Elliott

heres my timeline so far, applied to the CA office

Oct 31st 2007 - Sent in N400 (spooky!!)
Jan 21st 2008 - Fingerprints
Jul 22nd 2008 - Interview due date

Ozzidoc

Good luck with the interview Elliott

Elliott

Yes i need to start reading up on what they want to know

Does anyone actually fail the civics test during the interview? and do they make us brits do the english reading test?

Aycee

Good luck, Elliott

I've never read of a civics test failure on any of the message boards.

Yes we still have to write a sentence and read a sentence in English. Seems silly, but I suppose it would be classed as discrimination any other way.

meauxna

Um, yes. And yes. And yes.

Links, tips and hints in the BritishExpats.com wiki article Naturalization US Citizenship Resources.

AlanR

I have a personal friend from the Dominican Republic that failed her civics test the first time. It was when the N-400 fee was $80 (I believe) so a long time back. She failed for arguing with the 'examiner' with respect to some of the given answers.

AlanR

Yes we still have to write a sentence and read a sentence in English. Seems silly, but I suppose it would be classed as discrimination any other way.

More important - you may have to write a sentence in American such as "Red, white and blue are the colors in our flag".....

lizclaire

My local office is Salt Lake City, Utah, I was interviewed on April 10, 2008 and I was approved but until now I'm still waiting my oath letter . If I don't hear anything from them by the middle of this month I'm going to make an infopass appointment.

Does anyone knows when is the Oath Ceremony in Salt Lake City, Utah???
Does anyone here from Salt Lake City still waiting there oath letter????

Thanks

ian-mstm

I'm sure you're referring to the spelling of "colors"... since red, white and blue are also the colours () of the UK flag!

Ian

ian-mstm

It'll take place when they have enough people to fill a room!

Ian

Margueriteuk

Citizenship interview letter arrived!

September 24th 2007 - Mailed N400 application to Laguna Niguel, CA
September 26th 2007 - N400 application arrived at Laguna Niguel, CA
November 2nd 2007 - N400 application cheque cashed
November 30th 2007 - Notice of Action arrived: "180 days until interview"
February 25th 2008 - Notice of Action Fingerprint Appointment Arrived
March 11th 2008 - Fngerprinting appointment, San Antonio, TX
July 8th 2008 - Citizenship Interview appointment letter arrived
July 28th 2008 - Citizenship Interview, San Antonio, TX

Aycee

I reached the end of the immigration road at last on 25 July. I've adapted a blog post of mine to include here, in case it might be of interest to others in future.

This Oath Ceremony was held at the Federal Courthouse in Oklahoma City. I'm sure in other venues some details will vary - but this was how things unfolded for me:~~~~~~~~~

On Friday, 25 July 2008, the Naturalization Ceremony proceeded as planned, though with much unexpected waiting time. The appointment was for 9.30 am.

After staying just south of the city center overnight Thursday, we set off downtown around 8am, Friday and found a carpark close to our venue. We listened to the car radio until 9, then wandered up to the Courthouse. A few people had already arrived and were going through the usual "take off your shoes and walk through the archway, empty your pockets, take off your belt, and put your bags here to go through the scanner" routine. We joined them, duly passed through, having been proved pure and without sin.

The Ceremonial Courtroom is on the 3rd floor. Already in the corridor a group of people had gathered and were being informed by an official of proceedings to come. She said that the actual ceremony would not start until 12 noon, there would be a large number of applicants. Paperwork must first be processed. Meanwhile family and friends could wait in an adjoining courtroom, or visit a snack bar on the ground floor.

After a while I moved into the designated courtroom to await arrival of INS officials, my husband waited in the courtroom nextdoor. The paperwork, I eventually found out, entailed waiting to be called up to INS officials at a bank of desks, hand in our greencards, check and sign our Naturalization Certificates, and be handed a form to make the change in our Social Security status. We were also given a seat number for the ceremony. A separate bank of seats for the 140 applicants was arranged to the right of the judges' bench. Paperwork processing seemed interminable, it was well over an hour before my own name was called.

