June 1, 2006 Experience
Hello all, here is my experience from June 1st.
I had an early morning appointment - 8:30am and I got there a little earlier but by the time I cleared the security check and went upstairs it was past my appointment time. Anyway, it doesn't matter because you have to deposit your appointment letter at a window in the room and they won't call you unless your letter is there.
I waited about an hour before being called in by the immigration officer. He received me at the door and had me follow him to his office - a very nice big corner office with a fabulous view. He had my file open on his desk. Before sitting down he swore me in and then we both took a seat. He started glimpsing through my N400 application and asked if anything had changed or if I had travelled out of the country. I said no. He asked to see my green card and passports (I have two). He checked them against some things in his file. He returned the documents, then pulled out the photos I had sent in with my N400. He asked me to sign them, explaining that now and all through the day whenever I would be asked to sign I should sign my full first, middle and last names in legible cursive writing instead of my regular signature. He asked when was the last time I travelled abroad and for how long. He also asked if I had ever been out of the country for more than 6 months at a time. I said no again. He continued with other routine questions - have you ever been arrested, committed any crimes, been deported, been involved with terrorist groups, etc. He then asked about where I work, live, my marital status, etc. verifying my responses against the written statements in the application. So far so good although in my mind I kept wondering - is there going to be a name check issue? Duplicate A file? Something else? Wouldn't he tell me about such things right away?
He asked me if I would take the complete oath. I said yes and he put the N400 in front of me. He opened it to the last page and made me sign it in two places. He then asked the history & civics questions - who becomes president if both the president and vice-president die? what is the constitution? name an amendment that addresses voting right? what makes up the judiciary branch of government? who nominates Supreme Court justices? What is the supreme law of the land? (this was sort of a repeat of question 2 - the questions are generated at random on the computer screen, so he asked me one more) how many justices are there on the Supreme Court? He nodded his agreement to all my answers, then said "hold on, I'll be right back". Again, I was thinking "so far, so good - but if there's a pending file issue when will he tell me?" He returned with a printout that had 10 history & civics questions printed on them but he wasn't interested in asking me more questions. Instead he asked me to write a sentence: "the teacher was proud of her class". He didn't even bother to look at it after I wrote it as he was busy going through my file again.
He then pulled out the results letter and ticked "Congratulations, you have successfully completed your interview...". I was so relieved! Even more so when he pulled out the oath notice, glimpsed at his watch and put me down for the 12:00 noon oath.
He told me I could go get something to eat and return to the 15th floor for the oath ceremony. He said with a smile "they are not very punctual so it might not start till 12:30 or later but I have to write some time here". He then congratulated me and said that he was approving my naturalization application. We stood up and I shook hands with him. So far he had been very brisk and professional - though not unfriendly, but now he gave me a big smile and escorted me back to the exit.
I went to the second floor cafetaria and had a brunch, then sat around reading a book I had brought along. I went up to the 15th floor at 12:00 where there were about 50 to 60 people waiting. They started processing the paperwork very slowly, calling people one by one. When I was called the clerk made me verify my name and other details on the naturalization certificate, then made me sign my photos again because apparently the signatures from the morning didn't scan properly so they had erased them. I handed it all back to him and surrendered my green card.
Then he handed me a booklet that contained the oath statement and other useful information and asked me to take a seat again. They do the oath ceremony in batches so it doesn't matter if they process your naturalization certificate in 10 minutes or in 2 hours - you are not going to be going for the oath until everyone in your batch is done.
So finally we were all ready to go do the oath at 2pm. We followed one of the clerks outside and down the hall to another room - the district court. We waited a few minutes and an African-American lady (the district judge?) finally walked in with a pile of certificates. She congratulated us all and said that on behalf of the USCIS it would be her honor and privilege to administer the oath and make us all citizens. We saw a video taped message from the President congratulating us on completing our immigration journey and telling us that we were now as American as the most direct descendants of the founding fathers. Then we all stood up, raised our right hand and recited the oath. At this point we were all citizens! We sat down an watched another short video about being American. The lady then told us about the importance of getting a passport done soon and encouraged us to register to vote. Then she called our names one by one, shook our hand and gave us the naturalization certificate along with a letter from the President.
That was it. I walked out a newly minted American
Sam
