Portland Oregon timeline

seriousachiever,Mcmahon & desibha1,
Thanks for your inputs. I am back to US and have received my Interview letter. My Interview is on 12/17/2007 (same date as seriousachiever). May be we can meet at the portland, OR office that day.
I also went to USCIS office today at Portland (511 Broadway). They told me the same as you have mentioned in your post. I can attend the interview but need a proof of my GC copy and receipt of replacement card.
 
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Sapro,
Congratulations !!! This is great news. Hopefully your stress levels are reduced now. Lets now focus on interview preparations. What documents are u planning to take with you? There are not many they have actually asked in the letter which they have sent with the notice. Just GC/Passport/another goverment ID which can be license. I had couple of speeding tickets (7 years back and and 12 years back) a parking violation 2 years ago but I had paid fine but I do not have any records and I doubt that there are any records of speeding tickets. So basically I am planning to take GC/Passport/Driver license/SS number. They have not asked for anything else. I do not have any arrests or detaintions.

What about you?

Seriousachiever
 
seriousachiever,
Thanks! I am planning to take pretty much everything what Johnny cash has mentioned in his list of docs. It might be too much. But I have accumulated all these in the past few months. Since no one knows for sure what the IO might ask, I think it is better to be over prepared.
 
seriousachiever,
Thanks! I am planning to take pretty much everything what Johnny cash has mentioned in his list of docs. It might be too much. But I have accumulated all these in the past few months. Since no one knows for sure what the IO might ask, I think it is better to be over prepared.

Initially, I thought that it was a bit much to bring all the documents that JohnnyCash suggested. However, he is 100% right. I've heard stories of people having their interviews rescheduled/postponed over traffic tickets, so I decided to gather all the paperwork he listed. One can never be too prepared.
 
desibha1,
Hope you attended the interview today. Could you please share your interview experiences in Portland, OR office so that it will be really helpful for all of us ?

sapro
 
I completed the interview and oath on 29th.
My interview time was 8:30am. You are expected to drop your interview notice in the bin outside the waiting room (106). There were another couple of notices in the bin before mine. After waiting for about 10 minutes and officer came up and picked my notice and called out my name and then led me to her office. Before taking a seat I was made to take a oath to tell the truth. The officer seemed quite professional and not intimidating in any way. I was asked for passport, green card and drivers licience. She started off by walking through the main questions in the N-400 form - am I a member of any organisation..willing to bear arms..etc. Then she confirmed my date of last travel and browsed through the passport. Confirmed I was not eligible for selective service. Asked if I had ever had any trouble with the police. I mentioned I had two traffic tickets (I had not mentioned this in the form since I had interpreted the instructions to mean that these were not required). She said that is ok as long as I was not detained for excessive speeding or anything like that. The she asked about 6-7 of the given civics questions. Asked me to read a very simple sentence and then write one.
Then congratulated me and said I could appear for the oath at 2 pm. Made me sign the 2 photographs that I had originally sent. Had me confirm my name, age etc on some form N-4xx that I had to bring to the oath ceremony and returned my green card and drivers licence. Was told to fill out the back of this form and come back with the green card at 1:50pm in room 117. All of this did not take more than 15 minutes.
The form had some of the same main questions as N-400: have joined any organisation since the interview etc. I guess it is to ensure that your status is unchanged between the interview and oath. In the afternoon there were about 20 people for the oath and quite a few friends and family. We were checked in at 1:50pm and led to the 2nd floor for the oath at 2pm. Here the form and green card was collected and we were seated in order. There was a film clip and speech by the immigration officer. Then we had to take the oath and pledge of allegiance. The the names were called out as we got the ceritificate of naturalization and little flag. More film about speech by the president and then we were told that we may leave or get more photographs or as questions.

Thanks to this forum and to all those sharing their information. Now onto the next immigration battle...
 
desibha1,
Congratulations on becoming US citizen. Was there any question about employment? It seems pretty much the same experience of other people. Thanks for the detailed interview experience.

sapro
 
The officer did ask me if I still worked for company X mentioned in my N-400. Since I have never changed my job this was not an issue for me.
 
Deshibha1,

Congratulations on your successful interview !!!. I have one question. I too have 2 traffic speed tickets and 1 parking violation. I was not detained. I just paid fine $80, $65 & $15 respectively. My traffic tickets were 7 -8 years old. So I do not have any documentation and neighter the DMV since tickets are too old. Did officer asked you any documentation? Did you take any documentation with you? I have mentioned these tickets on N-400.

