My very fast and interesting NYC experience (new york, NY)
Preamble ;-)
Me the Person (finally) of the United States, in Order to help others join this Union, write this post in excruciating detail!
The NY DO is AMAZINGLY FAST – 3 months and one week from mailing in the application to the Oath. That has to be one of the fastest in the country! (I think Atlanta is faster by a week). And 6 months ago, it was taking over a year in NY! They are certainly catching up fast.
My GC date was in late 2000. I finally sent in my N-400 on 5/18/06.
For those who just want the timeline, please look at the end. I am trying to be comprehensive to thank all the people who took the time to be detailed and who, by doing so, helped me tremendously.
I am just trying to be factual here – I am not being self-congratulatory or otherwise self-aggrandizing. That is not the intention, so please don’t flame me – I am just trying to help.
The reason it took me longer than expected to post this is I that I had to travel immediately after my oath and was working >20 hours/day. My apologies that I didn’t get to it earlier. I still hope that this is useful.
I was completely anal. I had everything categorized, had copies and originals. I took all the documents on this list that is so well compiled by JohnnyCash –
http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=197782&page=1
FINAL NOTE: I’ve never needed to ask a question here, but just reading the threads gave me SO much info (I guess I was a lurker
). While I really appreciate the activity, you really never need to ask a question – every question that you can think of has probably been thought of before, posted and answered! All you need to do is search the site!
Fingerprinting: 6/15/06
Very straight forward. I showed up 20 minutes early. All I took was the FP Notice that I received and my GC, which they ask you to bring in the FP Notice.
Sat around and after about 15 minutes, they called me, took my fingerprints (some needed to be taken a couple of times) and then I left.
Total time: 30 minutes.
Interview: 8/23/06, Wednesday
Wow – quite an experience. Mostly positive, but with a little zinger for a surprise at the end.
Interview was at NYC Federal Plaza at 11 AM. I arrived at the building at 10:10 AM. It took about 10 minutes to get past security.
Naturalization interviews are on the 7th floor. Once you get there, you deposit your Appointment Letter at a window and wait. I skimmed the 96 questions and at 10:40, my name got called with three other people.
The interviewing officer took us all to the other side of the enormous room and asked us to wait. The other folks had interview times of 10:15, 10:30 and 11:30. He called us in in that order.
The first person went it and it took about 25 minutes, but she came out smiling and said he was just super-detailed, but very nice. The second person took about the same time. Then I got called in at around 11:30.
He seemed very nice, asked me to raise my right hand and swear to tell the truth. Then he just started shooting random questions at me. He opened with “Have you ever been a prostitute?” and “Have you ever hired a prostitute?” I thought it was an interesting way to open the interview, but went along.
He asked me if I was ever arrested. I said no and then, here’s where I may have made a tactical error. I said, “but I have been cited/got a ticket”. He asked me what the speeds were and I told him and he gave me a boxing handshake , accompanied with a “you go, girl” for telling him. I produced all the information I had.
I had with me the following
We continued with the interview. He asked my why my file was so thick – I had no clue. He said he had to review it. There were all the GC materials (letters of recommendation, my degrees etc.) He went through it, checked where I went to school, read some of the letters, said wow a few times.
Then he’d ask more questions from the back of the form – do you drink (yes, socially). The question is actually “Are you a habitual drunkard?” – what’s the point of asking me if I drink? I have to be honest and say “yes”! So, then he said, “When was the last time you were drunk?” (– I’ve never been drunk), “Have you ever been high?” (- No. Those were his words, by the way!), “Bought drugs?” etc. etc. Don’t get me wrong, the whole tone of the interview was very light hearted even though he was all over the place. Very casual and friendly.
Then he gave me a sheet of paper, asked me to sign the bottom. He asked me to write a very simple English sentence. He then wrote “Passed” on the sheet. He didn’t ask me any questions whatsoever. I felt a tad disappointed after the hours of prep (I had read the constitution and amendments in their entirety – more for curiosity than anything), but wisely decided keep my mouth shut. I was in such a rush that I didn’t even notice which questions he would have asked me ;-)
He asked me if I had ever left the country for longer than six months (-No) and if I had details of my travel dates and then answered the question himself “Of course you do”. It was actually attached to the N-400 form and he reviewed it. He asked for my divorce and marriage certificates and I showed him originals and gave him copies. He asked if I had any changes to the form. I said no.
