Completed oath in SC
I was sworn in this past Friday 9/22/06 in Charleston.
My letter requested that I show up for the ceremony about 30 to 45 minutes early. It turns out this time is so all the candidates can turn in their Green Cards, confirm some information and sign their Naturalization certificate.
There were 2 people who were late, which held up our ceremony for about 5 minutes. Once everyone had signed in, we were ushered into another room were the lady processing our certificates welcomed us and assured as that it was almost all over.
She was very corteous and seemed genuinely excited about helping us become US citizens. After rearanging us, (in some order I still have not figured out), family and friends were allowed into the room and encouraged to take as many pictures as they wanted. Next the officer in charge of the Charleston office came into the room.
After brief remarks congratulating us we raised our right hands and repeated the oath after her. The last piece of business was to say the pledge of allegiance. The whole ceremony lasted about 50 minutes.
Now here is some info you might helpfull.
She said processing times in SC were currently about 6.5 months, and was hoping to have that to within 6 months by the end of October. She has been holding same day oath ceremonies in Charleston for the last couple of months, my group had about 35 people; there was another ceremony scheduled for that afternoon. Unfortunately since she is the only person in the state who can swear people in she as to be at every ceremony, so Greer will not have same day processing.
There were a number of people whose pictures were the old 3/4 turn. Which means they filed their applications before the change in mid 2004. But clearly SC is catching up wit the rest of the nation.
So good luck to all, let me know as your timelines progress.
Regards
KinSC
PD 12/20/05
FP 02/17/06
ID 08/11/06
OD 09/22/06 Done
