I had my interview at the chicago DO on the 29th of Oct. It was a 50 min long interview. Besides the english and civics questions which were all out of the booklet provided at the time of fingerprints, i had to provide explanations and supporting documents for the 3 trips that i had taken during the last 5 yrs. The time period for these trips was more than 6 months but less than a year. Altough the total no of days outside the US were less than the 913 days required for fulfilling the physical presence requirement, the officer was still unsure about approving the case. She asked about the supporting documents to show the reason for the long stays and also asked me to fill out a questionaire. The questionaire asked about my assets here in the US and abroad, my addresses before leaving and after coming back, the reason for these trips and my employment status at that time and whether or not my employer was informed. I answered all the questions honestly. Finally the officer told me that she was unable to decide at that time and will review the docs later and i will be notified of the decision after 2-3 wks. I was very disppointed but then after a while she said that she will let me know of the decision at the end of the day on my cell phone. After only an hour she called me on my cell phone to tell me that she has approved my case. I think i was lucky to have such a nice lady as my IO.
Updated timeline:
N400 - NSC Chicago DO
PD: April 10th 2007
FP: May 16th
IL: Sep 13th
Interview: Oct 29th (Case approved)
Oath : Waiting