PD: Dec 2001
FD: Apr 2002
Interview: Aug 1 2002
Oath: ????
I had my naturalization interview today.
Apparently the San Jose office is closed to the general public on Thursday afternoons and only handles appointments. The big room downstairs was desolate. The security guys (with guns) spend their time telling people they are only open for appointments and to come back tomorrow. Remember to pickup all your stuff after the xray machine. The guards came twice to give people stuff they'd forgotten while I was waiting.
I arrived about half an hour before my interview and read over the sample questions and answers one last time before going inside. There were quite a few people waiting for their names to be called. There are 2 windows at the front of the room, one for citizenship interviews, one for the rest. There are 3 doors where they call names from, a hush comes over the room as the names are called. Some of the officiers are much better at the "foreign" names than others. I couldn't work out if there is any relation between the door you get called from and the reason you are there.
I was called about 20 minutes late. The officer was efficient, I guess that's the word, not very talkative. He asked me to stand and raise my right hand and swear to tell the truth. He asked for my green card and CA driver's licence. He asked how I got my green card. I "won" it through the GC lottery. He seemed fixated on this for the whole interview. Told me it was worth at least $1,000,000. Then he went through the N-400, item by item making sure everything was accurate. No changes. I had to write an English sentence on the bottom, sign the N-400 and the photos I sent, and something else with the signature that is your whole name in cursive (which isn't my signature). He asked about the selective service. I had included the letter with the form but had to explain it to him and justify that I was older than needed when I got my green card. We counted together to figure out my age.
After that he spent some time looking through my file, reading more stuff about the lottery, checking some books, saying how lucky I was. I think he went through every piece of paper in my file.
Then it was time for the test. He handed me a piece of paper with 10 questions written on it. I was to read them aloud, answer them aloud, and write the answers on the sheet. They are straight from the standard list including the number of the question in front of it. I passed that (10/10).
He went off to copy some document and came back and handed me a document to say I passed the test but that they couldn't make a decision at this time. Apparently they need to check my background still and that I should have an answer in 4-6 weeks. The whole interview took maybe 20-30 minutes. He didn't ask for passports or anything else.
So that's where I'm at. I guess the FBI background check they did isn't good enough, or maybe I've done something wrong recently!
Anyway I'll let you know when I do.
Good luck to everyone. Thanks for sharing your experiences,
Joe.
FD: Apr 2002
Interview: Aug 1 2002
Oath: ????
I had my naturalization interview today.
Apparently the San Jose office is closed to the general public on Thursday afternoons and only handles appointments. The big room downstairs was desolate. The security guys (with guns) spend their time telling people they are only open for appointments and to come back tomorrow. Remember to pickup all your stuff after the xray machine. The guards came twice to give people stuff they'd forgotten while I was waiting.
I arrived about half an hour before my interview and read over the sample questions and answers one last time before going inside. There were quite a few people waiting for their names to be called. There are 2 windows at the front of the room, one for citizenship interviews, one for the rest. There are 3 doors where they call names from, a hush comes over the room as the names are called. Some of the officiers are much better at the "foreign" names than others. I couldn't work out if there is any relation between the door you get called from and the reason you are there.
I was called about 20 minutes late. The officer was efficient, I guess that's the word, not very talkative. He asked me to stand and raise my right hand and swear to tell the truth. He asked for my green card and CA driver's licence. He asked how I got my green card. I "won" it through the GC lottery. He seemed fixated on this for the whole interview. Told me it was worth at least $1,000,000. Then he went through the N-400, item by item making sure everything was accurate. No changes. I had to write an English sentence on the bottom, sign the N-400 and the photos I sent, and something else with the signature that is your whole name in cursive (which isn't my signature). He asked about the selective service. I had included the letter with the form but had to explain it to him and justify that I was older than needed when I got my green card. We counted together to figure out my age.
After that he spent some time looking through my file, reading more stuff about the lottery, checking some books, saying how lucky I was. I think he went through every piece of paper in my file.
Then it was time for the test. He handed me a piece of paper with 10 questions written on it. I was to read them aloud, answer them aloud, and write the answers on the sheet. They are straight from the standard list including the number of the question in front of it. I passed that (10/10).
He went off to copy some document and came back and handed me a document to say I passed the test but that they couldn't make a decision at this time. Apparently they need to check my background still and that I should have an answer in 4-6 weeks. The whole interview took maybe 20-30 minutes. He didn't ask for passports or anything else.
So that's where I'm at. I guess the FBI background check they did isn't good enough, or maybe I've done something wrong recently!
Anyway I'll let you know when I do.Good luck to everyone. Thanks for sharing your experiences,
Joe.