Houston, TX N-400 Time Line

stevefromtx said:
@advantage - O.M.G!!! Overall, the ceremony itself was worth it. I waited (and waited and waited) around to get ym photo taken with the District Judge who presided over the proceedings. BUT, seriously, my middle school and its kids have organized things better. The run of my day went like this...

- Up at 5am, get the kids up at 5.30, out the door at 6am
- drive around the beltway (from Richmond/Katy area) to Aldine ISD location (~1hr), arrive just before 7am
- See everyone waiting in (long long) line in car park, join the line.
- HEar/see people talking about a form THAT I DIDN'T RECEIVE, that says if the last 3 digits of your A# are 0-499 then go to the East carpark, 500-999 go to West. By luck, we'd parked in West and my digits were for West.
- get to the top (or near enough) of the line. Sheriff or whoever tries to tell people (with no megaphone or anything) that you *DON'T* have to wait in line to go in, simply make sure you're ont he right side (they had desks set up to check people off to ensure they arrived). SO, 30 minutes of being a sheeple wasted - coulda/shoulda just walked on in. If they had posted just 2-5 signs along the pathway, *everyone* would have known what to do...... but noooo.
- sit for ***3 hours*** before ceremony starts. Ok, i get it, they had 2210 people there to become citizens, and then there were family members and all too, but seriosuly, you evere been to the football? or baseball? seriously more people there and much faster seating/preparation time.
- after the 3 hr wait, judge presides, says his thing, all very formal (basically 'court is in session'). We all say oath as a group. Cameras and video cameras all allowed to be running during the proceedings (so, in a way, not like court i guess).
- after the judge does his thing, we do our thing, judge welcomes us as US citizens, we get speech (sorta like at graduation) from prominent lawyer (whose parents were naturalized concentration camp survivors)
- then, like being in school *not allowed to leave* to get certificate - wait until your 'color' is called. So, when u signed in in the morning, u got your certificate # written on a sheet of paper, that was colored. This is the color u neeed to wait for. This took a while......
- in the end, because we waited to get photo taken with the judge, we walked out at 12.10..... U full 5 hours 20 mins after we had arrived.
- drive home for an hour and we'd made 6+ hours! yay me!

Overall, I liked the judge (heck, his mom was australian , as was I before today), the 'inspirational' speech was good. The overal organization by USCIS left me wondering why I don't go help these guys out.

SO, my advice to anyone going to the next one.....
#1 ensure u get the descriptive piece of paper telling you to go Eats or West car park. Fromj where u get this, I can't tell you.
#2 go to the appropriate car park, *ignore* any line that may be formed (or *at least* put your family members in line while u walk to the front - make sure all cell phones are on so u can call them), go tot the top of the line and ask the dude if you can just walk on up, when he says yes (becasue he will, and did to me), call the fam, tell them to walk up with you. Tell people around you to do the same thing (stop being sheeple) and get inside.
#3 take some money - they sell kolaches, donuts and coffee and such.
#4 make sure the kids have something to do. and yes, u can bring in your own food and drink. NO bag searches of any kind were done.

If i've forgotten anything, its due to my fatigue ;) any quesiton, definitely ping them thru and i'll answer as best as i can.

Steve (a new US citizen).
Click to expand...
Congrates Steve! I was there too. The whole thing could have finihsed in 2 hours if it has been more organized and the judge arrived early. I did not receive the letter about the car park location as well so i was in the line blindly like everyone else! what a bummer. But i am glad the whole thing with USCIS is over now.
 
Question

Congratulations to all new citizens :cool:
I have a question for you guys: does anybody remember what questions (book) they did at the interview please?, also did you guys take a lawyer with you or you did by yourselves?
Thank you
 
@yen - I looked for you there.... :D

@Julie - you mean the exact questions they asked me? no. They have a set that changes (somewhat) randomly, at some interval (I'd guess weekly). Gets printed out of the computer. At the end of the day, I would encourage you to simply be comfortable with all the questions. 100 sounds like a lot but when they want u to rote learn the answers, it truly isn't. Heck, you can get 4 wrong and still pass. On top of that, if you didnt get one, I would ask for the CD (play in your car or whatevr) or simply download the mp3 tracks from their website and let it pervade your brain. I had it playing in the car - my 7 & 11yo's could have passed that test after 2 weeks of driving them to school with it playing.

I didn't use a lawyer for any of the process. *For me personally* I saw and had no need. Maybe if I had background probs or was seeking amnesty or anything other than the most basic simplest of cases, I would, but like I said, my personal story is so boring, I didnt need one.

HTH,

s.
 
Steve and Basselal - Thanks for sharing.

Julie and Advantage - Thank you for researching about the next Oath ceremony! Good luck to everyone interviewing soon!
 
I'm still trying to confirm that everybody takes the oath the same way - even those requesting a name change?

