Hi,
First some background about my case. I had about 850 days out of the country. During 2003/2004, I was sent as a guest software
engineer to India from Microsoft. The trips back were short (one of them was for 3 days) every 5-6 months that made sure I was not out for more than 6 months. Came back in Jan 2005 and working here since. I could not file for N-470 because I did not have an uninterrupted physical stay of 1 year in the US. Also, at the time I went back after reading Guide to Naturalization I though trips every 6 months and reentry permit is going to be enough for citizenship.
Here is my interview experience at the San Jose DO in January. It was a tough one and I felt extremely fortunate after getting through it.
Scheduled time was 9:55am. I arrived at 9:30am and went back to the car to remove the laptop and the pedometer that I carried in my bag along with the documents I was carrying for the interview. The rule is not to carry anything electronic. It was almost 10:00 am when I arrived and put my interview sheet on the counter. At about 10:15am my name was called by a middle aged Caucasian gentleman. He greeted and walked me to his room. He sat down and I saw my case papers on his desk.
His opening statement
" your case has a lot of problems ". First of all, he said that you are extremely close ("just over") to the required number of days in US. He then said I have talked about your case with a few people in my office and 1/2 of them say deny the case the other half say consider him.
These statements really scared me.
He then asked me are you living in india or here. I told him that since 2005 I have been here.
He then looked at my current residence and said a bit mockingly oh so you are living here.
Next questions were
IO - " Are you working here or in India "
Me - "in the US"
IO - "Does your company have an office in India"
Me - Yes. but I have never been there and am working here.
Then without him asking I gave him my employment verification and employment offer letter from 2005.
He read through that and seemed to become a bit more friendly.
Takeaway - IO can asks for documentation that you least expect to be an issue.... I was expecting him to ask documentation
for my Microsoft employment when I was away India and not the present employment where I am working in the US.
IO - where is your wife, where are your kids?
Me - India.
IO - why are they not here
Me - Because I have a GC and they can't come here
IO - They can come here on f2a.
Me - It takes 4-5 years for that
He then started to look at my travel dates.
He said that in Feb 2004 you were here for only 3 days just to fulfil the six month requirement.
I said that is true but other two times I was here for a month or so. He looked at the other dates
and then said yeah you were here for like 2.5-3 weeks or so.
I had gone through customs secondary inspection in 2005 while coming back from my 2 year assignment for Microsoft in India.
They had seen my reentry permit and let me go then.
He had access to that record. He opened it and said to me. It says
" last year you have been out for 10 months...."
I explained to him that the I had my ticket issued in India that had my return date a few days after my arrival which had caused the red flag to be raised. I explained that it was a mistake on part of the ticketing agent. I also told him
that since then I have been working permanently in the US.
I then gave him my Microsoft, Yahoo and startup employment verification letters without him asking.
He then wanted to see my taxes. I referred him to the transcripts that I had attached along with the application. He said he wanted to see my actual return to make sure that I had not filed for non resident exemption, which could result in even the green card becoming invalid.
I told him I had filed both federal and California taxes as a resident and gave him copies of actual filings from 2002-2005.
He then started to ask me again about my assignment abroad and made a statement that all these temporary assignments abroad are good for Microsoft and other companies but they are not ok from citizenship point of view.
And INS does not care about temporary assignment etc.
I then mentioned again that I maintained house, credit cards, bank accounts, utility bills, filed for reentry permit etc and showed him the documents.
At this point, the tension began to dissipate and he started saying things like. you did extremely good preparation.
This is better
than what a lawyer do after looking at my pile of documentation (thanks to this forum). I told him that I had talked to my
company lawyer about this. IO said thank him from my side since I would have given you a N-14 and then again it would have been
a wait for 2-3 months. He then tore what looked like a sheet that had request for additional documentation.
At this point he mentioned about the oath being next month, which really cheered me up.
At this point he went through the application in detail Name, DOB...
He also started explaining that you can take an appointment in your post office (told me the location in my city) and file for an
expedited passport (told me the amount). He then said that you can apply for OCI which gives you all rights of Indian citizens.
He then said that you can apply for your wife and kids also immediately with your naturalization certificate. I then asked him when I should expect the oath letter. He said by end of this month. He said send me a mail if you don't get it. I then requested him for his email address which he gave.
At the end he said you have done pretty well, your case is out of complications and you have cleared all my doubts otherwise
your adjudication would have been delayed.
At this point he asked me to write
"Today is a good day"
He then asked me six questions of the test and stopped after that and said you have prepared well for your test.
Checked the congratulations portion of the N-652 and a handshake later I was out extremely ecstatic about the final result.
The oath is on Feb 21, 2007.
