SarahG

Congratulations!

HisBetterHalf

Congratulations!!

My husband has his oath ceremony in two weeks (after being here almost 7 years) so I appreciate your detailed description.

Here in MN there isn't a same-day ceremony option, but ceremonies are held at least every other week (and then at two times on the designated day) at various locations, so there isn't too long of a wait. My husband can't believe there are so many people becoming citizens that ceremonies are so frequent - but I guess it pulls from a fairly large area which includes all of MN, SD, ND and parts of Western WI.

Congrats again - and good luck to your son!

robin1234

Congratulations on becoming a US Citizen!

For me, the most onerous part was the distance to the office for the interview then for the ceremony. It involved an overnight trip on both occasions, since I had to go down to Schenectady. We had some old folks from the VFW, I think it was, attending the ceremony and they gave me a free US Flag and also a book describing flag etiquette etc in exhaustive detail.. quite interesting.

cranston

congrats

scrubbedexpat027

Congratulations. I would have only known the answer to one of those questions!! Good job I have around 5 years to revise.

Englishmum

Hi Manc!

Thanks for your previous comment 'way to piss on someone's parade'

In response to that poster's comments: Everyone's life experiences are different and what works for some person won't work for another. After living overseas for 19 years it's nice to have the opportunity to have dual citizenship - my son is planning to live here indefinitely so regardless of the tax situation it made sense to me to gain US citizenship. I can now make plans to return to Europe and come and go as I please.

Back to you Manc:

There is a very useful forum on a website called Visajourney. It is for Green Card holders who have just filed for Citizenship (ie. N-400 Filers). I never joined the forums but did take a peek every now and then at the progress of the N-400 Filers for May 2012 as that is when I sent my application in.

Some people are listing all their dates in these forums (one seperate forum for each month). You can also see from the listed dates where some of the Field Offices do 'same day' interviews, testing and oaths and where other people have had to return on another date for their oath ceremony (see link below).

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/to.../page__st__465 (see post #471)

Some people have listed their interview questions.....and look what the poster brought along to the interview in post #472 for the USCIS officer to look at. I think that for naturalization applications based on marriage to a US citizen they are looking for proof that they're not 'marriages of convenience'.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/fo...al-discussion/ (General Forum for Green Cards to Citizenship)


http://www.visajourney.com/forums/ (Main forums)

http://www.visajourney.com/ Home Page


Hope this helps!

Englishmum

Here you go! You need to learn these.....and of course in 5 years time there would definitely be a new President, VP and other govt. officials' names you would need to know!


http://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/Office%20...tions/100q.pdf

Manc

HI

Thanks, I have my interview in St Louis September 20th. Would be nice to do what you did.

Lion in Winter

He's also the genius who posted this about gay men.


http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...5&postcount=16


So we don't exactly have to take his opinions very seriously.

lisa67

congrats

Guindalf

Hardly!

That post is so wrong, politically AND more importantly, factually. I make that comment here in preference to going to the thread and berating him (and risking an infraction for saying what I really mean to say!).

Lion in Winter

It's ok, his idiocy was already pointed out to him there in a fairly unmissable sort of way.

Btw, in my citizenship test I was asked against whom the colonies had rebelled to gain independence. I had hope the officer was displaying a sense of humour, but a quite look at her told me she wasn't so I just answered. I don't know if it was some sort of loyalty test or what.

HighCountry

Congrats! It's only been 2 or 3 years for me, but it seems like decades ago. It's worth it if only to end the renewals and other dealings with the authorities.

Jabba1

Funny, I don't remember paying anything for my citizenship. Oh, that's right, I was born here.

Congratulations on becoming a Yank! Are you going to show off your new American passport on your next trip back to the UK? BTW, next time your in Europe and someone starts slagging off Americans, you can tell them " I happen to be one of those "bloody" Americans! Good day to you sir"

nun

It's far more convenient to keep using your UK passport, but I agree that showing off the American passport would be a very American thing to do.

One of my reasons for taking US citizenship was so that I could apply for jobs that required a security clearance. When I got into the detail of what's required to get the clearance I decided that I didn't want it..... using my UK passport was actually a disqualifier. I still think that it's marginally better for me to have US citizenship; it complicates my financial and tax life, but as all my money is in US accounts I'd be nervous to leave the US without US citizenship.