Proud to be an American!
I started my citizenship process on December 23rd and took my oath at Bridgeport on May 26th. The whole process was very seamless. We arrived at the Bridgeport court by 2:00 PM. There is a parking garage right across the street. Cost me $3.00 for 2 hours which is not bad at all. Some folks parked in an adjacent shopping strip despite the clear warning that the parking was only for the shop customers. I thought, I should make a good start as a USC by obeying the all the rules
and decided to pay and park at the garage.
The court room was crowded since there were 60 aspiring citizens and their guests. There were quite some children. Finding a babysitter for the children and coming to oath is a very good idea. We felt very bad seeing one parent going crazy controlling his child. Also, to kill time, taking something to read is better.
The Immigration officer started right on time, 2:30PM. He gave necessary instructions and then called each person with the appointment letter filled in the back side and signed. He verified the information with everyone. It was very straightforward. The judge arrived sharp on 3:30PM. She was a very pleasant personality and provided a nice speech which followed by the oath. After the oath and pledge of allegiance, the judge handed over the naturalization certificates to everyone. One note:
The naturalization certificate can not be copied or laminated. Its unlawful. It is clearly written on the certificate that it can not be copied by anyone other than an authorized person. I went and asked the immigration official about it and he said, no xerox or lamination. You can frame it, but that's it. If you loose it, you got to wait for a whole year to get a new one!
I want to thank everyone on this board for contributing valuable information. This board was a great help to me throughout the process.
My timeline:
PD: 12/23/05
FP: 01/24/06
ID: 04/17/06
Oath: 05/26/06