-Anami
First some background about my case. I had about 850 days out of the country. During 2003/2004, I was sent as a guest software
engineer to India from Microsoft. The trips back were short (one of them was for 3 days) every 5-6 months that made sure I was not out for more than 6 months. Came back in Jan 2005 and working here since. I could not file for N-470 because I did not have an uninterrupted physical stay of 1 year in the US. Also, at the time I went back after reading Guide to Naturalization I though trips every 6 months and reentry permit is going to be enough for citizenship.
Here is my interview experience at the San Jose DO in January. It was a tough one and I felt extremely fortunate after getting through it.
Scheduled time was 9:55am. I arrived at 9:30am and went back to the car to remove the laptop and the pedometer that I carried in my bag along with the documents I was carrying for the interview. The rule is not to carry anything electronic. It was almost 10:00 am when I arrived and put my interview sheet on the counter. At about 10:15am my name was called by a middle aged Caucasian gentleman. He greeted and walked me to his room. He sat down and I saw my case papers on his desk.
His opening statement
" your case has a lot of problems ". First of all, he said that you are extremely close ("just over") to the required number of days in US. He then said I have talked about your case with a few people in my office and 1/2 of them say deny the case the other half say consider him.
These statements really scared me.
He then asked me are you living in india or here. I told him that since 2005 I have been here.
He then looked at my current residence and said a bit mockingly oh so you are living here.
Next questions were
IO - " Are you working here or in India "
Me - "in the US"
IO - "Does your company have an office in India"
Me - Yes. but I have never been there and am working here.
Then without him asking I gave him my employment verification and employment offer letter from 2005.
He read through that and seemed to become a bit more friendly.
Takeaway - IO can asks for documentation that you least expect to be an issue.... I was expecting him to ask documentation
for my Microsoft employment when I was away India and not the present employment where I am working in the US.
IO - where is your wife, where are your kids?
Me - India.
IO - why are they not here
Me - Because I have a GC and they can't come here
IO - They can come here on f2a.
Me - It takes 4-5 years for that
He then started to look at my travel dates.
He said that in Feb 2004 you were here for only 3 days just to fulfil the six month requirement.
I said that is true but other two times I was here for a month or so. He looked at the other dates
and then said yeah you were here for like 2.5-3 weeks or so.
I had gone through customs secondary inspection in 2005 while coming back from my 2 year assignment for Microsoft in India.
They had seen my reentry permit and let me go then.
He had access to that record. He opened it and said to me. It says
" last year you have been out for 10 months...."
I explained to him that the I had my ticket issued in India that had my return date a few days after my arrival which had caused the red flag to be raised. I explained that it was a mistake on part of the ticketing agent. I also told him
that since then I have been working permanently in the US.
I then gave him my Microsoft, Yahoo and startup employment verification letters without him asking.
He then wanted to see my taxes. I referred him to the transcripts that I had attached along with the application. He said he wanted to see my actual return to make sure that I had not filed for non resident exemption, which could result in even the green card becoming invalid.
I told him I had filed both federal and California taxes as a resident and gave him copies of actual filings from 2002-2005.
He then started to ask me again about my assignment abroad and made a statement that all these temporary assignments abroad are good for Microsoft and other companies but they are not ok from citizenship point of view.
And INS does not care about temporary assignment etc.
I then mentioned again that I maintained house, credit cards, bank accounts, utility bills, filed for reentry permit etc and showed him the documents.
At this point, the tension began to dissipate and he started saying things like. you did extremely good preparation.
This is better
than what a lawyer do after looking at my pile of documentation (thanks to this forum). I told him that I had talked to my
company lawyer about this. IO said thank him from my side since I would have given you a N-14 and then again it would have been
a wait for 2-3 months. He then tore what looked like a sheet that had request for additional documentation.
At this point he mentioned about the oath being next month, which really cheered me up.
At this point he went through the application in detail Name, DOB...
He also started explaining that you can take an appointment in your post office (told me the location in my city) and file for an
expedited passport (told me the amount). He then said that you can apply for OCI which gives you all rights of Indian citizens.
He then said that you can apply for your wife and kids also immediately with your naturalization certificate. I then asked him when I should expect the oath letter. He said by end of this month. He said send me a mail if you don't get it. I then requested him for his email address which he gave.
At the end he said you have done pretty well, your case is out of complications and you have cleared all my doubts otherwise
your adjudication would have been delayed.
At this point he asked me to write
"Today is a good day"
He then asked me six questions of the test and stopped after that and said you have prepared well for your test.
Checked the congratulations portion of the N-652 and a handshake later I was out extremely ecstatic about the final result.
The oath is on Feb 21, 2007.
-Anami