THEN (*zinger alert, zinger alert*), he said – “I should approve you right now, but I don’t think I can because of these…” and he reached for the tickets/proof stuff.
I was so shocked that I instinctively said “Really?!” and my voice was loaded with complete surprise and shock (at least I think it was since that’s how I felt). He paused, and said, “Let me see if I can get this taken care of now” and he walked out, presumably to talk to his supervisor. I whipped out the page on the N-400 instructions that talked about traffic tickets and not having to provide proof if they were less than $500. It was nerve wracking.
He came back a couple of minutes later and said it was all clear. What a relief!! In retrospect, there are two possibilities for his statement:
Anyway, I got over it very quickly since he walked in stating it was fine. He then explained that the prostitute question was part of the list and I said I knew that. He apologized that the placement of the question was so abrupt.
He then joked about how he’d never seen an applicant like me. I asked him if it was a good thing and he said yes. General chitchat, general banter – asked me to say hi to him if I saw him on the street etc. He asked me if I had any questions for him. I said no and then changed my mind and asked him “Should I have shown you these or waited for you to ask me?” He said it was good that I brought it up since otherwise I’d be lying. I pointed out that I could have just waited for him to ask me for them and that would not have been lying. He said that he would have asked me for them anyway and it was a good thing that I was proactive. He also mentioned that two others check the file before they give you the Oath letter, to ensure everything is buttoned down.
He gave me a form that had my A#, his name and the fact that I had an interview that I passed. The “Congratulations” line was checked. He walked me out. The whole process took about 35 minutes. He told me to wait for the oath letter and that NY was doing oath ceremonies very, very quickly. I waited for an hour. They gave me the letter with the date (two days later!)
In retrospect, I wouldn’t have offered up the traffic tickets since we weren’t reviewing that section of the form yet and he hadn’t asked me for them, but my guess is that he would have asked for proof anyway. I also had my driver’s license record, but didn’t offer it up since he didn’t ask.
He didn’t ask for (doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it, b/c they can always ask)
I guess the general rule of answer what they ask you and **never lie** is what you should follow. Being super-prepared worked for me. I truly thank the people on this board for posting so many threads and making this a living resource.
Oath ceremony: 8/25/06, Friday
Went back to the exact same place as the interview. The Oath time was 11AM. I got there at 10:20 AM. Went to the 7th floor.
It was very organized. I was in a line that moved quickly. Went to a window and showed my Oath letter and my green card. She verified that nothing had changed since Wednesday and then took my green card from me (pang of separation from my little card that was so hard to get).
Then, sat down (seated by 10:30) and a guy came can collected the Oath letter from everyone. I brought a book and kept myself occupied.
The only annoying thing was that they “proctors” kept announcing that we needed to turn our cell phones off and if we picked up or made a call, we would not be naturalized. I appreciate the need for turning off cell phones, but why the heck threaten us? I mean, it really annoyed me b/c they couldn’t threaten citizens the same way and I felt they were showing their petty power one last time.
There were lots of folks who were quite late. C’mon people, this is your naturalization oath ceremony, can’t you show up on time? People were showing up till about 11:15, when they closed the doors.
The event got underway at 11:20. They showed us a video of the history of immigration. Then we were asked to rise and sing the national anthem. Then, the oath was administered. Then, the pledge of allegiance to the flag was administered. We were shown a video from G.W. welcoming us.
That was it. No muss, no fuss - quick and simple. We were done by 11:35. Each row was asked to stand and walk out. They handed us our naturalization certificates as we walked out. Quite impressive that they were all correct and in the order in which we were seated.
In New York, there was no voter registration or passport collection that was organized by the USCIS, so if you care about these things, you have to do them yourself.
One note – there were 202 people who were naturalized that day. My eye-ball guess is that 60% were Hispanic, 20% were Black (African/Caribbean), 10% were White and 10% were Asian (east, south etc.). The video they showed of the history of immigration was almost all white. If most oath ceremonies are like this one, the face of this country is changing. In 20 years, a very significant % of the population will not be white. A good start would be to change the history of immigration video to be more color comprehensive.
Passport : 8/25/06
Later that afternoon, I went to my local post office and dropped off my application and my naturalization certificate (I scanned it and made a copy of it before doing so, just to be safe). I paid for expedited processing.
The guy who took it said that it is taking longer than usual because every US citizen is required to have a passport by the end of the year (huh?) and so the backlog was increasing.
