Oath in San Antonio
Finally, the Oath day has arrived. I decided to work from home in the morning and head to San Antonio around 9:45-10:00 since the Oath letter requested my presence at the Laurie auditorium at 11:45 for the 2 PM ceremony. A bit early but, hey, worth it.
Due to a lack of traffic down on I-35, my wife and I got there at 11 AM. So, entire 45 minutes earlier and 3 hours before the ceremony. Even though it was quite early, parking lots were almost full and people were heading to the auditorium to register.
The registration process was quite simple - they needed to see the Oath invite, the GC had to be submitted and the questions on the back of the Oath invite were supposed to be answered. I was quite surprised to see how many people did not fill that out before going to the registration and how many people did not wear the recommended attire for the ceremony. In addition, I was quite shocked how many people actually did not speak a lick of English even though they did not look that old not to have the language requirement.
The ceremony was very nicely done - at around 1 PM the voter registration folks and the USPS passport folks were handing out the forms as well as the bill of rights and the words to the Pledge of Allegiance. We also received American flag pins which I thought was a nice touch.
The 5,000 seat auditorium was nicely filled out with the lower level dedicated to the applicants while the upper levels were filled with the family and guests. Out of 750 applicants, 733 showed up for the ceremony (one has to wonder why the remaining 17 did not show up) and were sworn in by the Judge (do not remember his name). There were people from 70-something countries (Mexico and India were the most represented ones), however, there were quite a few exotics as well such as my country and quite a few small other ones.
We had a U.S. Army Medical Brigade (Division, do not remember) band playing quite a few pieces and I thought it was also a nice touch to have the military present there and honoring and welcoming the new citizens. San Antonio Distrcit President, Mr. Mario Ortiz, gave a very nice and appropriate speech and we were done.
The Naturalization certificates were handed out quite quickly and we were ready to head out and celebrate. There was an opportunity to take a photo with Mr. Ortiz and the Judge but the line was soooo long that I gave up on that since we needed to get back to Austin for dinner plans with friends and family. Will be applying for the passport on Monday AM.
I would like to thank everyone on this board and the board moderators for very helpful and useful information and comments.
To you who became the citizens of this Great and Proud Nation, congratulations, and to you who are on your way there, good luck!