San Jose, CA - N-400 Timeline

siliconhybrid said:
So tomorrow is a big day (Oath) for some of us.

Other than my Oath letter and Green Card, is there anything else I should bring with me?

Do I need to memorize the pledge of allegiance ?

Anything else we should know for tomorrow's Oath?

Thank you
Click to expand...

I think your Oath letter should specify what you need to bring. I had a same day oath, so I do not remember which documents specifically were needed just for the oath as I was carrying everything with me anyway. The pledge of Allegiance is easy to learn and I do recommend learning it. However at my ceremony they had print outs of both the oath of allegiance and pledge of allegiance. At oath you raise your right hand and repeat after the person that is administering the oath. During the pledge always make sure to face the flag and hold your right hand above your heart :)
 
I don't think they'll kick you out for wearing jeans, but I think the expectation is to have something more formal or semiformal.
Yes, you can take your camera, and as far as I remember the cell phone too. Expectation would be to turn it off or silence it. However, I can't remember what I did ;)
 
Huracan said:
I don't think they'll kick you out for wearing jeans, but I think the expectation is to have something more formal or semiformal.
Yes, you can take your camera, and as far as I remember the cell phone too. Expectation would be to turn it off or silence it. However, I can't remember what I did ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks Huracan. Just too lazy to do laundry on a week day. :)
 
URGENT QUESTION
My Oath is tomorrow 4/24/08. On the back of the letter there is a question
no. 4 Have you been arrested, cited, .... , including traffic violation?

Well... in my 13 yrs of living & driving in the US, I got my first ticket for unsafe lane change last month (between interview and now). I have paid the fine, and I have proof of payment from the traffic court. I know I should check "Yes" on the form (should I?), how is it going to impact my Naturalization?
Is bringing this proof of payment from traffic court enough?

what is anyone's experience on this?
 
siliconhybrid said:
URGENT QUESTION
My Oath is tomorrow 4/24/08. On the back of the letter there is a question
no. 4 Have you been arrested, cited, .... , including traffic violation?

Well... in my 13 yrs of living & driving in the US, I got my first ticket for unsafe lane change last month (between interview and now). I have paid the fine, and I have proof of payment from the traffic court. I know I should check "Yes" on the form (should I?), how is it going to impact my Naturalization?
Is bringing this proof of payment from traffic court enough?

what is anyone's experience on this?
Click to expand...
It has no impact on your naturalization..just answer yes and bring the proof of payment to the oath.
 
Just completed the oath ceremony.

Good luck to everyone waiting.

A question on Social Security for those who have already completed their oath. What exactly needs to be done, and if anything, can it be done online or do we need to go in person to a SS field office ?

Earlier when i got the green card i did change the status, but before that there was a "not valid for employment" stamp so there was a reason to do so. Not sure now.

========
 
sho1997 said:
Just completed the oath ceremony.

Good luck to everyone waiting.

A question on Social Security for those who have already completed their oath. What exactly needs to be done, and if anything, can it be done online or do we need to go in person to a SS field office ?

Earlier when i got the green card i did change the status, but before that there was a "not valid for employment" stamp so there was a reason to do so. Not sure now.

========
Click to expand...

Just visit your local SS office with Naturalization Certificate and Photo ID.
 
We completed our oath's today and that culminates our naturalization process. Our sincere thanks to Huracan, ahsieh, et al for providing helpful information on these forums, congratulations to fellow oath takers and best wishes to people still in the queue.

Now onto our oath experience...

1. They do allow jeans, camera's and cell phones, but you need to put the cell phone on silent mode.

2. My wife and I had different oath times for today, but they allowed us to take the oath together. They'll do that so long as they have the naturalization certificate.

3. One woman had showed up without an invitation letter. Apparently she was supposed to have her oath in Feb, but missed the invite due to address change. As per her story, when she called USCIS she was asked to just attend this ceremony. But naturally due to lack of certificate, the officers at the ceremony didn't allow her to attend but instead asked her to schedule INFOPASS and was assured that she'll get scheduled for the next ceremony. Man, you should have heard her talk to USCIS officer -- I've never even imagined someone could talk to an immigration officer like that.

4. They had formed multiple queues outside the theater before allowing people inside. Some officers were going about looking at how the applicants had filled the questionnaire on the invite. Then they would scribble a row no. although eventually those row assignments were overruled by another officer at the door of the theater.

5. Once inside the theater, they gave us a packet of papers (letter from President Bush), US flag, booklet for oath+pledge+national anthem and another for constitution and declaration of independence.

6. They took oath invite and green card at the row, while assigning a seat.

7. As mentioned earlier by others before, they have voter registration instructions in 5 languages (English, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog and Spanish).

8. They had brought a lady to sing the national anthem and she did a very good job at it.

9. Then they went through the list of countries whose citizens were naturalizing in the session. 472 applicants from 52 countries, mostly from China, Mexico, India, Philipines and Vietnam. One of the 'countries' mentioned was 'Hong Kong'.

10. There were speeches by 2-3 USCIS officers and some video about immigrants and quotes by other naturalized citizens.

11. Then they administered oath of allegiance followed by some minor celebration and mutual congratulations between new citizens.

12. One Chinese lady, apparently a news anchor on local Chinese TV channel, spoke about becoming a US citizen. She became quite emotional and thankfully didn't give a long and winding speech. Then another lady applicant administered the pledge. Both the ladies were given their naturalization certificate on the stage.

13. Then they played some videos such as voter registration info, speech by President Bush and one generally patriotic song.

14. Distribution of naturalization certificate was the last activity. Some people got their naturalization certificate at their seat and others got it on their way out of their row. They do confirm your name while giving the certificate.