I checked online and the case status appeared on 8/30 and it showed up as due to be delivered on 9/2 (Saturday).
On 8/31, the message said the passport had been mailed and I should receive it by 9/1!
Voter Registration
Found my local office and went in with the copy of my naturalization certificate and my driver’s license. Didn’t ask for the naturalization certificate. I am guessing they check it somehow. Registered to vote. Info is supposed to show up in 4-6 weeks.
In Closing
This has been stressful. I guess dealing with government agencies is inherently stressful since they exercise so much power over you.
I truly sympathize with the folks who are stuck in the nightmare and dealing with 1447b stuff. I can’t imagine how stressful and time consuming it is. I wish all of you great luck – I hope by some miracle the name check nightmare gets fixed so that people can get on with their lives.
Again, I wish to thank all the people who so generously contribute their time and effort to maintain this resource! And to other lurkers like me – even if you don’t actively participate, please post your experiences after the fact to help maintain the site.
Finally, I am not an expert and this should not be construed as legal advice. This is just my experience. I benefited greatly by reading the posts on this board and wanted to provide as much info as possible in the hope that it helps someone. Please take it as such. I’d be happy to answer any questions and clarify anything.
Good luck to all!
Adiumy
Citizenship Timeline
D/O : NYC
05/18/06 :N400 mailed to VSC
05/22/06 :N400 VSC Received Date
05/22/06 :N400 VSC Priority Date
05/31/06 :N400 VSC Notice Date
06/01/06 :N400 FP Notification Notice Date
06/15/06 :FP Appointment
06/28/06 : Naturalization Interview Notice Date
08/23/06 : Interview Date
08/25/06 : Oath Date
Passport Timeline
08/25/06 : Passport application/drop-off date
09/01/06 : Passport received (will be received – mailed already on 8/31/06)
Preamble ;-)
Me the Person (finally) of the United States, in Order to help others join this Union, write this post in excruciating detail!
The NY DO is AMAZINGLY FAST – 3 months and one week from mailing in the application to the Oath. That has to be one of the fastest in the country! (I think Atlanta is faster by a week). And 6 months ago, it was taking over a year in NY! They are certainly catching up fast.
My GC date was in late 2000. I finally sent in my N-400 on 5/18/06.
For those who just want the timeline, please look at the end. I am trying to be comprehensive to thank all the people who took the time to be detailed and who, by doing so, helped me tremendously.
I am just trying to be factual here – I am not being self-congratulatory or otherwise self-aggrandizing. That is not the intention, so please don’t flame me – I am just trying to help.
The reason it took me longer than expected to post this is I that I had to travel immediately after my oath and was working >20 hours/day. My apologies that I didn’t get to it earlier. I still hope that this is useful.
I was completely anal. I had everything categorized, had copies and originals. I took all the documents on this list that is so well compiled by JohnnyCash –
http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=197782&page=1
FINAL NOTE: I’ve never needed to ask a question here, but just reading the threads gave me SO much info (I guess I was a lurker
). While I really appreciate the activity, you really never need to ask a question – every question that you can think of has probably been thought of before, posted and answered! All you need to do is search the site!Fingerprinting: 6/15/06
Very straight forward. I showed up 20 minutes early. All I took was the FP Notice that I received and my GC, which they ask you to bring in the FP Notice.
Sat around and after about 15 minutes, they called me, took my fingerprints (some needed to be taken a couple of times) and then I left.
Total time: 30 minutes.
Interview: 8/23/06, Wednesday
Wow – quite an experience. Mostly positive, but with a little zinger for a surprise at the end.
Interview was at NYC Federal Plaza at 11 AM. I arrived at the building at 10:10 AM. It took about 10 minutes to get past security.
Naturalization interviews are on the 7th floor. Once you get there, you deposit your Appointment Letter at a window and wait. I skimmed the 96 questions and at 10:40, my name got called with three other people.
The interviewing officer took us all to the other side of the enormous room and asked us to wait. The other folks had interview times of 10:15, 10:30 and 11:30. He called us in in that order.
The first person went it and it took about 25 minutes, but she came out smiling and said he was just super-detailed, but very nice. The second person took about the same time. Then I got called in at around 11:30.
He seemed very nice, asked me to raise my right hand and swear to tell the truth. Then he just started shooting random questions at me. He opened with “Have you ever been a prostitute?” and “Have you ever hired a prostitute?” I thought it was an interesting way to open the interview, but went along.
