speedy1027
Registered Users (C)
Here is my interview experience in Charlotte, DO today at 8.30am
==========================================================
Started from home at around 7.25am (I live roughly 8-10miles away from the testing center). Reached there by 8am.
Since today is a scheduled oath day, expected to see a big line. Fortunately, did not find any queue. Walked in, went
through the security check-in. Went to the waiting room. There was this lady sitting in the front-left hand corner with a desk
in-front of her. Eventhough I knew (from my recent wife's interview at the same center) that I am supposed to give her
my interview letter, I totally forgot about her. She called me and asked for the appt.letter (I could hear her mutter
under her breath somthing like "I am not sitting here just like that...."). I chuckled
to myself about my stupidity
and gave her the letter. There were a few people occupying some seats. I was going through the questions one more time
to while away the time. One guy who appeared 'oriental'(please excuse me if that is not the politically correct
term to use...) nodded and came and sat next to me. Apparently his interest was to get to my book with 100 questions.
He said he forgot his book in his car. I gave it to him. Then he proceeded to ask me about few questions like 'state
senator, representative and the governor'. When I told him, he couldn't understand. So, I wrote them in the book. He
seemed to recognize and nodded in agreement. I started thinking to myself...is it the way I am talking that he doesn't
understand or is it his in-ability to understand spoken English?? Which ever it is.....one of us is in trouble this morning!!
Anyways, while I was writing in the book for him....a middle aged IO came and called my name. He had an impish grin on his
face. I got the feeling that he was kinda judging me from the moment he introduced himself and we started walking to his office.
I told my new found oriental friend that he can keep the book and followed the IO. IO addressed me as 'sir' and introduced himself.
While taking me to his office, he enquired, how I am doing this morning, and asked me to raise the right hand and swore
me in after we entered his office. Conversation started with some small talk when I said it is cold outside, he said it is. I said they
are predicting 1-3 inches of snow tommorow in Charlotte. IO responded jokingly saying he then has to go get some groceries today (it is kinda joke
around here how people panic for and prepare on war-footing for 1inch of snow) IO asked for my GC/DL/PP/SS card (if I have the SS card). Handed all those to IO.
IO then proceeded to my application ran through the first few pages. He then told me he is going to ask me the
civics/history questions.
He asked the following:
Ocean on the East coast
How many senators
How many US representatives
When was the constitution written
Between what ages are men required to register for selective services
I don't remember the last one. My mind kinda went blank when I was asked about the constitution question (question#4 above)
IO was peering into my face in an ecouraging way. I gave the correct answer after a few brief seconds and IO said 'there you go'
and gave a big grin. IO then proceeded to read/write section.
Question was "what do we have to pay the government" asked me to write "we pay taxes".
Then the IO came back to the rest of the application. When he came to the arrests/citations section, he asked if I was
ever arrested/cited for any reason other than my tickets (I disclosed both my tickets in my application form. Both less than $500/-). I said no.
IO did not ask for any documentation, I did not offer to give any...eventhough I had court dispositions for them. IO wrote
something in the section where I disclosed my tickets. I couldn't read his chicken scratch upside down...in a way I didn't bother
to see what he wrote down. IO then went to other questions in that section, and then popped a trick question "How many days have
to spent in a jail altogether for any arrests/citations Sir". I said zero and he grinned again. Somewhere in the process of going
through the application, he popped couple other questions like "How old are you sir" and "what is the first name of your child".
I thought even though they are relevant to the application form, they are kind of derivative based on the information provided by me
in the form....did not understand the significance of them. Anyways, answered both of them. IO then asked me to sign the application
form in 2 places and print my name. I asked him how I should sign, he showed me the signature which I did when I submitted
the form and asked if that is my signature. I said yes, then he said do in the same way (which has my family name abbreviated...and that
is what I use regularly for signing checks etc). I signed and printed my name at indicated places. Then he printed and
showed me the results of the interview and said I passed and that he is recommending me for approval. He then proceeded to write/stamp
in a bunch of documents. At that point, I noticed that my A-file in front of him (which was decently thick) had a yellow A4 size paper stapled to it.
It had some printed stuff on it with check boxes next to line items. He marked in some places. I did not bother to ask what that document is.
Next IO said that since my ID is 3 days before my GC anniversary date, he said he cannot do anthing today with respect to oath and said I would get a letter.
He said the oath would be sometime early January (most likely Jan6th).
He asked me if I have questions. I told him that my wife recently passed her interview (on Dec14th) and asked if we both would get the same oath date. He made
a note on a sticky with my wife's information and wrote "same oath date" on it. He asked "anything else?". I asked him if we are allowed to bring our infant son
along with us to the interview. He said "of course". He again asked "anything else?".I thanked him and said no. He said that we are done for
the day and walked me out of the room after I collected all my documents and put them in my folder. The entire process would have taken 10-15 max. IO was professional.
On my way out, I noticed a big line stretching all the way out of the building with folks waiting for their oath.
I guess, that "almost" completes my journey to Naturalization. My case is pretty straight forward employment based (the usual and well trodden path
of F1/2 H-1 B's/GC/N-400). I resided in Charlotte ever since I came to US a decade ago. Now the wait for OL. Most probably I will be going to the oath along with my
wife and child.
This forum has helped me quite a bit all through my H-1/GC days(eventhough I was never really an active member).
It specially helped me reading about others cases and gathering the required documents and preparing for
today's interview right from the day I became a LPR. Thanks to all the members who provided advices that soothed my nerves all through these years.
Good luck to all the members waiting for their interviews and OL's.
