Hi,
Just wanted to share my interview experience at NYC. The appointement was 12:15 for my wife and 12:00 for me. Got there in about 11:30AM, at least 150 people were sitting already. Went to window 52 and left the interview invitation letters, and sit down. People are called by their names, which means you need to keep your ears open and be ready for a pronounciation of your name you may have never heard. (Assuming you also have a hard to pronounce foreign name).
My wife called in first around 13:30, called to door 1. We knew this propably not good as there was a scheduled fire drill at 13:30. 13:40 we had to leave the floor. It took about 10-15 minutes. She had to go back again after for 5 more minutes. I was called 15-20 minutes after she came out, and called to the same door. The officer were polite helpful, and considerate. She saw that my wife and me are together todays so she said she'll make sure we get the same oath date.
After came out we we waited for the oath letter for about 45 more minutes. Got it at a window along with 5 other people and left very reliefed.
There were a lot of people there so it's hard to keep tract who is coming when and from where but this is how it goes.
After you leave your letter at window 52 you will be called at either door 1 or door 2. Door 2 is on the other end of the room. Most people are called to door 1 tough. Once you are done and asnwer the questions which in our case a subset of N400 questions you get the paper indicating you have passed the test and recomeneded for approval. When you go back and wait with this paper it seems you can have two outcome.
1. People who were called to a window got their oath letter and left generally with a smile
2. People called to door 1 an officer came with their file and they left (did not go back to door number 1).
My wife was told after the interview that an other person will review the application, so its possibel that case 2 is that there are further questions to clarify.
An other thing it seemed that after the interview, either case people are called in groups. (3-5 at the time)
Also I wanted to thank you for many people on the forum for their insight and information. One thing I need to tell to looking and the amount of people and that fact that the majority left with an oath letter, I do not believe that us here in this forum represent the average of the N-400 population. As I have read most of the post in the past 3 month I was very nervous knowing how many thing can go wrong, while my wife was calm as she did not do the same. My guess would be that most of the people have a very clean-cut case and not too much to worry about. We went with a bunch of documents, from tax returns though drivers abstract to utility bills. None of these were asked. I would still bring the same documents if I have to just to have a piece of mind, but for all of you who are very nervous the chances are you will pass and get this thing done with flying colors.
Please don't get me wrong I know there are many people who were not as fortunate and fell into the Name-check or other black holes, but I do not beilve this is the norm. So if you are an average reader of this forum, you will be a very happy man or women very soon.
Below is my timeline:
01/17/2006 N-400 Sent to VSC
01/23/2006 Priority Date
02/21/2006 FP Done
03/xx/2006 Interview Letter
04/25/2006 Interview
05/12/2006 Oath
Also for the record I'm from Long Island and both the interview and the oath was/will be in 26 Federal Plaza in NYC.
VS.
Just wanted to share my interview experience at NYC. The appointement was 12:15 for my wife and 12:00 for me. Got there in about 11:30AM, at least 150 people were sitting already. Went to window 52 and left the interview invitation letters, and sit down. People are called by their names, which means you need to keep your ears open and be ready for a pronounciation of your name you may have never heard. (Assuming you also have a hard to pronounce foreign name).
My wife called in first around 13:30, called to door 1. We knew this propably not good as there was a scheduled fire drill at 13:30. 13:40 we had to leave the floor. It took about 10-15 minutes. She had to go back again after for 5 more minutes. I was called 15-20 minutes after she came out, and called to the same door. The officer were polite helpful, and considerate. She saw that my wife and me are together todays so she said she'll make sure we get the same oath date.
After came out we we waited for the oath letter for about 45 more minutes. Got it at a window along with 5 other people and left very reliefed.
There were a lot of people there so it's hard to keep tract who is coming when and from where but this is how it goes.
After you leave your letter at window 52 you will be called at either door 1 or door 2. Door 2 is on the other end of the room. Most people are called to door 1 tough. Once you are done and asnwer the questions which in our case a subset of N400 questions you get the paper indicating you have passed the test and recomeneded for approval. When you go back and wait with this paper it seems you can have two outcome.
1. People who were called to a window got their oath letter and left generally with a smile
2. People called to door 1 an officer came with their file and they left (did not go back to door number 1).
My wife was told after the interview that an other person will review the application, so its possibel that case 2 is that there are further questions to clarify.
An other thing it seemed that after the interview, either case people are called in groups. (3-5 at the time)
Also I wanted to thank you for many people on the forum for their insight and information. One thing I need to tell to looking and the amount of people and that fact that the majority left with an oath letter, I do not believe that us here in this forum represent the average of the N-400 population. As I have read most of the post in the past 3 month I was very nervous knowing how many thing can go wrong, while my wife was calm as she did not do the same. My guess would be that most of the people have a very clean-cut case and not too much to worry about. We went with a bunch of documents, from tax returns though drivers abstract to utility bills. None of these were asked. I would still bring the same documents if I have to just to have a piece of mind, but for all of you who are very nervous the chances are you will pass and get this thing done with flying colors.
Please don't get me wrong I know there are many people who were not as fortunate and fell into the Name-check or other black holes, but I do not beilve this is the norm. So if you are an average reader of this forum, you will be a very happy man or women very soon.
Below is my timeline:
01/17/2006 N-400 Sent to VSC
01/23/2006 Priority Date
02/21/2006 FP Done
03/xx/2006 Interview Letter
04/25/2006 Interview
05/12/2006 Oath
Also for the record I'm from Long Island and both the interview and the oath was/will be in 26 Federal Plaza in NYC.
VS.