He asked me if I was ever arrested. I said no and then, here’s where I may have made a tactical error. I said, “but I have been cited/got a ticket”. He asked me what the speeds were and I told him and he gave me a boxing handshake , accompanied with a “you go, girl” for telling him. I produced all the information I had.
I had with me the following
- Tickets/proof of each incident
- Traffic school certificates (where applicable)
- a copy of my checkbook that I paid each ticket (I also had the original checkbook, which he returned to me) and
- a copy of the accompanying bank statement to show it cleared with the relevant check highlighted.
We continued with the interview. He asked my why my file was so thick – I had no clue. He said he had to review it. There were all the GC materials (letters of recommendation, my degrees etc.) He went through it, checked where I went to school, read some of the letters, said wow a few times.
Then he’d ask more questions from the back of the form – do you drink (yes, socially). The question is actually “Are you a habitual drunkard?” – what’s the point of asking me if I drink? I have to be honest and say “yes”! So, then he said, “When was the last time you were drunk?” (– I’ve never been drunk), “Have you ever been high?” (- No. Those were his words, by the way!), “Bought drugs?” etc. etc. Don’t get me wrong, the whole tone of the interview was very light hearted even though he was all over the place. Very casual and friendly.
Then he gave me a sheet of paper, asked me to sign the bottom. He asked me to write a very simple English sentence. He then wrote “Passed” on the sheet. He didn’t ask me any questions whatsoever. I felt a tad disappointed after the hours of prep (I had read the constitution and amendments in their entirety – more for curiosity than anything), but wisely decided keep my mouth shut. I was in such a rush that I didn’t even notice which questions he would have asked me ;-)
He asked me if I had ever left the country for longer than six months (-No) and if I had details of my travel dates and then answered the question himself “Of course you do”. It was actually attached to the N-400 form and he reviewed it. He asked for my divorce and marriage certificates and I showed him originals and gave him copies. He asked if I had any changes to the form. I said no.
THEN (*zinger alert, zinger alert*), he said – “I should approve you right now, but I don’t think I can because of these…” and he reached for the tickets/proof stuff.
I was so shocked that I instinctively said “Really?!” and my voice was loaded with complete surprise and shock (at least I think it was since that’s how I felt). He paused, and said, “Let me see if I can get this taken care of now” and he walked out, presumably to talk to his supervisor. I whipped out the page on the N-400 instructions that talked about traffic tickets and not having to provide proof if they were less than $500. It was nerve wracking.
He came back a couple of minutes later and said it was all clear. What a relief!! In retrospect, there are two possibilities for his statement:
- He really did think they were a problem. I find this highly unlikely since the tickets were minor, significantly under $500.
- He was yanking my chain. This is, to me, the more likely reason. I think he just wanted to test how I’d react or have some fun at my expense or show his colleague the levels of anal-ity that was achievable by an applicant. Either way, not amusing. People are, in general, stressed out and doing something like this is not cool.
Anyway, I got over it very quickly since he walked in stating it was fine. He then explained that the prostitute question was part of the list and I said I knew that. He apologized that the placement of the question was so abrupt.
He then joked about how he’d never seen an applicant like me. I asked him if it was a good thing and he said yes. General chitchat, general banter – asked me to say hi to him if I saw him on the street etc. He asked me if I had any questions for him. I said no and then changed my mind and asked him “Should I have shown you these or waited for you to ask me?” He said it was good that I brought it up since otherwise I’d be lying. I pointed out that I could have just waited for him to ask me for them and that would not have been lying. He said that he would have asked me for them anyway and it was a good thing that I was proactive. He also mentioned that two others check the file before they give you the Oath letter, to ensure everything is buttoned down.
He gave me a form that had my A#, his name and the fact that I had an interview that I passed. The “Congratulations” line was checked. He walked me out. The whole process took about 35 minutes. He told me to wait for the oath letter and that NY was doing oath ceremonies very, very quickly. I waited for an hour. They gave me the letter with the date (two days later!)
In retrospect, I wouldn’t have offered up the traffic tickets since we weren’t reviewing that section of the form yet and he hadn’t asked me for them, but my guess is that he would have asked for proof anyway. I also had my driver’s license record, but didn’t offer it up since he didn’t ask.
