As I always been eager to see updates from fellow forum members to give me encouragement and helpful hints and info for my process (especially closer to home in Houston) it's time for me to report on my interview, which I passed successfully yesterday.
I arrived almost exactly at 12:30 pm for an appointment at 1:00pm. I noticed that the area looks different (I have not been there in 3 years). The street is wider and open (it used to be a dead end on the West side of the building if I remember correctly. The parking lot is on the North West diagonally from the building.
I was surprised that I was called quickly. Since I left my phone in the car, I couldn't check the time but once I was seated I took a glance at the interviewer watch and it was quarter to 1. I was called 15 min early.
The interviewer was very professional and courteous although not overly friendly or chit chatty. After the oath he asked for passport, green card and driver's license but I saw him only glance quickly at them without going over thoroughly. He counted the days to make sure that I did not apply before I'm eligible and said that I had 2 days grace. He asked to verify the address and work and just move right away to the civic questions without any warning. Six easy questions plus reading and writing.
After that he went over the questions on the application but unlike what I expected, he did not ask each question separately but he seems to lump every bunch of them together. When he got to the question about citations and/or arrests, he did ask about traffic (which I did not disclose the few minor ones I had over the 17 years in the US) but his question was only "Do you have anything outstanding/not paid right now?" to which I answered no (the last ticket I got and paid was about 7 years ago).
One thing I did not expect, but was not a big issue, is that my last name on birth certificate is hyphenated, something I rarely used here, especially that my native language has a completely different alphabet making this distinction irrelevant. I never used the hyphen in my green card process and neither the GC nor my national passport have a hyphen (passport has a space, GC has nothing). Nonetheless, he said that eve for that hyphen he has to add a name change document because he has to go with the birth certificate for the original name. This added something between 5-10 min to the interview (he had to make it twice because he made a mistake the first time). That was the only time when he started a side talk asking about something related to my work.
Other than that, he did not ask for any additional papers. He did not ask for SS card (other reported they were asked for it), tax returns or transcripts (which was mentioned in the YL and I made sure to have the past 7 years since I've been married and applied for my GC) nor a proof of residence or co-habitation with my wife (which was also requested in the YL).
After finishing, he told me some information about the oath and told me that I need to know that it takes half a day. I asked about my business trip scheduled next week and he said it's ok but the oath is in two weeks which I answered not a problem since my trip is only one week.
He said I can wait for the oath letter which should be ready in about 30 min, it took only 10 min to have it in hand and out the door.
Oath date is June 16 in North Houston.
Good luck to all those who are still waiting. In my personal experience, the process went very smoothly (unlike the GC which took 3.5 years due to getting stuck in name check). 92 days between sending the application and the interview. 7 days after becoming eligible.
Two more weeks, and a 17 years journey with USCIS since I came to the US will be over.