At 11.30 applicants were told to take their seats, according to the number they'd been given (mine was 69 - no sly grins please!) By this time my husband had managed to slide into a seat towards the back of the Ceremonial Courtroom, now filling rapidly with families and friends of applicants. The overflow, and there was a large one, was accommodated in another court equipped with a large screen for viewing the ceremony.

At exactly noon, five judges filed in. Everyone rose as the judges took their places on the bench. The chief judge, a female, welcomed us, said a few words then handed over to a designated INS official to "present" the 140 applicants who came, we were told, from 42 different countries. The official spoke briefly then named, in alphapbetical order, the native countries of all the applicants, asking each to stand when their country was called. I was the only one of the 140 from the UK. Every continent was represented. This, of course, was just one of many similar ceremonies, held monthly in three areas of Oklahoma, and regularly in every one of the other 49 states. I find this a mind-boggling proposition!

Next, we, the applicants, were asked to stand, raise our right hands, and repeat after the Clerk of the Court the words of the Oath of Allegiance. Each of the five judges then spoke briefly, after which the Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all present. The judges then left and a video of President G.W. Bush, welcoming us as new citizens, was shown, followed by another video of scenes of American life, a patriotic song playing in the background.

I hadn't expected to feel as emotional as I did. I joked later that it was the sight of G.W. Bush that made my cry, but I lied. I had an overwhelming sense of the nobility of the original vision for the United States, as I sat there in the midst of 140 people, born in so many different countries. Many of my companions had experienced a far greater struggle than I'd had to reach this point. There have been broken dreams and wrong turnings, but beneath it all, I'm confident that vision remains intact.

Applicants were then asked to file out in seat number order to officially receive their Certificates of Naturalization, and some other paperwork, along with a small US flag.

Reunited with my husband, I was happy to see that his son, daughter-in-law and grandson had also been present in the adjoining room watching the ceremony. We all went off to enjoy a celebration lunch, by-passing a huge and very slow-moving line of folks waiting to process their Social Security amendments at a desk out in the corridor. We decided to deal with this little matter at our local office early next week, rather than wait for what could be a further hour or two at the court.

A remark of one of the judges has stayed with me. His words: "The United States of America is no longer just your home, now it is your country."

My timeline
Marriage Visa obtained 31 August 2004 (DCF London)
Entered USA 25 October 2004
Conditions removed August 2006
N400 to TSC - 26 July 2007
PO confirmed signed for - 30 July 2007
Cheque cashed - 19 November 2007
NOA -Rec'd 26 Nov 2007 (Notice date 20 Nov)
PD - 27July 2007
FP -Notice received 6 December
FP Appt. 17 Dec. 2007
FP re-do appointment 22 January 2008
IL received 25 February 2008
Interview date 11 April 2008 1.05PM OKC
Interview postponed on day of attendance
New interview date 19 June 2008
Oath Ceremony 25 July 2008

jokeworm

Whoo hoo !! Congrats .. nice write-up.

Probably a good call on the social security thing ... i got a letter from them around 10 days after my ceremony telling me that some of my information (that they had collected on the day of the ceremony) was incorrect ..

When i got to the office in Tulsa .. it took me 10 mins total from walking in the door .. to figure out what the problem was and get everything processed ... and to be back out the door and on our way back home ... as opposed to the hour or so i had waited in line at the ceremony ...

The afterglow will probably stay with you for a couple of weeks now ... and then .. if you are anything like me .. you will slip back in to your cynical old self

Thanks for the update .. it was nice having someone with a similar timeline to bounce things off throughout the whole process.



Jokeworm.

Aycee

Hi Jokeworm

LOL! yes - it won't take much to bring back the cynicism, especially in election year!

I forgot to add in the post above - thanks to you and everyone who posts here for the moral support and information gleaned, throughout the whole journey. It was especially nice, and helpful to have found someone else in OK - we seem to be thin on the ground among message board enthusiasts!

Warm wishes for the future!

meauxna

Congratulations, Aycee!!! Welcome to the fold, and thanks so much for the detailed report!

I'll refer all fellow Okies to you in the future.