15. They hand voter registration packets on your way out of the theater seating area.

16. The process started about 15-20min later than scheduled and took another hour to finish. The oath and pledge don't take more than 5min. Overall, it is a very well organized process and handled with no confusion. The USCIS officers were helpful, cheerful and quite accommodating. There is a separate upstairs gallery for your friends and family and you'll generally hear some infant going kwyaaa...

I hope people taking oath at Campbell Heritage Theater will find this information useful, though my guess is there will be minor variations from ceremony to ceremony.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Folks,
I haven't got my OL yet. Not sure what's going on? Is anyone with PD 6/6/07 in the same boat?

thanks

My
PD is June 6, 2007,
FP done on Aug 28, 2007,
Interview done on Mar 4, 2008
 
Amicus, my sincere congratulations! :)

I think your oath experience is the typical oath experience. For all we complain about USCIS the oath ceremony is pretty well handled and it is quite well organized and pleasant. I think write ups like yours are very useful for people who read your experience in the future, as it should take a lot of anxiety about the oath ceremony in people's minds.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks Huracan. I think the invites for May oaths at Campbell should be coming in the next few days and they'll hopefully find this info useful. The oaths at Monterrey Road USCIS office are likely to be different.

Waiting for passports now. Hopefully the recent processing times mentioned on the forum for regular(non-expedited) will more or less hold good.
 
Quick quesiton about passport pictures

In passport application instructions it is mentioned that pictures should be in "street attire", I'm assuming getting picture in a formal "gentleman" suite would be acceptable, though I rarely wear those on street :)

Second question, is there a good (I'm not asking for cheap) place to get the passport pictures.

BTW I took my oath yesterday, nice experience.
 
Folks,
I finally got the Oath Letter today for me & my wife. unfortunately its not on the same day for both of us. Mine is on May 23rd(San Jose) and my wife's on May 22nd(Campbell). Is there anyway we can go together on same day? What is the process to get this changed. If its too much hassle, I don't even want to try. But I'm glad the OL is finally here!

--------------
PD 6/6/07
FP done 8/28/07
IL done 3/4/08
OL 4/25/08
Oath 5/23/08
 
I would say this would be in the too much of a hassle, both for you and USCIS. I wouldn't bother trying to change it until you have a very strong reason to do it. If they were to move you into Campbell, they might go over the capacity. Although come to think about it, my child sat with us, and that they couldn't have planned ahead, so I guess they have some extra seating at the theater for such cases. Anyway, if it really bothers you, you might schedule an Infopass and try to convince them to put you together, but considering all the delays that everybody are experiencing it would seem a bit selfish to go and make them spend time to reorganize the oaths taking time away from doing interviews or other work for the people behind you :( Anyway, I am not trying to make you feel bad, whatever you have to do is whatever you have to do ;) I would agree that it feels better to naturalize in the same ceremony as your spouse.
 
Quick status update.
Got my OL today. :D
Oath on May 22 @ 3.30PM @Campbell

PD:06/29/2007
ID:03/18/2008
OL:04/25/2008
Oath:05/22/2008
 
Hello everyone!
I took the oath on the 04/24 at the Campbell Heritage center, along with my husband. I want to thank each of you who post on this board and specifically on this thread for the information/advice/experience that you posted....it sure did help me quell my fears, answer my questions and maintain my sanity thru this process and thru all the wait for letters of fingerprinting/interview/oath...

I wanted to relate my experience at the oath and at my interview, just incase it might proove helpful to someone on this board...

I interviewed on Feb 12,2008 at Monterey road. My husband and I got the same interview time of 7:35AM. We made arrangements for a sitter for our older children and I took my (then) 4 month old in a stroller with me. I did not face any problems taking the stroller..I made sure i was not carrying too much of stuff in it as the security guards would sift thru it for security purposes and carrying lesser things would mean getting cleared faster.

My interviewer updated my records to include my new baby's name with those of my other children. (I had delivered my baby after applying for the N400) He was very kind and courteous. Thankfully the baby cooperated thru my interview and did not cry at all..I was asked some 5 questions from the naturalization test..

My husband was interviewed by a lady who was quite rude/stern and she first spent some 4-5 minutes only to tell him that people of his race talk too much and never come to the point so he should take care of that once they start the interview:rolleyes:...Needles to say, his interview was a rather uptight one. She asked him 10 or more test questions ..he is not sure if he was aksed more than 10 but he says she just bombared him with the test quesions! And because of the curt atmosphere, my husband forgot to inform her about our new addition to the family. At the end of it, she did not tell him if he passed, she just told him that they were done and he could leave.

So, understandably we were tensed and wondered if he had actually cleared the interview. We waited anxiously for the oath letters. They finally arrived in the end of March for 04/24

I was called to take my oath at 1PM and my husband was called at 3PM. But we wanted to do it together and also I was not feeling too well on Oath day. So we we waited in a queue to enter and when my turn came to show my oath letter, i asked if my husband could also take his oath with me. The officer asked me to go to the side and talk to a gentleman sitting on a table there. He took our oath letters and our green cards. He asked us to raise our right hands and then he proceeded to read out the oath to us right there. We took the pledge and he said we were done! Then he handed us a pair of large envelopes with our Naturalization certificates inside and that's was it! We were done! We did not have to attend the ceremony, which i was actually looking forward to but then I was not feeling too well, so I got to leave early...

On our way out, there was a small stall with some folks asking if we wanted to register to vote...so we registered there.

All in all a wonderful experience!

My details are as follows:

PD: May 18, 07
FP: Aug 02, 07
Interview: Feb 12, 08
Oath: April 24, 08:)

Good luck to all those waiting,

Quest4gc:)
 
Huracan,
Thanks for your feedback and candid views about this. I agree this would be an additional burden on USCIS and the folks still waiting in the queue. We will be attending the oath ceremonies separately. Looking forward to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top