Interview Experience (Charlotte, NC)

[harry2005]

Just came back from interview in Charlotte, NC. Thought I would share my experience. Appt was for 1pm and went there around 12:30. Checked in at the register. Took photographs (they have a photo facility inside the building), went into waiting room. After 15 minutes waiting, my name was called. Officer asked me to raise my hand and say, "Tell the truth, nothing but the truth ... ". After that he asked for appt letter, passport, greencard, driving license. Then he opened up a bulky file that seemed to have everything about me, including the very first document, I-20. He pulled N400 form and started verifying each item with me. Gave me six questions from the list and asked me to read and write sentences in English. Then he found a middle name mismatch on my birth certificate ( it had an extra space in the middle name). Asked which one was correct, then looked to find some document in my file that had my middle name spelled correctly. He found my school transcript that had it correctly. Then asked me to print full name on a form and photographs. Asked me to show the original passport I used. Said I passed the test, and would arrange for oath next Tuesday (1/31/06) and asked me to wait in the waiting room for the oath letter. After 15 minutes I have the oath letter in my hand.

My wife went through similar process and got her oath letter. Some points about my wife's case: She got two traffic tickets since we filed N400 (child seat violation, speeding in school zone). Both paid/cleared. She took a certified letter from DMV. She also travelled outside US since we applied N400. She didn't have any problems with these.

I was surprised to get the oath letter though. The officer was courteous and professional. This building was different from the one I went for greencard. Its a nice, brand new building.

Hope this helps someone. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.


My dates:
Sent N400: 02/23/05
Finger prints: 4/05
Interview Notice: 11/05
Interview: 1/24/06
Oath: 1/31/06

 

[ssv14]

How frequent/long were ur wife's trips abroad?

 

[jaganj]

help in filing the N400 form

Congrats!!!!

I amy need your help with these questions.

I am planning to file in charlotte, NC but i have few questions. Can you please reply to this.

I got few traffic violations and was wondering what i need to say under "outcome or disposition of the arrest, citation, detention or charge". i paid the fines for these ticket. Also, some of my tickets have only the name of the court city instead of my original ticket city. Can i enter my court city and state?

I came into USA in 1996 when i was 26 yrs old. I did not register with Selection Service System during that time. Can i say that i was under H1-B visa and was not aware of this system then for "Selective Service Registration question"

Thanks for your help.

 

[harry2005]

How frequent/long were ur wife's trips abroad?

She travelled 5 times in the last five years for a total of 300 days. One trip was 176 days, remaining were less than 60 days. One trip for 30 days after filing n400.

 

[harry2005]

Congrats!!!!

I amy need your help with these questions.

I am planning to file in charlotte, NC but i have few questions. Can you please reply to this.

I got few traffic violations and was wondering what i need to say under "outcome or disposition of the arrest, citation, detention or charge". i paid the fines for these ticket. Also, some of my tickets have only the name of the court city instead of my original ticket city. Can i enter my court city and state?




Ididn't have to fill this part so take this suggestion for what its worth. Try contacting the court and get the date and place of citation. If you can't get that info, may be you can leave it blank or put court city/state. There are several messages on this forum that discuss traffic tickets and how to deal with them. You may get some useful info there. My wife got tickets after we filed n400. She just took a letter from DMV and officer was happy with it.




I came into USA in 1996 when i was 26 yrs old. I did not register with Selection Service System during that time. Can i say that i was under H1-B visa and was not aware of this system then for "Selective Service Registration question"



AFAIK H-1B is a nonimmigrant visa. If you were here on H-1B when you were under 26, I don't think you need to worry about selective service.


Thanks for your help.

 

[brian0]

Congrats! My wife and I have our interviews next week on the 31st, and I'm hoping that they go as smoothly! One question - did you have any choice on the oath date or did you just take what was offered? We're going to be going on a trip overseas for 2 weeks starting on Feb 4th, and I was wondering if you can choose an oath date.

BTW, your timeline is pretty much in line with mine with a couple weeks difference.

