rick92
Volunteer Moderator
RE: Interview at USCIS Garden City, New York
Ok, guys. It's done. Finally. Everything went A-OK. I was approved and told to wait for an oath date.-
Ok, this place is located on a big avenue with a McDonalds right beside the buiding ( I suggest you eat and buy water before, because it might be very fast or it might take 3 hours, it depends), the parking lot is big enough, bring your car if you have one, you shouldn't have any problems finding a parking space, and if it is very cold, a car ride is suggested.)
Now, the full explanation and full advice on how to approach this date:
First of all, don't be nervous. I saw faces of people who were getting ready to be interviewed by Godzilla or some type of monsters. Be positive and be calm. DOn't worry about it, you are already there. That is what you waited for and nothing bad should happen.
Once you go inside the main room on the first flloor, have your interview letter stamped, get out and go up the second floor, before going up you will find a security guard who will only let in the person being interviewed, go up the stairs, find a small wood box where you must leave the interview letter which shall be picked up by whoever is in charge.
Now, comes the seating part, there were no seats available when I went right after lunch, there were people waiting before me and many others came after and not precisely from the stairs but rather from other places with lawyers. If you want to go the bathroom, you have to tell the security officer, write your name on a list, and go downstairs and scratch your name off the list when you come back up.
They will not let you be standing up, because you are in the middle of a room and on one side you have a wall and on the other side you have the offices of Interviewing Officers. There is a woman who seems to be a supervisor or may be higher who walks with a caine and makes sure everything is in order and seems to redirect and/or assign files. For example, a chinese fellow came in, and did not speak the language, the IO was asking for a chinese translator and there were none available, therefore he was told to wait outside. Later, an asian-american officer who spoke chinese appeared and took him to an office. And this was done with her intervention.
Ok. so you wait, you see people from different nationalities and also different USCIS officers from different backgrounds too who come to this room and call names of people, some people have already left and some are not there. Anyway, when your name is called, the officer takes you and:
1. Makes you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth so help you God.
2. He explains to you that he is going to go over the application, as he/she goes over the application in detail, ask questions back and forth, you will be asked to provide documents or show documents, especially the passport if you have stayed outside the US. (Please, bring all your documents even if you have to bring your file cabinet. Be proactive and show your disposition to help the officer - this will help you.)
3. Then goes the exam with the 10 questions and 3 sentences you have to write and then you have to read a paragraph out loud.-
4. Then, the USCIS officer will tell you if you have been approved, denied or a decision cannot be made at this time, which shall be wriiten on USCIS paper.-
If you bring someone with you, there is mall across the parking lot, you have to cross the street, be careful there is traffic and let the person know that he/she might have to wait in different rooms. Also, there are signs that say "NO CELL PHONE IS PERMITTED" even though I saw people using it but for short periods of time (3 or 4 minutes).
Good luck and hope this post helps.-
Ok, guys. It's done. Finally. Everything went A-OK. I was approved and told to wait for an oath date.-
Ok, this place is located on a big avenue with a McDonalds right beside the buiding ( I suggest you eat and buy water before, because it might be very fast or it might take 3 hours, it depends), the parking lot is big enough, bring your car if you have one, you shouldn't have any problems finding a parking space, and if it is very cold, a car ride is suggested.)
Now, the full explanation and full advice on how to approach this date:
First of all, don't be nervous. I saw faces of people who were getting ready to be interviewed by Godzilla or some type of monsters. Be positive and be calm. DOn't worry about it, you are already there. That is what you waited for and nothing bad should happen.
Once you go inside the main room on the first flloor, have your interview letter stamped, get out and go up the second floor, before going up you will find a security guard who will only let in the person being interviewed, go up the stairs, find a small wood box where you must leave the interview letter which shall be picked up by whoever is in charge.
Now, comes the seating part, there were no seats available when I went right after lunch, there were people waiting before me and many others came after and not precisely from the stairs but rather from other places with lawyers. If you want to go the bathroom, you have to tell the security officer, write your name on a list, and go downstairs and scratch your name off the list when you come back up.
They will not let you be standing up, because you are in the middle of a room and on one side you have a wall and on the other side you have the offices of Interviewing Officers. There is a woman who seems to be a supervisor or may be higher who walks with a caine and makes sure everything is in order and seems to redirect and/or assign files. For example, a chinese fellow came in, and did not speak the language, the IO was asking for a chinese translator and there were none available, therefore he was told to wait outside. Later, an asian-american officer who spoke chinese appeared and took him to an office. And this was done with her intervention.
Ok. so you wait, you see people from different nationalities and also different USCIS officers from different backgrounds too who come to this room and call names of people, some people have already left and some are not there. Anyway, when your name is called, the officer takes you and:
1. Makes you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth so help you God.
2. He explains to you that he is going to go over the application, as he/she goes over the application in detail, ask questions back and forth, you will be asked to provide documents or show documents, especially the passport if you have stayed outside the US. (Please, bring all your documents even if you have to bring your file cabinet. Be proactive and show your disposition to help the officer - this will help you.)
3. Then goes the exam with the 10 questions and 3 sentences you have to write and then you have to read a paragraph out loud.-
4. Then, the USCIS officer will tell you if you have been approved, denied or a decision cannot be made at this time, which shall be wriiten on USCIS paper.-
If you bring someone with you, there is mall across the parking lot, you have to cross the street, be careful there is traffic and let the person know that he/she might have to wait in different rooms. Also, there are signs that say "NO CELL PHONE IS PERMITTED" even though I saw people using it but for short periods of time (3 or 4 minutes).
Good luck and hope this post helps.-
