Well, the people who have followed my postings are not going to believe this. I am sure they are going to be rubbing their eyes in disbelief. Yes, I had my interview this morning, and yes, I was late to the interview.
Well, past the initial shock. Let me clarify the situation. I hadn't been to the USCIS office since I got my passport stamped over five years ago. I had planned to leave home at 7:40, one hour before the interview. I ended up leaving (for causes mostly outside of me) at 7:55. GPS device was telling me to expect getting there at 8:20. So far so good. Of course, traffic is a bit heavier at the time, although most of the traffic on Hwy 87 was going North, and I was going South. I ended up losing most of the time on traffic lights. Once I got close to the exit I got distracted (the Alma exit has changed lately) and missed the exit. Ok, one mile down the highway I took Curtner. Now, the USCIS office was going to be on the left of a divided Monterey Highway. Remembering old times I thought of taking Stauffer Blvd to go to the back of the parking lot. That was a little mistake. Now, the parking lot is divided between Gold Gym's and USCIS, and I was at the Gold Gym's parking lot. Perhaps it would have been ok to park there, but why risk it. I went back to Stauffer Blvd to go left on Monterey highway and do a U turn about less than half a mile down the highway. Of course, this is not my day with traffic lights, so it takes me to wait quite some time at both traffic lights. Finally I get to park the car. By now it is 8:35.
Got to the line, not too many people ahead of me. Of course I am a bit stressed by now. Another three minutes or so to get to security. Hard to say the time because I left my cell phone at the car, and that's what I use as a clock. Level of stress rises a notch because of not being able to tell the time.
I start removing my shoes before the guy ahead of me has cleared security to save some time. The door guard makes a point that I should stop fidgeting because he could not tell if the fidgeting was to get out a knife. Of course he is not one hundred percent serious about the comment. Point taken, by that time I had already taken out the shoes anyway. Put belt, keys, shoes, wallet in the tray to get scanned. Pass metal detector with no problems. Get back the belt and stuff back in place.
Now I needed to get my bearings. Quick look around points that I have to go right and go upstairs to room 219. I somewhat knew that in the back of my head from previously read posts. Anyway, stress and anxiety can take its toll. I quickly go upstairs and find the room. I knew I had to drop the interview letter at Window #1. While I am walking into the room I locate where that window is. I get to it and drop my letter. Then I go and grab a seat. The room has plenty of chairs, but there were about twenty or thirty other people sitting there. I scan the room with my eyes and find the clock on the wall. The time, 8:45, not too bad, but past the time. I am an optimist, and try to relax and think that everything is going to be alright.
About 10 or 15 minutes later my name is called. The interviewer is a polite lady. I don't know if this has been posted before, but I was kind of expecting they would be in uniforms. That's not the case. They dress in civilian clothes. The interviewer takes me to the examination room. She asks me to remain standing to take the oath. I sit down and we get down to business. I sent my application about 85 days or so before my 5 years. She makes a point of counting and making sure I sent the application within the time frame. She doesn't tell me anything, but I see she has come to the conclusion that everything is alright with the application timing. We go over name, birth date, address, social security number. She asks me if I am still working for my current employer. We get down to trips and passports. I took my current passport and older passport. Some of the trips don't have stamps. She just focus in the last one for which I have stamps. No other issues. I was also asked for any trips since I applied. There are none, so no problems here. I have more than one passport, we talk a bit about which one I use. Anyway, we get past it.
Then I think it was the civics questions, although it could have been the other way around. The questions don't really matter, as each person gets asked a different set. Suffice to say that the questions were from the set of 96 questions. I got the questions asked verbally and I promptly gave my answers verbally too. I didn't keep count, but I think I got asked the full ten questions. No mistakes here, test passed. Asked some questions about criminal background, communist background and things like that. Not all the questions from the form were asked, just some of them.
I asked if I could do the ceremony before the end of July. She told me that July was already full.
I was asked to practice my signature writing my full name. I practiced in a piece of paper. Then I wrote my name and last name on the photographs (both of them). Name over my right shoulder and last name over my left shoulder.
At some point I was also asked to write a simple sentence, also from the list of sample sentences. I think it was "I go to work every day"
Signed and printed name on the application after having answered the questions about bearing arms to defend the country and being willing to take the oath. Got the N-652 with the recommended for approval, and having passed the english/civics test. Overall I think it took about 15 minutes. It was a pretty pleasant experience. I was told I might probably make it to the August 22 ceremony (no 100% assurance on this), and if not on September.
I had a pretty straightforward case, with trips well below the limit, no traffic tickets or any other issues.