Cheers!
Brian

Just came back from interview in Charlotte, NC. Thought I would share my experience. Appt was for 1pm and went there around 12:30. Checked in at the register. Took photographs (they have a photo facility inside the building), went into waiting room. After 15 minutes waiting, my name was called. Officer asked me to raise my hand and say, "Tell the truth, nothing but the truth ... ". After that he asked for appt letter, passport, greencard, driving license. Then he opened up a bulky file that seemed to have everything about me, including the very first document, I-20. He pulled N400 form and started verifying each item with me. Gave me six questions from the list and asked me to read and write sentences in English. Then he found a middle name mismatch on my birth certificate ( it had an extra space in the middle name). Asked which one was correct, then looked to find some document in my file that had my middle name spelled correctly. He found my school transcript that had it correctly. Then asked me to print full name on a form and photographs. Asked me to show the original passport I used. Said I passed the test, and would arrange for oath next Tuesday (1/31/06) and asked me to wait in the waiting room for the oath letter. After 15 minutes I have the oath letter in my hand.

My wife went through similar process and got her oath letter. Some points about my wife's case: She got two traffic tickets since we filed N400 (child seat violation, speeding in school zone). Both paid/cleared. She took a certified letter from DMV. She also travelled outside US since we applied N400. She didn't have any problems with these.

I was surprised to get the oath letter though. The officer was courteous and professional. This building was different from the one I went for greencard. Its a nice, brand new building.

Hope this helps someone. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.


My dates:
Sent N400: 02/23/05
Finger prints: 4/05
Interview Notice: 11/05
Interview: 1/24/06
Oath: 1/31/06

 

[harry2005]

Congrats! My wife and I have our interviews next week on the 31st, and I'm hoping that they go as smoothly! One question - did you have any choice on the oath date or did you just take what was offered? We're going to be going on a trip overseas for 2 weeks starting on Feb 4th, and I was wondering if you can choose an oath date.

BTW, your timeline is pretty much in line with mine with a couple weeks difference.

Cheers!
Brian

Oath date given was ok for me, so I didn't ask for a different date. You may want to mention your travel plans and ask for earlier date or same day oath.

 

[brian0]

I posted Harry's other thread already, but wanted to put info in here as well in case other's don't see his oath thread.

We had out interviews yesterday at the Charlotte office. Overall a very pleasant experience. The waiting room is a bit on the sterile side, and could use some more comfortable chairs and a bit of decoration! Other than that the interview went fine. Called back about 10 minutes later for 12:40 and 1:00 PM appointments (me and wife). We had different interviewers, which my wife's officer said was strange as they usually try to have the same officer do both members of a family. In any case, we both had no issues with civics test - both got 10 out of 10 with all questions right off the 100. Most of the interview was spent going through the N-400 and doing the civics and english test. Frankly not much of an "interview" really. I was not really asked any questions which I had not already answered on the N-400, so I'm not sure what they were hoping to find out. The only interesting bit was in the middle of the N-400 review the officer out of the blue looked up at me and ask "why do you want to be a citizen?" I wasn't expecting this as it came out of nowhere, but I told the officer that I wanted to be able to vote. She seemed pleased with that.

The only issue was when the officer wanted me to sign the photos. One of my photos had a small (very small!) crease in it. She told me that they had to be "perfect" and that they were very picky about them, so I had to have new pictures done. No problem - $13 at the photo office right in the building and 15 minutes later everything was good. We did request a new oath date as we will be out of the country when the original oath date was planned. Both officers were very helpful and coordinated to make sure my wife and I got the same oath date. The moved it to essentially a date we picked, and we were very pleased with this. Original date was supposed to be Feb 9th, and they moved it to March 2nd instead. Total time at the building was just about 2 hours, and would have been less had I not had to get more pictures done and re-arrange our oath cerimonies. I would also concur with Harry - a much nicer office than the fingerprint office in Charlotte, even though the waiting room is pretty bad.

Only another month and we'll be citizens!

Cheers,
Brian

Oath date given was ok for me, so I didn't ask for a different date. You may want to mention your travel plans and ask for earlier date or same day oath.