San Jose, CA - N-400 Timeline

Anyone being into one of the classes offered by local adult education?

I sat in one class this past Monday and found it to be TOO easy. most of the people in the class seem to have hard time either understand or speaking English. I am not sure what is the best way to prepare for the interview Civil Questions. In this class, they used a stack of flash cards and asked questions base on that. I think i got most questions right expect the name of Chief of Justice (John G. Robert) and Chief of Local Govement (I assume is the Mayor of San Jose?) whom i have no idea.

Suggestions anyone?

Thanks


I have only one suggestion ... please don't go to the class again! :) It is meant for a different type of audience.
 
Don't sweat it. I used these flash cards:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/M-623.pdf

I just had to find a few names of senators, governor and a few more. I wrote these on the printed flash cards and used the cards to study. It shouldn't take you long to master all the questions and answers.

Anyone being into one of the classes offered by local adult education?

I sat in one class this past Monday and found it to be TOO easy. most of the people in the class seem to have hard time either understand or speaking English. I am not sure what is the best way to prepare for the interview Civil Questions. In this class, they used a stack of flash cards and asked questions base on that. I think i got most questions right expect the name of Chief of Justice (John G. Robert) and Chief of Local Govement (I assume is the Mayor of San Jose?) whom i have no idea.

Suggestions anyone?

Thanks
 
Help me practice my signature

This one is low priority, but could someone who already has taken oath, be kind enough to tell me how much room (that is, width of the blank space, say in inches) is on the naturalization certificate to sign?

I like to practice my signature because my cursive writing is terrible :(. I had some difficulty fitting in my signature in the available space during my interview.

Kthx.
 
Passed my interview today. Nothing special, same as everyone else.

It took more time inside the hall waiting than expected. The dropbox was empty when I put my application but many people came after me and called before me in Last in first out order. :)

The officer was nice, he asked me questions about the correctness of information and some simple questions from the list. Overall a nice experience.
 
Passed our interviews this week. Overall a straightforward experience where the officers verified information on the form and asked the English language and US history/civics questions. They did seem to have at least perused through the file in advance. One officer was very friendly and the other was professional but courteous.

Only information that I can possibly add to the knowledge base is that there are about a dozen or so interviewing officers for naturalization interviews. The average interview time was about 15min per applicant and an officer would call an applicant about every 30min. (I wasn't clocking every applicant or officer, just a rough estimate based on the wall clock in the room.)

I was told to expect the oath letter in 30 days while my wife was told 90 days. I think I'll just monitor this thread (and my mail).

Best luck to everyone, whatever stage you are at in the process.
 
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Congratulations

Congratulations to TblSpoon22 and Amicus on passing your interview. I hope you will be invited to an Oath ceremony in March.
 
Guys,

Received IL letter for April 2nd - 2008.

Here are my timelines:

07/10/07: Priority Date
09/27/07: FP Completed
02/11/08: IL Received Date
04/02/08: IL Scheduled Date

Anybody else in the same boat?
 
Congratulations. Two officers were interviewing you? Is that the case for all interviews?

Passed our interviews this week. Overall a straightforward experience where the officers verified information on the form and asked the English language and US history/civics questions. They did seem to have at least perused through the file in advance. One officer was very friendly and the other was professional but courteous.

Only information that I can possibly add to the knowledge base is that there are about a dozen or so interviewing officers for naturalization interviews. The average interview time was about 15min per applicant and an officer would call an applicant about every 30min. (I wasn't clocking every applicant or officer, just a rough estimate based on the wall clock in the room.)

I was told to expect the oath letter in 30 days while my wife was told 90 days. I think I'll just monitor this thread (and my mail).

Best luck to everyone, whatever stage you are at in the process.
 
Finished the interview today. No surprises. Was not given any indication about when i could expect the oath letter to arrive or the oath itself to take place.
 
Our Oath Ceremony Experience !

We had our Oath Ceremony yesterday, 12/14 at the USCIS office, San Jose and it was an adventure !! I had prepared for the interview reading all the experiences on this board and kept all the documents in a folder- Invitation letters and green cards. We planned to apply for SSA change of status and completed the SS-5 forms and also passport for my son as he has a trip in April with his school Band on the same day.

