I am a US Citizen!!!
Hello all! I am finally a US Citizen!!! Absolutely delighted. And before I describe my experience, I want to thank everyone on this board for their invaluable advice! Made the pain of waiting a lot lighter!
So, here's a very detailed account of my experience...
- Appointment was at 8:00 AM, got there at 7:20. Parked at the Central Parking right across the Fed building for $10 all-day.
- There was a line outside, about 30-people strong. They started letting us in around 7:45. Thankfully temperatures were surprisingly in the low-50s this morning, so waiting outside was not an issue.
- Once upstairs, I dropped the IL in the box at Window # 1 as required and waited to be called. A few dozen people were there in the waiting room, dressed in a variety of ways - formal, business casual, very casual. etc. I recommend business casual at least. I mean, why not?
- I got called at 8:30. Guy who interviewed me was okay. Wasn't particularly nice, nor was he rude or anything. Just straight to the point, with little or no warmth. Others around there seemed friendlier.
- Went to his office. He asked me to raise my right hand and swear to tell the truth. I did, and then we sent down for the interview. There was a second interviewer present who was just watching, perhaps he was in-training (or is that standard?).
- Interviewer went over the application with me. Asked me a few questions from the application. Asked me about any travel over 6 months, and there was nothing like that. I gave him an updated travel page since I had left the country for a few weeks after applying.
- Asked me my address, and where I worked, and when I moved to NJ, etc. Standard questions to confirm the info in the application.
- Then went through the other standard questions..."Have you ever joined the Communist Party, have you ever failed to file your taxes, ever been to a mental institution, etc."
- Asked for my passport and green card. He also wanted an older passport so that he could glance through to confirm travel dates, and I had that with me. So make sure you take all passports since the I-551 stamp, if possible.
- Asked for my selective service card, so I proceeded to pull the Internet confirmation printout I had with me, but he then told me not to worry about it.
- He had one comment on the way I answered a question. The question on the application was something like: "Have you ever committed a crime that you were not arrested for." I answered "yes" because of my traffic tickets (since it is a crime/offense, but I wasn't arrested). He said that the question was referring to whether I did something like shoplifting, but got away with it. So he changed it to "No" and I initialed next to it. Fine by me!
- Next, we went to 10 questions. They were already printed out on a sheet and he went through them one by one, but very, very quickly - that added a bit of pressure to be honest, but it wasn't too bad. I got 10/10! The questions were: 1) color of stripes; 2) where is white house; 3) when was Constitution written; 4) which body authorizes war; 5) who appoints SC justices; 6) what is capital of NJ; 7) enemies in WWII; 8) minimum voting age; 9) 49th state; 10) what is executive of state govt called. Hey, not bad to recall all 10 from memory, huh???
- He asked me to write a sentence: "She cooks for her friends." Then he gave me some papers to sign. Had to sign my full name in cursive, rather than my normal signature. My handwriting is terrible so that didn't look that great!
- Interview was done in less than 15 minutes. Interviewer gave me two pieces of paper, one for me to keep, and one to complete and turn in when I was called to sign my Naturalization certificate. He told me to be back upstairs at 10 AM because that is when they will start calling people to sign the Naturalization certificates.
- He didn't congratulate me or anything, just said that all looks good and politely waved me out. I actually had to initiate a handshake and a thank you, and then I went back to the waiting area.
- Went down to cafeteria for a bit and came back up at 9:45. Now, the waiting started and it became a bit frustrating. Everyone who had their interviews in the morning were being called to sign their certificates, but my name was not called for a while. The first Oath took place at 11:30 AM, and I was perhaps one of only two or three people who interviewed in the morning but hadn't yet been called. So I missed that one.
- I kept waiting. Asked them a couple of times, but got nothing more than a stern "please wait till your name is called." By about 12:15 I started getting pretty concerned, because nearly everyone who had interviewed upto 11:30 or so were getting called to sign their certificates, I think I was the only one left from the morning.
- I was convinced that something was wrong, and that some issue must have come up and that my Oath would surely be postponed! However, I did see that any applicants with issues were being called up to the counter by their interviewers (very few such cases, and most were resolved immediately). Since my interviewer never called me back up, I got a little bit of comfort that nothing was wrong.
- Finally at around 12:45 I was called! That was a massive relief. I handed in the green card and the form given to me my the interviewer. The lady at the counter was really nice, she congratulated me with a huge smile. It was a good feeling to see the certificate with my name and picture on it. They take it back once you sign it, in order to give it after you take Oath.
- My Oath (the second one of the day) was at around 1:30 (third and last one was scheduled for 4:30). Pretty standard stuff - lady from CIS explained some processes about citizenship overall. We then took Oath, followed by Pledge of Allegiance, followed by welcome message from Dubya, followed by a video of the "I'm proud to be an American" song.
- Then they handed out the certificates, and we were free to go unless we want to ask any questions about our citizenship. Ceremony was easily less than half-an-hour beginning to end.
Overall, a pretty good experience, and an absolute joy when it was all over! It was a great feeling, and a great moment for me. It's been more than 13 years since I came to the US as an undergraduate student, and my path to citizenship is finally over. At the risk of plagiarizing the song, I am proud to be an American! I'm very, very happy today.
The overly practical interviewer, and the edgy wait for my name to be called threw me off a bit. But hey, it's all over now! Goodbye CIS, hello State Department! I have an appointment at the NYC regional passport office next week to get a one-day passport so that I can leave the country the following weekend. Will update you on that when it's done.
Again, thanks everyone for your advice throughout this wait! I will still be checking the board periodically, and will be happy to answer any questions.
Take care, and best of luck to those who are waiting! It will be over soon. One piece of advice - I strongly recommend taking a book or something else to read since there is absolutely nothing to do in the waiting area (no cell phones allowed, etc.). It worked out very well for me.
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04/17/07 : Application sent by UPS
04/18/07 : Received Date, Priority Date
05/02/07 : Receipt notice
05/10/07 : Fingerprints notice
05/23/07 : Fingerprinting done at Newark
10/02/07 : Case status disappears online
10/04/07 : IL received (dated 09/29/07)
12/12/07 : Interview/Oath completed at Newark, Naturalization Certificate received
12/18/07 : Passport appointment schedule at NYC regional passport office
