Completed interview today (Dec 19)
I completed my interview this morning. Appointment was for 1020 am and I got there at about 1010 am.
In spite of having read the directions that Huracan and others had posted, I missed the 1887 Monterey building on the right side of the road, so had to make a couple of U-turns and come back. The sign for the building is rather obscure. The really prominent sign is one for Gold's Gym which is the adjacent building and the palm tree (that others have mentioned) at the entrance.
Again, in spite others having mentioned it in this forum, I forgot to leave my cell phone in the car and had to go back to do that. They don't allow any electronic equipment (cell phone, PDA, iPods, etc) into the building.
The interview room is on the 2nd floor. The waiting room there had about 10 people in it when I arrived and it has space to seat about 200 - so there is no rush at all. I was called in within a few minutes and was done by 1045 am.
Fairly straightforward interview. Nice officer. They ask you to write your name a few times in "real" cursive writing which I don't think I have done in years, so that took a few tries.
Questions were simple -
When is Independence Day?
Who is the governor of CA?
What is the Bill of Rights?
What is the capital of CA?
What ship did the Pilgrims come to America on?
What are the two major political parties in the US?
Application was approved and the officer (she) told me that if I don't get an oath letter in 3 months, I should do an infopass. They do multiple oath ceremonies every month, but only one big one a month in Campbell. She thought that there was still room for the January Campbell ceremony.
I had requested a name change (a simple one - to swap first and last names - as they had been wrongly swapped in my official documents when I first came to the US). The officer made me write out my name the way I wanted it and confirmed that the naturalization certificate would have the name the way I had requested. She did say, however, that they don't accept name change requests any more. I am not sure exactly what this means - but I conclude that they do not accept "legal" name change requests. If you are asking for something simple like what I did (i.e. asking for a name that you have used before), then they do it and all your new paperwork will have the new name, but it is not the same as having a legal name change in front of a judge.
Now the wait for the oath letter begins...