Seriousachiever
 
Hi Sapro,

How is your preparation going on? I hope everything goes ok. My appointment is at 1:30. So I hope if everything goes OK then I can take oath same day. I am planning to show up early though. So hopefully I can do the interview bit early.

Seriousachiever
 
seriousachiever,
My preparation is going well. I got my replacement Green card by mail yesterday and couldn't believe that it could come pretty fast (about 34 days from e-filing, stamping, fingerprinting and getting the card).

Good luck.
 
Hi seriousachiever,
I was not asked for any documentaion about the traffic tickets for my interview. I am sure you will be fine there.
 
Today, I became a US Citizen in Portland, OR Naturalization ceremony. The Interviewer went through pretty much each and every question from the N-400 form. She asked if I would like to change my name and I said no. Then she confirmed my day time phone number. I gave an update of my address history. In employment, she asked if I still work for Company X and asked if the other jobs were contracts since I had a big employment history. The interviewer went through all the details very fast from part 1 of my filled form.

Other questions were about affiliations and all of Part 10. Then I signed part 13 and part 14 in cursive format.

Finally, she asked me six (6) questions. I got all the 6 right so she didn't ask more. Then came the reading and writing of English sentences which went fine.

At about 1:50 pm, 40 people were waiting in the queue for Oath ceremony and all got naturalized.

Many thanks to all who helped me in making the process smoother. I took lot of documents but the interviewer asked only what was printed in the Interview letter. I applied for expedited Passport in the nearest post office.

Good luck to all the people who are waiting to get naturalized.
 
Hi seriousachiever,
Hope you are a Citizen by now. Can you please post your Interview experiences so that it will help others?
 
Hi Sapro,

Sorry.. I was on vacation. Yes I completed my interview on dec 17th. My interview was at 1 PM. So I could not take oath on same day as it was late for 2:00 PM ceremony. So I took the oath next day.

Overall my interview experience was OK. The IO was a lady and she was looking bit tired and sounded bit curt to me since beginging. But she was not rude. It may be because it was after lunch time. IO was talking with some accent which I would guess was European (European spanish or portugeese ... This is my guess..)

She asked for my passport, GC and driving license. Then She went thru' my application and asked me some questions on information I filled in application form. I mentioned to her about my traffic tickets and told her that I should have checked the box 16 instead of box 15. She made those changes. She glanced thru' rest of my application. Then she handed me the paper with all information filled to verify name and rest of the information. There was a spelling mistake in my middle name. (unfortunately I myself did that mistake in application form & did not realize till that moment). I showed her my passport and she went thru' my file to check for the spelling. Then she corrected the spelling and printed new form. Then she took the copy of first page of my passport. The file she had contained all the documentation I submitted for my GC processing and N-400 processing. The file was pretty thick.

Later she gave me the oral test. The test was printed on paper and there were boxes for Correct and incorrect. She was asking the questions and based on my answers she marked the boxes. I think I answered all of the questions correctly. But she was asking questions very fast. So I had to really concentrate.

They she printed another paper which had an english statement written which she asked me to read and later told me one statement to write. After that she said she was going to approve my application and stamped a red stamp on my application.

Later she suddenly asked me if I have any documentation on my traffic tickets. I told her no because they were very old and I could not get them. I took a copy of my driving license history which was clean. I showed her that. She made comment that it says nothing about tickets. I had a copy of parking ticket which I showed her. She glanced at it, smiled (May be smirked..) and commented, 'but this is paid'. I just nodded. Then she asked me if she can keep the copy and I said sure. Then she asked me if I have cell phone in case they need to contact me. I gave her my cell phone which she noted on the application. Then she gave me the appointment form for the oath next day and said you can go now. I said thank you and left.

Overall experience was OK. Based on experiences posted on the board, I was had bit different idea about the IO.

Reason I am mentioning this is that, best thing is to do is to keep cool regardless of what happens.

Oath experience was pretty normal. Nothing specific to mention. All you need is GC and oath appointment letter.
 
seriousachiever,
Congratulations! The only reason why she asked your cell phone number for contact is just in case you have not paid those old traffic tickets. This is my guess. However, you don't have to worry if you paid the tickets in full and if they are not greater than $500 and not DUI related.

Good luck.
 
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