He didn’t ask for (doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it, b/c they can always ask)
- Tax documents (I had the 1772 form for three years and copies of 5 years of taxes)
- Utility bills or proof of residence (I had credit card statements and bank statements)
- Birth Certificate
- Spouse’s information. I had my spouse’s naturalization certificate even though I was applying on the 5-year rule not the marriage rule. He didn’t ask for this, appropriately.
I guess the general rule of answer what they ask you and **never lie** is what you should follow. Being super-prepared worked for me. I truly thank the people on this board for posting so many threads and making this a living resource.
Oath ceremony: 8/25/06, Friday
Went back to the exact same place as the interview. The Oath time was 11AM. I got there at 10:20 AM. Went to the 7th floor.
It was very organized. I was in a line that moved quickly. Went to a window and showed my Oath letter and my green card. She verified that nothing had changed since Wednesday and then took my green card from me (pang of separation from my little card that was so hard to get).
Then, sat down (seated by 10:30) and a guy came can collected the Oath letter from everyone. I brought a book and kept myself occupied.
The only annoying thing was that they “proctors” kept announcing that we needed to turn our cell phones off and if we picked up or made a call, we would not be naturalized. I appreciate the need for turning off cell phones, but why the heck threaten us? I mean, it really annoyed me b/c they couldn’t threaten citizens the same way and I felt they were showing their petty power one last time.
There were lots of folks who were quite late. C’mon people, this is your naturalization oath ceremony, can’t you show up on time? People were showing up till about 11:15, when they closed the doors.
The event got underway at 11:20. They showed us a video of the history of immigration. Then we were asked to rise and sing the national anthem. Then, the oath was administered. Then, the pledge of allegiance to the flag was administered. We were shown a video from G.W. welcoming us.
That was it. No muss, no fuss - quick and simple. We were done by 11:35. Each row was asked to stand and walk out. They handed us our naturalization certificates as we walked out. Quite impressive that they were all correct and in the order in which we were seated.
In New York, there was no voter registration or passport collection that was organized by the USCIS, so if you care about these things, you have to do them yourself.
One note – there were 202 people who were naturalized that day. My eye-ball guess is that 60% were Hispanic, 20% were Black (African/Caribbean), 10% were White and 10% were Asian (east, south etc.). The video they showed of the history of immigration was almost all white. If most oath ceremonies are like this one, the face of this country is changing. In 20 years, a very significant % of the population will not be white. A good start would be to change the history of immigration video to be more color comprehensive.
Passport : 8/25/06
Later that afternoon, I went to my local post office and dropped off my application and my naturalization certificate (I scanned it and made a copy of it before doing so, just to be safe). I paid for expedited processing.
The guy who took it said that it is taking longer than usual because every US citizen is required to have a passport by the end of the year (huh?) and so the backlog was increasing.
I checked online and the case status appeared on 8/30 and it showed up as due to be delivered on 9/2 (Saturday).
On 8/31, the message said the passport had been mailed and I should receive it by 9/1!
Voter Registration
Found my local office and went in with the copy of my naturalization certificate and my driver’s license. Didn’t ask for the naturalization certificate. I am guessing they check it somehow. Registered to vote. Info is supposed to show up in 4-6 weeks.
In Closing
This has been stressful. I guess dealing with government agencies is inherently stressful since they exercise so much power over you.
I truly sympathize with the folks who are stuck in the nightmare and dealing with 1447b stuff. I can’t imagine how stressful and time consuming it is. I wish all of you great luck – I hope by some miracle the name check nightmare gets fixed so that people can get on with their lives.
Again, I wish to thank all the people who so generously contribute their time and effort to maintain this resource! And to other lurkers like me – even if you don’t actively participate, please post your experiences after the fact to help maintain the site.
Finally, I am not an expert and this should not be construed as legal advice. This is just my experience. I benefited greatly by reading the posts on this board and wanted to provide as much info as possible in the hope that it helps someone. Please take it as such. I’d be happy to answer any questions and clarify anything.
Good luck to all!
Adiumy
Citizenship Timeline
D/O : NYC
05/18/06 :N400 mailed to VSC
05/22/06 :N400 VSC Received Date
05/22/06 :N400 VSC Priority Date
05/31/06 :N400 VSC Notice Date
06/01/06 :N400 FP Notification Notice Date
06/15/06 :FP Appointment
06/28/06 : Naturalization Interview Notice Date
08/23/06 : Interview Date
08/25/06 : Oath Date
Passport Timeline
08/25/06 : Passport application/drop-off date
09/01/06 : Passport received (will be received – mailed already on 8/31/06)
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