Cheers,
speedy
==========================================================
Started from home at around 7.25am (I live roughly 8-10miles away from the testing center). Reached there by 8am.
Since today is a scheduled oath day, expected to see a big line. Fortunately, did not find any queue. Walked in, went
through the security check-in. Went to the waiting room. There was this lady sitting in the front-left hand corner with a desk
in-front of her. Eventhough I knew (from my recent wife's interview at the same center) that I am supposed to give her
my interview letter, I totally forgot about her. She called me and asked for the appt.letter (I could hear her mutter
under her breath somthing like "I am not sitting here just like that...."). I chuckled
to myself about my stupidity and gave her the letter. There were a few people occupying some seats. I was going through the questions one more time
to while away the time. One guy who appeared 'oriental'
(please excuse me if that is not the politically correctterm to use...) nodded and came and sat next to me. Apparently his interest was to get to my book with 100 questions.
He said he forgot his book in his car. I gave it to him. Then he proceeded to ask me about few questions like 'state
senator, representative and the governor'. When I told him, he couldn't understand. So, I wrote them in the book. He
seemed to recognize and nodded in agreement. I started thinking to myself...is it the way I am talking that he doesn't
understand or is it his in-ability to understand spoken English?? Which ever it is.....one of us is in trouble this morning
!!Anyways, while I was writing in the book for him....a middle aged IO came and called my name. He had an impish grin on his
face. I got the feeling that he was kinda judging me from the moment he introduced himself and we started walking to his office.
I told my new found oriental friend that he can keep the book and followed the IO. IO addressed me as 'sir' and introduced himself.
While taking me to his office, he enquired, how I am doing this morning, and asked me to raise the right hand and swore
me in after we entered his office. Conversation started with some small talk when I said it is cold outside, he said it is. I said they
are predicting 1-3 inches of snow tommorow in Charlotte. IO responded jokingly saying he then has to go get some groceries today (it is kinda joke
around here how people panic for and prepare on war-footing for 1inch of snow) IO asked for my GC/DL/PP/SS card (if I have the SS card). Handed all those to IO.
IO then proceeded to my application ran through the first few pages. He then told me he is going to ask me the
civics/history questions.
He asked the following:
Ocean on the East coast
How many senators
How many US representatives
When was the constitution written
Between what ages are men required to register for selective services
I don't remember the last one. My mind kinda went blank when I was asked about the constitution question (question#4 above)
IO was peering into my face in an ecouraging way. I gave the correct answer after a few brief seconds and IO said 'there you go'
and gave a big grin. IO then proceeded to read/write section.
Question was "what do we have to pay the government" asked me to write "we pay taxes".
Then the IO came back to the rest of the application. When he came to the arrests/citations section, he asked if I was
ever arrested/cited for any reason other than my tickets (I disclosed both my tickets in my application form. Both less than $500/-). I said no.
IO did not ask for any documentation, I did not offer to give any...eventhough I had court dispositions for them. IO wrote
something in the section where I disclosed my tickets. I couldn't read his chicken scratch upside down...in a way I didn't bother
to see what he wrote down. IO then went to other questions in that section, and then popped a trick question "How many days have
to spent in a jail altogether for any arrests/citations Sir". I said zero and he grinned again. Somewhere in the process of going
through the application, he popped couple other questions like "How old are you sir" and "what is the first name of your child".
I thought even though they are relevant to the application form, they are kind of derivative based on the information provided by me
in the form....did not understand the significance of them. Anyways, answered both of them. IO then asked me to sign the application
form in 2 places and print my name. I asked him how I should sign, he showed me the signature which I did when I submitted
the form and asked if that is my signature. I said yes, then he said do in the same way (which has my family name abbreviated...and that
is what I use regularly for signing checks etc). I signed and printed my name at indicated places. Then he printed and
showed me the results of the interview and said I passed and that he is recommending me for approval. He then proceeded to write/stamp
in a bunch of documents. At that point, I noticed that my A-file in front of him (which was decently thick) had a yellow A4 size paper stapled to it.
It had some printed stuff on it with check boxes next to line items. He marked in some places. I did not bother to ask what that document is.
Next IO said that since my ID is 3 days before my GC anniversary date, he said he cannot do anthing today with respect to oath and said I would get a letter.
He said the oath would be sometime early January (most likely Jan6th).
He asked me if I have questions. I told him that my wife recently passed her interview (on Dec14th) and asked if we both would get the same oath date. He made
a note on a sticky with my wife's information and wrote "same oath date" on it. He asked "anything else?". I asked him if we are allowed to bring our infant son
along with us to the interview. He said "of course". He again asked "anything else?".I thanked him and said no. He said that we are done for
the day and walked me out of the room after I collected all my documents and put them in my folder. The entire process would have taken 10-15 max. IO was professional.
On my way out, I noticed a big line stretching all the way out of the building with folks waiting for their oath.
I guess, that "almost" completes my journey to Naturalization. My case is pretty straight forward employment based (the usual and well trodden path
of F1/2 H-1 B's/GC/N-400). I resided in Charlotte ever since I came to US a decade ago. Now the wait for OL. Most probably I will be going to the oath along with my
wife and child.
This forum has helped me quite a bit all through my H-1/GC days(eventhough I was never really an active member).
It specially helped me reading about others cases and gathering the required documents and preparing for
today's interview right from the day I became a LPR. Thanks to all the members who provided advices that soothed my nerves all through these years.
Good luck to all the members waiting for their interviews and OL's.
Cheers,
speedy
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