I hope the reading of this post has been entertaining and informative
Well, past the initial shock. Let me clarify the situation. I hadn't been to the USCIS office since I got my passport stamped over five years ago. I had planned to leave home at 7:40, one hour before the interview. I ended up leaving (for causes mostly outside of me) at 7:55. GPS device was telling me to expect getting there at 8:20. So far so good. Of course, traffic is a bit heavier at the time, although most of the traffic on Hwy 87 was going North, and I was going South. I ended up losing most of the time on traffic lights. Once I got close to the exit I got distracted (the Alma exit has changed lately) and missed the exit. Ok, one mile down the highway I took Curtner. Now, the USCIS office was going to be on the left of a divided Monterey Highway. Remembering old times I thought of taking Stauffer Blvd to go to the back of the parking lot. That was a little mistake. Now, the parking lot is divided between Gold Gym's and USCIS, and I was at the Gold Gym's parking lot. Perhaps it would have been ok to park there, but why risk it. I went back to Stauffer Blvd to go left on Monterey highway and do a U turn about less than half a mile down the highway. Of course, this is not my day with traffic lights, so it takes me to wait quite some time at both traffic lights. Finally I get to park the car. By now it is 8:35.
Got to the line, not too many people ahead of me. Of course I am a bit stressed by now. Another three minutes or so to get to security. Hard to say the time because I left my cell phone at the car, and that's what I use as a clock. Level of stress rises a notch because of not being able to tell the time.
I start removing my shoes before the guy ahead of me has cleared security to save some time. The door guard makes a point that I should stop fidgeting because he could not tell if the fidgeting was to get out a knife. Of course he is not one hundred percent serious about the comment. Point taken, by that time I had already taken out the shoes anyway. Put belt, keys, shoes, wallet in the tray to get scanned. Pass metal detector with no problems. Get back the belt and stuff back in place.
Now I needed to get my bearings. Quick look around points that I have to go right and go upstairs to room 219. I somewhat knew that in the back of my head from previously read posts. Anyway, stress and anxiety can take its toll. I quickly go upstairs and find the room. I knew I had to drop the interview letter at Window #1. While I am walking into the room I locate where that window is. I get to it and drop my letter. Then I go and grab a seat. The room has plenty of chairs, but there were about twenty or thirty other people sitting there. I scan the room with my eyes and find the clock on the wall. The time, 8:45, not too bad, but past the time. I am an optimist, and try to relax and think that everything is going to be alright.
About 10 or 15 minutes later my name is called. The interviewer is a polite lady. I don't know if this has been posted before, but I was kind of expecting they would be in uniforms. That's not the case. They dress in civilian clothes. The interviewer takes me to the examination room. She asks me to remain standing to take the oath. I sit down and we get down to business. I sent my application about 85 days or so before my 5 years. She makes a point of counting and making sure I sent the application within the time frame. She doesn't tell me anything, but I see she has come to the conclusion that everything is alright with the application timing. We go over name, birth date, address, social security number. She asks me if I am still working for my current employer. We get down to trips and passports. I took my current passport and older passport. Some of the trips don't have stamps. She just focus in the last one for which I have stamps. No other issues. I was also asked for any trips since I applied. There are none, so no problems here. I have more than one passport, we talk a bit about which one I use. Anyway, we get past it.
Then I think it was the civics questions, although it could have been the other way around. The questions don't really matter, as each person gets asked a different set. Suffice to say that the questions were from the set of 96 questions. I got the questions asked verbally and I promptly gave my answers verbally too. I didn't keep count, but I think I got asked the full ten questions. No mistakes here, test passed. Asked some questions about criminal background, communist background and things like that. Not all the questions from the form were asked, just some of them.
I asked if I could do the ceremony before the end of July. She told me that July was already full.
I was asked to practice my signature writing my full name. I practiced in a piece of paper. Then I wrote my name and last name on the photographs (both of them). Name over my right shoulder and last name over my left shoulder.
At some point I was also asked to write a simple sentence, also from the list of sample sentences. I think it was "I go to work every day"
Signed and printed name on the application after having answered the questions about bearing arms to defend the country and being willing to take the oath. Got the N-652 with the recommended for approval, and having passed the english/civics test. Overall I think it took about 15 minutes. It was a pretty pleasant experience. I was told I might probably make it to the August 22 ceremony (no 100% assurance on this), and if not on September.
I had a pretty straightforward case, with trips well below the limit, no traffic tickets or any other issues.
I hope the reading of this post has been entertaining and informative