can i bring reading/writing materials to oath ceremony

[Kajikit 65]

We could bring anything we wanted to the ceremony... I was going to bring my kindle, but we ended up so late that I didn't have time to do anything and I left it in the car. A notebook and pen is no problem, but you're not going to be doing much writing standing in line with a million other people. (my purse had my camera, phone, etc in it and there was no comment on any of the electronic gizmos.)

Edited March 23, 2012 by Kajikit

[Kajikit 65]

To those who think it was a special 'life-changing day', it's just another piece of bureaucracy and red tape. I'm not saying I didn't want to do it, but I would have been just as happy if I could have been handed my certificate of citizenship at the same time as I had my interview (just last week!) even if it meant sitting around all day. For one thing, last week I had ALL my paperwork with me in case they wanted to see it, and today I left half of it at home! Being penned up in a room with 165 strangers, plus their friends, and watching a few pre-recorded videos is not my idea of a great time. (it would have been a lot more meaningful to me if they'd let me sit beside my loved one instead of having him where we couldn't even see each other in the distance! The whole point of our journey is to spend our lives together side-by-side, after all.)

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

We all have our own style. I work at Kentucky Fried Chicken and 'cause I had to go straight to work after the ceremony I wore my chicken costume to the Oath Ceremony. Boy, did I get weird looks. I mean all those losers are eating chicken anyway, but when they see a large chicken doing what chickens do, they act irritated. So the obese black girl asked me to remove the head and boy did I tell her to shove it!

Then, when waiting for Obama to appear, I watched porn on my iPad. The lady next to me rolled her eyes like she didn't like it, and I told her I'm not doing anything she ain't doin' at home, right? So I told her to hug herself. Then came the judge and he looked really . . . I mean . . . where do they find these people? So he talks and I get annoyed and crank up my iTunes. Must have been louder than I thought, 'cause several people shisht at me. I mean . . . what wrong with those guys? All in all, it was pretty lame from start to finish. Then they wanted me to give 'em my Green Card and I told 'em over my dead body #######! I finally left and can't really recommend doing this #######. No fun.

[karin_brenig 18]

We all have our own style. I work at Kentucky Fried Chicken and 'cause I had to go straight to work after the ceremony I wore my chicken costume to the Oath Ceremony. Boy, did I get weird looks. I mean all those losers are eating chicken anyway, but when they see a large chicken doing what chickens do, they act irritated. So the obese black girl asked me to remove the head and boy did I tell her to shove it!

Then, when waiting for Obama to appear, I watched porn on my iPad. The lady next to me rolled her eyes like she didn't like it, and I told her I'm not doing anything she ain't doin' at home, right? So I told her to hug herself. Then came the judge and he looked really . . . I mean . . . where do they find these people? So he talks and I get annoyed and crank up my iTunes. Must have been louder than I thought, 'cause several people shisht at me. I mean . . . what wrong with those guys? All in all, it was pretty lame from start to finish. Then they wanted me to give 'em my Green Card and I told 'em over my dead body #######! I finally left and can't really recommend doing this #######. No fun.

very funny, Brother but hey, like you said, everybody has their own style.

[SydneytoWaco 0]

We all have our own style. I work at Kentucky Fried Chicken and 'cause I had to go straight to work after the ceremony I wore my chicken costume to the Oath Ceremony. Boy, did I get weird looks. I mean all those losers are eating chicken anyway, but when they see a large chicken doing what chickens do, they act irritated. So the obese black girl asked me to remove the head and boy did I tell her to shove it!

Then, when waiting for Obama to appear, I watched porn on my iPad. The lady next to me rolled her eyes like she didn't like it, and I told her I'm not doing anything she ain't doin' at home, right? So I told her to hug herself. Then came the judge and he looked really . . . I mean . . . where do they find these people? So he talks and I get annoyed and crank up my iTunes. Must have been louder than I thought, 'cause several people shisht at me. I mean . . . what wrong with those guys? All in all, it was pretty lame from start to finish. Then they wanted me to give 'em my Green Card and I told 'em over my dead body #######! I finally left and can't really recommend doing this #######. No fun.

I'm glad that not every (former) German feels an unquestioning loyalty to the state!

[Caroline and Phil 14]

We all have our own style. I work at Kentucky Fried Chicken and 'cause I had to go straight to work after the ceremony I wore my chicken costume to the Oath Ceremony. Boy, did I get weird looks. I mean all those losers are eating chicken anyway, but when they see a large chicken doing what chickens do, they act irritated. So the obese black girl asked me to remove the head and boy did I tell her to shove it!

Then, when waiting for Obama to appear, I watched porn on my iPad. The lady next to me rolled her eyes like she didn't like it, and I told her I'm not doing anything she ain't doin' at home, right? So I told her to hug herself. Then came the judge and he looked really . . . I mean . . . where do they find these people? So he talks and I get annoyed and crank up my iTunes. Must have been louder than I thought, 'cause several people shisht at me. I mean . . . what wrong with those guys? All in all, it was pretty lame from start to finish. Then they wanted me to give 'em my Green Card and I told 'em over my dead body #######! I finally left and can't really recommend doing this #######. No fun.

[NickD 202]

Stepdaughters oath ceremony went pretty fast for me, first she came home from college, said, you aren't going to your oath ceremony dressed like Brother Hesekiel, good thing her mom is the same size. 225 mile drive was a bit tense, road conditions said icy roads on the interstate, but one lane was clear so made pretty good time. At St. Paul, this time let the three of us wait together in line so we could talk. Tried to strike up a conversation with the people ahead and behind us asking where they were from, but maybe they thought I was from the CIA, or worse yet, from the USCIS.

This time the oath ceremony was in the basement, a large auditorium with very comfortable seats, didn't know I could fall asleep sitting up, but I did. Wife woke me when it was over, just told my daughter, let me see your certificate to check for errors, didn't want to crank out another 400 bucks. Looked good, so we left.

Only thought was getting a cup of coffee, what, no refreshments at these ceremonies? Couldn't even find a coffee machine, so drove over the the Mall of America, first thing my stepdaughter wanted to do was to change back into her chicken outfit, actually it was more of a kind of outfit those Playboy bunnies wear. They took off for shopping, I found one of those cinnamon roll coffee shops. Was eight bucks for bitter cup of coffee and an atomic sized roll, but what the heck, this is a very special day.

Stepdaughter slept all the way home, had to leave to go back to college and study all night for that day she missed. From the time we left and got home, was a long 17 hour day. While I submitted beautiful photos of her, they used a photo taken at her biometrics printed with a cheap ink jet printer that was awfully blurry. Signature was by a rubber stamp by the then current acting director, all that to get this cheap piece of paper. For the biometrics, interview, and oath ceremony, was another 1,350 of driving for us to listen to a guy telling us to conserve on energy, but welcome to the USA. But never in person, just on a 27" old fashion CRT TV set.