I've asked for a name change, just wondering if I'm still going to be able to take my oath on 7/20 (assuming that interview goes well of course) - anyone know for sure? I've seen threads about needing a Judicial oath - this 6/16 one seems to be one, right?
 
@redsarah - let me start by saying I *didn't* change my name, so can't say unequivocally, but... There were several things brought in front of the court (ie us fulfilling the requirements to become citizens etc) - one of those things mentioned was that several people were also having name changes in addition to the oath. Sooo, as best as I could tell from sitting there, if the name change 'stuff' went through well with your interview etc, then it seemed to me, that the name change was 'sanctioned' by the judge during the same proceedings.
 
Sarah I suggest you ask an attorney just to be on the safe side. There are a couple of Houston immigration attorneys that do a weekly 30 minute immigration radio show on KPFT FM90.1 on Tuesdays at 7PM (telephone number 713.526.5738) if you do not mind asking your question live on air.
 
A redsarah72: Yes... you will have the same ceremony as everybody else if you asked for a name change. I mentioned in my interview description that even though I thought I did not need name change since my GC had the name that I needed, the officer told me that they go by birth certificate in which my name last name had a hyphen that I never used in the US so I ended up having an official name change. I was sworn only two weeks after the interview with everybody else.
 
@basselal - just a quick question. So when you got your naturalization certificate, did you also get any other document showing that the name change was official? I'm wondering what I will have with me to show as evidence of a name change to take to the SSO and the DPS ,etc. I also have flight tickets booked in my current name, and I am expected to be travelling 2 weeks after the oath, on my new passport with my changed name. I will need to show the airlines something as proof of name change... I'm guessing?
 
Congrats @pleasehelp08! Looks like you started this thread - and started a couple of months after me! Hope I can make it to the same oath ceremony!
 
Thanks redsarah72. It took USCIS a while to schedule you for interview. I know someone personally who filed in March and already had Oath in June.

Good luck and hope you get July Oath.
 
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@redsarah72:

Sorry for the late reply. I don't come to the forum as often now.

Yes, you do get a piece of paper showing the name change, it will be attached to your certificate with a name clip.
 
Share...

advantage said:
ID: 07/06 - ICGreen
ID: 07/11 - redsarah
ID: 07/12 - advantage
ID: 07/18 - Julie

I am afraid, it seems no oath ceremony at Houston DO in July. ICGreen will know first on 07/06.

@ pleasehelp - please update your status.

@ stevefromtx, yen_saw, basselal - how was it? please share your experiences of today's oath ceremony.
Click to expand...

Please guys don't forget to share your interview experiences OK... Good Luck to everyone ;)
 
OK so my interview was this morning. Everything went extremely well! The interviewer was not very chatty. Strictly business but doesnt matter because it was successful! Got all civics questions correct. IO was not very interested in my two traffic tickets. He did not ask me to provide proof of disposition just asked if I had paid them and scribbled something on my form. I waited 30 minutes to be called in for my interview. The interview lasted about 30 minutes and I waited 30 minutes after the interview for my Oath ceremony letter and I will also be at the July 20, 2011 ceremony! Good luck with your interviews redsarah, advantage and Julie_9!
 
Thanks for the updates ICGreen. I'm up next, Monday morning.

Regarding traffic citations: here's what my Interview Letter says in the instructions:

"Note: Unless a traffic incident was alcohol or drug related or serious personal injury to another person occurred, you do no need to submit documentation for traffic fines and incidents that did not involve an actual arrest if the only penalty was a fine of less than $500 and/or points on your driver's license."

ICGreen - given the above, did you need to mention your traffic tickets at all?
 
My interview was this morning 7:30am - it was a breeze!

I got there about 7am (Northpoint) and was called in about 7:30am. The IO was a very nice gentleman, chatty and pleasant.
He started with the civics questions - straight from the book - about 10 of them ( more than 6 for sure ). And yes, he did ask who the 'current' speaker of the House is... the book still says Pelosi.
I got to write a sentence in English and read a sentence in English - nothing very complicated.
He asked for DL, resident card and passport. Asked if there were any updates to travel etc since my application was sent in. I had none. He browsed through them. I had gotten married in the last 2 years so he asked for a copy of the marriage certificate just for the records although I am not applying as the spouse of a citizen, but on my own.
Then he went through every page of the application, just asking me to verbally verify pretty much what was on the form. Regarding tickets he only asked if I had any outstanding tickets. I did not document any on my application and I also said no.

I had requested a name change and I also wanted to make a modification to that requested name - we did it right there, he printed out a new name change request with the modification and included it in the package he was working. At the oath ceremony, he explained, the judge approves both naturalization and name change. And that was it! I waited another 1/2 hour for the oath ceremony instructions and headed home. Altogether 2 hrs.


Good luck @advantage and @julie_9!!
 
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Hey guys, did any of you had a Lawyer in the interview?, I'm kind concern if I need to have one with me...
btw, congratulations for you guys that already passed in the interview,hopefully I will see you there on July 20th right... ;)
 
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