v1, it's not a problem for visitors to attend the ceremony at all! And quite a few people were taking pictures and video-taping as well.
Here's a quick description of how it went, just in case anybody's interested:
The day I was sworn in, there were two ceremonies. Mine was in the afternoon at 1 p.m. Everybody who was sworn in at that time was invited to come in at the same time. The ceremony took place in a big room inside the convention center. There's plenty of space to bring someone and you can sit with them.
Anyway, there was a panel of government people sitting in front. After some introductory information, the applicants were asked to line up on the right and left wall as well as the two center aisles in the room (so if you were sitting closer to the front, you didn't have to stand in line quite as long
). We had to have our invitation letter with the information filled out in back and our green card. At the front of the line, an immigration officer checked each form, asked the applicant if anything had happened/ changed since the interview, put the green card inside a little bag, and stapled it to the form. He then wrote a big number on the form. That number's just for the purpose of lining up later, so a "1", for example, isn't better than an "8". Both the form and card were then returned to you for the moment, and you received a small flag and the ceremony program (with the text for the oath and the Pledge of Allegiance, etc).
After everybody had made it through the line, they started calling the applicants from each country and asked them to stand and remain standing. This is alphabetical, except for those countries with the most applicants. They're called last, so don't worry if they don't call you at the right spot in the alphabet. (some people I saw were worried when their country was seemingly skipped and tried to get the administering officer's attention)
When all the citizenship candidates were standing, they started to administer the oath. After completing the oath, we were pronounced American citizens.
Some more information, speeches and a couple of videos followed, and we were asked to line up once again, this time according to the number written on our invitation letter. We then had to turn in the invitation letter and green card in exchange for the naturalization certificate. Once we received the certificate, we were free to go.
There are opportunities to register to vote and usually you can apply for your passport as well.
Best of luck to you next Thursday!
Caillie
