Just got done with my interview in Los Angeles today (Los Angeles Street). I had applied around Jan 12th. The entire process was a pleasure.
Attire
I didn't want to go overdressed and at the same time I didn't want to be too casual so needless to say there was some fretting about what to wear. After all, you do want to show some respect to the officer and more importantly to the significance of the process. In the end I wore dockers, a buttoned down shirt and an evening jacket. It ended up being I was the most formally dressed in the room other than the attorneys that all wear full suits but at minimum most people was wearing a some kind of a collared shirt something you might wear to a evening outing to a semi-decent restaurant.
I was concerned about having to drive around down-town
Not a problem. The Federal building is literally right off the free-way. No having to drive-around down-town with unfamiliar signs and pedestrians, one way. You take the exit (Los Angeles Str), and literally 400ft from the exit is the parking structure
I was concerned about parking
There is parking right opposite the Federal building. Watch for the Public Parking Sign on the RHS of the road as soon as you take the exit. Its around 13 bucks for the day, well worth the money. The parking is underground, you come up the elevator, on the mezannine floor of the mall you have all kinds of eateries, walk up a flight of stairs and you are 10 steps from the entry to the Federal building. Very cool... so convenient.
Can I take large bags, phones with cameras into the building
Yes. I had a knapsack full of documents (none of which were checked at the interview) and I was able to take it into the building, no problem, not even a second look from the guards. Ofcouse everything is X-Rayed and you do go through a metal detector, which is great. No more stressing about what docs to take and what not to take just because you are trying to make your document packet as small as possible thinking you have to carry it in without a bag. None of that.. If you are an anal documented collector like me.. you can take everything you want.
No one cares about speeding tickets
I had not mentioned the one on my app, but the officer specifically ask me "any speed tickets" to which I truthfully said yes, "one, dismissed through traffic school". IO: How much was the ticket. Me: Less than 250.. Thats it, moved on, no more questions. Sigh!. I dont know how many nights of sleep I must have lost fretting about speeding tickets. In retrospect I should have mentioned them on the form MOST IMPORTANTLY mentioned how much it was and save MYSELF all the grief. And keyword is "MYSELF". Because at the end of the day, the outcome is still the same whether or not you mention it.
No documents asked for
Literally all the IO looked at was what was mentioned in my letter - which was the GC, my passport and my DL of which she took a photocopy. Thats it.
Important questions
The IO asked me two questions which caused me to think a bit and was pretty embarassing.
1. Why do you want to become a citizen? This is after all quite an important questiona nd I am sure everyone has their own answers. But you need to have those answers at the tip of your tongue
2. How old are you ? I space out on this one
LOL Everyone remembers when they were born, but age ?
Misc
The civics questions were a walk in the park, but then again I had studied real hard. If needed be I was prepared to tell them every choice to every multiple choice question for all 100 questions. The reading and writing section is probably not even worth mentioning. You get the sense that the IO is half-way embarassed asking you such simple sentences but they have to do their job. Other than that, it was pretty uneventful.
It sucks that in LA there is no hope of taking the oath the same day unlike other offices in other parts of the country. Oh well, more waiting.
There were a surprisingly large number of people which had their immigration attorneys present. I guess they had complicated cases that warranted such.
The IOs were all business, not rude or stand-offish, but certainly no smiling or warmth of any kind. That would have been nice to put the applicants at ease.
The guard in the interview room upstairs would not let me in until 1 hour before the scheduled interview time. So you if get there too early (which is probably wise given the traffic going into downtown LA), you may have to sit downstairs in the lobby area since they allow you into the building whenever you want but you just can't get into the interview room. To kill time you can probably go across the road and get a coffee in the food court area.
Also, at least in my case there was only a 15 minute delay between the scheduled interview time and the actual time they called me in. Which I think is pretty good.