We reached USCIS office 5 minutes to 10:00 and parking was easy. Two of our friends had come as guests and were waiting near the Security. Since we were the last ones, the security guards rushed us thru. When I opened the folder to show the invitation letters, I realized that I had kept my invitation letter and both the green cards on the computer desk at home. :mad: I had taken it out to get a print out of the driving directions and forgot to keep it back in. The security guards did not even see the invitation letters and asked us to rush upstairs to room 219.

This was the same waiting room we had for our interview. All the future citizens were seated and guests were either sitting or standing at the back of the room. Officer P was making an announcement that the Oath ceremony was originally scheduled in an bigger room downstairs but due to another meeting, it has moved to Room 219. This was a last minute change and no videos during this ceremony.

Meanwhile, I talked to an officer who was collecting the applicaton letters and green cards and told him that I do not have my invitation letter with me. I handed my wife's invitation letter to him. He said, that should be fine and asked for Green Cards. I mentioned that I forgot both the greencards at home along with my invitation letter. He looked at me for a second with disbelief and asked us to wait while he checked with his superiors at the Desk in the front. He called us over to the front and Officer P asked if we had any other documents. I gave her our Indian passports. She looked at it and searched for our Certificates from the stack. Then she told us that we can go ahead and take to Oath, but have to come back with our greencard before 11.30 to get our citizenship certificate. Yeah !! We both were estatic ! :D

Since the ceremony was moved to Room 219, there was no particular seating order and we had to look for empty chairs. We found one each on Row 2 and 3.


Distribution of Packet with info, and other materials
Introduction by officer P. - 83 New citizens from 27 different counties.
Oath by Director S.
Pledge of Alligiance by one of the new citizen.
Speech by the Director.

All done by 10.40 am. Officer P announced that we meet her . She gave us two passes and asked us to bring in the greencard in one hour and that she will hold on to our certificates till then. We rushed home and brought in the greencards and received our certificates !!!

Citizens finally !!:)

Thanks to all the member here in the forum and all the best.

Next steps:
Legal Name changes
N-600 for our son
apply for passports.
 
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questions about oath ceremony

I passed my interview on the 6th and now waiting for the oath letter. Anyone with a May 07 PD receive their oath letter yet?

I have two questions for people who have attended previously oath ceremonies:

1) Do they allow young infants to be taken to the oath ceremony? And I mean taken all the way during the ceremony.

2) Based on what I have read, they take away your green card during the ceremony. If that is the case, then how do you travel internationally until you get your passport, especially because even your original naturalization certificate would have to be sent along the passport application. So, until you get your PP, you have no proof that you are indeed a US citizen. In fact, you don't even have a proof that you are in US legally. Of course, USCIS has everything in their records, but what proof can you use to travel internationally.
 
I passed my interview on the 6th and now waiting for the oath letter. Anyone with a May 07 PD receive their oath letter yet?

Nope. If we do indeed make it to the March oaths, the earliest we would hear is by next Friday.

2) Based on what I have read, they take away your green card during the ceremony. If that is the case, then how do you travel internationally until you get your passport, especially because even your original naturalization certificate would have to be sent along the passport application. So, until you get your PP, you have no proof that you are indeed a US citizen. In fact, you don't even have a proof that you are in US legally. Of course, USCIS has everything in their records, but what proof can you use to travel internationally.

I would think that you can go to a local passport agency and get a passport in a day or two. But, this would require the naturalization certificate. One way out is to mention to the passport agency that the certificate was mailed with the regular application (and present them with a copy or some other identification no. for the certificate, if one exists). The other way out is to get either a duplicate certificate or letter from USCIS and present it to the passport agency; though I doubt if this can be done in a matter of days.

One of my friends had traveled to Mexico with his naturalization certificate about 3 yrs back, but that would differ from country to country and also may no longer be possible, even if you are going to Mexico.

Finally, you can also get US passport in a foreign country, but that would be a big hassle.
 
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Signature on Oath Letter

I am completing my oath letter and notice I need to sign it. I assume I need to place my everyday signature, not the cursive one I will place on my naturalization certificate. Could someone please confirm?
 
Any March Oath Letters?

Any one got Oath letters for March? Still waiting for mine.

Later,
bkarth

04/17/07: FedExed
04/19/07: Received
04/19/07: Priority Date
04/20/07: Notice Date
05/10/07: FP Notice
06/14/07: FP Appt and Done
01/17/08: Interview
??/??/??: Oath :(
 
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