Oath Ceremony Experience @ Montebello, CA
We are extremely happy to report that my wife and I attended oath ceremony in Montebello, LA County, CA on
Friday the 13th and were sworn in as US Citizens.
Even though it looked chaotic from outside, the whole event was organized extremley well. We were impressed with the USCIS officials the way they ran the whole operation.
Below is synopsis of our experience:
1. Our Notice of Naturalization Oath Ceremony (Form N-445) required us to be at the site by 1030 (Quiet Cannon Banquet Hall in Montebello. It is adjacent to Montebello Municipal Golf Course). Two weeks prior we ran several routes as to how to get to the place and timed different scenarios. I know this sounds like too much paranoia. When the day is one of the most important days of your life, who cares what anyone else thinks?. I live in Ladera Ranch. It is ~50 miles drive. In order to make the time, we decided we would leave home by 815AM which we promptly did!
2. The notice required us the bring the following:
-Questions in the back of notice answered.
-Permanent Green Card
-Reentry Permit or Refugee Travel Document
-Any Immigration Dcouments you may have
-If the naturalization application is on behalf of your child (Children), bring your child (children)
-other
We had all the documents in chronological order and nicely arranged in a 3 ring binders with sheet protectors. There were people in the line just had the notice/green card and nothing else. Some were trying to borrow pens so they answer the questions at the back of the notice. Don't be like that. Prepare whatever needs to signed and answered ahead of time in the comfort of your home.
3. As noted above in item 1, we left home around 815AM. We have 2 kids that were born here. Since kids are not allowed, we had taken a friend to tag along so she can baby sit while we were inside.
4. Because of the traffic, we got near the site around 10AM. We took 5N, Garfield Exit and went east. Quiet Cannon is on Via San Clemente very near to 60/Garfield.
5. On this particular day (Friday May 13), there were 3 batches of 900 people scheduled for oath ceremony 830am (report @ 730am), 1130am (report @ 1030am), and 230pm (report @ 130pm).
6. Garfield was literallly a parking lot as we approached Via San Clemente, and we were still quite a ways away from being able to make a left turn. It was 1020AM. The cars had't moved an inch.
7. We had our friend take over the reins, we got off the car and walked toward the building. We noticed a long line from Quiet Cannon banquet hall snaking down Via san Clemente to Garfield. There was a guy running up and down the line and announcing that all the 1030am appointments join the line. We were kind of kicking ourselves....May be we should've left at 730am instead of 815am!. Once the line started moving, it was n't bad at all. It turned out for every person that was to be sworn-in, there were gazillion people accompanying them.
Before we were ushered into a series of tables (had #s like 000-150, 151-300...etc that represented last 3 digits of your Permanent Resident Card), our appointment time was verified. We went to our table and handed over our "Permanent Resident" card along with the oath letter. The lady at the table wrote "ok" on our letter and gave it back to us, and asked if anything has changed since our interview. We said no, and that was it. She directed us to another line that was entering the banquet hall. They didn't ask for any other documents. Considering the number of people being naturalized on that day, there is little time for them to do anything else.
8. We were seated in an orderly fashion at 11AM. There were a number of volunteers running up and down the isles handing over voter registration forms, passport forms, comment forms and a packet containing a letter from our president.
9. Exactly at 1130am, the US central district judge came in. We were asked to stand and there was an announcement that court was in session and honarable judge will preside over it. Right away, a motion was tabled. The motion was 900 people from around the world would be sworn in as US Citizens. The motion was accepted. The judge asked as to stand and administered the oath with our right hand raised. End of that we were declared as US Citizens. Following that there were speeches by various USCIS officials and then a video from the president.Finally there was pledge of allegiance.
10. After that we were asked to again go back to the tables to collect our naturalization certficates. We were let out of the banquet hall in an orderly fashion. It didn't take more than 20 minutes from the time ceremony ended to the time we collected our certificates. We were out by 1240PM. In all it took 2 Hours and 10 minutes from the time we joined the line.
Any questions regarding N-400, fingerprinting, interview experiences, oath ceremony experience, documents to be presented, how to organize the documents, upcoming oath ceremony dates etc. please post your message. I wil get back to you asap.
Best wishes to everyone out there who are still in the process of being naturalized. Remember
"Patience is the Virtue".
