Here are the details of my interview at the Dallas USINS office:
I got there with 30 minutes to spare. Showed my interview letter to the security guard outside who told me to leave my cell phone and water outside and then go on inside the building. I went through the security check, the security guard inside stamped the date and time of arrival on my interview letter and asked me to drop it off in the dropbox on the door marked ‘door 1’. I waited in the area marked ‘Naturalization waiting area’. At the appointed time, a soft spoken lady officer came out of door 1 and called out my name. She introduced herself and took me to her office. She put me under oath and then asked me to take a seat. She asked to see my Passport, my driver’s license and my green card. She had my file open and I noticed that they had even filed the Express Mail envelope I had sent my application in ! The officer checked my GC and DL, glanced through my passport and handed everything back to me.
She then began to go through my application and asked me a bunch of questions from the N400. She was real nice and polite. She marked the questions she asked me in red and scratched out the sections that were not applicable to me. She asked me about my affiliations ( #8 ). I had a change to report there. I had erroneously checked ‘No’ for that question in my application. So I had carried with me, Page 7 of the N400 application with the updated information which I handed to her. She put it in my file and gave me the old page 7.
Then we got to the Civics questions. She had a sheet of paper with a list of questions and she asked me 7 questions from that list which I answered correctly. The questions were straight out of the 100 questions list ( eg, # of members in the house of representatives ( 435 ), head of the city government ( mayor ), one requirement to become eligible to be president ( >35 years ), judiciary branch of the government ( Supreme Court ) ). She then had me read ‘The boy threw the ball’ and had me write ‘I drive a blue car to work’.
Then she had me sign my full name in #13 and #14 and write my full name in #14. BTW, everything I wrote down for her ( other than my signature ), I did in uppercase.
She then congratulated me and told me that I had passed the interview and handed me the N652 ( Naturalization Interview Results ) confirming what she told me and the N445 ( Notice of Naturalization Oath Ceremony ) that asked me to appear for the oath ceremony at the Plano Center on 2000 E Springcreek Parkway on 2/28/06.
Just when I was about to heave a sigh of relief, the officer informed me that I needed to go to the immigration photo shop behind the parking lot and get new photos done because the background on the photos I had submitted with my application was darker than admissible. She asked me to write my full name on the border of the photographs and drop them in the same dropbox and that she would check for them in half hour. So I went and got my picture taken, went through the security clearance again and dropped off my photos. On my way back home, I realized that I hadn’t written my A# on the back of the new photos ( the officer didn’t ask me to, either ) !! I am praying that my photos will make it to her and I am keeping my fingers crossed till I am done with my oath.
I want to thank HVN400, Jay_M, Andone and Waitin in this thread, for their detailed posts of their interview experiences. It really helped to have the understanding of the entire interview process. Hopefully my post will be of use to someone as well.
I had taken most of the documents that JohnnyCash had advised in the sticky
http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=197782
However, I was asked only for my Passport, GC and DL. I had followed Johnny’s suggestion to bring the relevant part of the application with the updated changes for the change I had on Page 7 of my application. The officer seemed pleased with that and all she had to do then was to replace that one page in my file. I was also a bit apprehensive because some of the posters in this forum had mentioned that they had carried proof of their international travel and I didn’t have the airline tickets from any of my trips, but thankfully, I was not asked for those.
Here’s hoping that I get through the oath ceremony without any hitches and wishing luck to everyone that’s waiting out there !!
Timeline :
PD : 9/21/05
FP ND : 10/11/05
FP Date : 11/09/05
Interview ND : 11/25/05
Interview Date : 01/13/06
Oath : 2/28/06
