the old passport which he didn’t ask me for, so he was not really verifying each and every trip…..He did ask me why I went to S Korea, I told him it was a halt on way to India, he was fine with it.
-3rd part: US Civics/History Qs: He verbally asked me 6 Qs (out of the 100 provided earlier). I nailed them quickly.
-4th part: writing and reading test. He asked me to read ‘Who elects the Congress?’. Then, he asked me to write ‘The people elect the Congress”. He gave me his pen for it. After this, he gave me a form which said I passed the interview!
By now, it took only 7min or so. Next 5min were spent just chatting:
-Chatting: He was just chatting with me about traffic and Oath ceremony. He spent a long time explaining to me what to do if mine and my wife’s Oath ceremony date is different. My wife was also asked about Namaste Plaza (Indian grocery store) in Fremont because we live in Fremont, the IO said it has nice Indian stuff.
BE CONFIDENT AND DON’T WORRY, IO TYPICALLY IS NICE AND COURTEOUS…..GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!
This forum has been very useful to me, I’ll continue to visit and answer Qs to help others…
1) I work for a big name MNC, so I wore the company badge.
2) I was dressed in formal pant/shirt.
My officer was some Asian guy (probably Korean) in 40s. He was nice and courteous.
Here’re the details and some tips:
-START EARLY: Parking: USCIS doesn’t have its own parking. There is street parking, but you cant park on Sansome St itself (USCIS building is located on Sansome St). U could park on another cross-street, but it has a 1 hr limit! So, u cant use ANY street parking. There is a parking facility across the street from USCIS, but that was full. So, we drove 2 blocks and found another parking (768 Sansome St, takes credit cards, $24 daily max) and parked there. The interview went so fast that we ended up paying only $10.
-Getting in: The line starts outside the building door (on the pavement). I was first surprised that this is the entrance! But the line was short and we got in quickly. Reached there 40min before the appt time. After getting thru the security area, I went to the 2nd floor. I was told to go to area C, my wife to area D. The IO later told me that areas are pre-assigned. After 20min of waiting, my wife was called in by a lady (Scottish or American). We had 2 Fedex envelopes full of too many papers (employment proof, paystubs, proof of address, SSN card, itineraries of our trips, etc), so the IO was surprised to see so many papers and infact even teased her why she was carrying so many papers because the Interview Letter only asked for basic stuff (green card, passport, Int Letter)…She also said ur daughter is also a US citizen, u didn’t need to bring all these papers. The lesson is that if your case is simple and straight-forward like ours (got green card thru a company and stayed at 1 company for >5yrs, 6-7 vacation trips outside US in last 5 yrs….), just take very few papers or take them in a bag. Though, my IO made no remark about the 2 envelopes full of papers…Note that both me and my wife didn’t have to show ANY paper!
-1st part: Oath: As soon as we entered his room, he asked me to raise my right hand (while standing). Then, he said something like ‘will you speak truth and only the truth?’. I said Yes. Then he asked me to sit down. He had a very thick file (stacked papers) on his desk, on top of the stack was my N400 application that I had filed. I am guessing the whole stack was papers about me that USCIS had gathered (green card app, etc..).
-2nd part: Application review: He started walking thru the app. Since I didn’t have it in front of me, I had to reply on my memory. So, MAKE SURE U REMEMBER WHAT U WROTE IN UR APP (INCL WEIGHT, ETC). For some of the Qs, he was himself saying the answer and just verifying with me.
He asked me the foll Qs:
-Whats ur home address, DOB, Weight, Height?
-Where were you born?
-How many times have you been married? 1
-How many times has your wife been married? 1
-Have you ever been to Canada? No.
-Are you still married? Yes.
-How many kids do you have?
-Who do u live with at ur home?
-Has your wife also applied for citizenship? I said yes, she’s interviewing right now as well.
While reviewing the section for trips outside the US, he compared the dates with the passport. But since some of my trips were on the old passport which he didn’t ask me for, so he was not really verifying each and every trip…..He did ask me why I went to S Korea, I told him it was a halt on way to India, he was fine with it.
-3rd part: US Civics/History Qs: He verbally asked me 6 Qs (out of the 100 provided earlier). I nailed them quickly.
-4th part: writing and reading test. He asked me to read ‘Who elects the Congress?’. Then, he asked me to write ‘The people elect the Congress”. He gave me his pen for it. After this, he gave me a form which said I passed the interview!
By now, it took only 7min or so. Next 5min were spent just chatting:
-Chatting: He was just chatting with me about traffic and Oath ceremony. He spent a long time explaining to me what to do if mine and my wife’s Oath ceremony date is different. My wife was also asked about Namaste Plaza (Indian grocery store) in Fremont because we live in Fremont, the IO said it has nice Indian stuff.
BE CONFIDENT AND DON’T WORRY, IO TYPICALLY IS NICE AND COURTEOUS…..GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!
This forum has been very useful to me, I’ll continue to visit and answer Qs to help others…
