Interview Notice - Finally!

[DDL 1]

It's finally arrived! My husband's interview notice. Nov. 6, 2008 is the date. We are so excited! It's been such a long, long wait for us.

[DDL 1]

By the way, I just wanted to point out that according to the Charleston SC Field Office their N-400 processing date is March 27, 2007. Our N-400 priority date is August 13, 2007 so - as we have been "warned" many times in this forum - don't put too much stock into the processing dates we see on USCIS websites

Edited September 29, 2008 by DDL

[Mina76 0]

Congratulations and Best of Luck on the Interview!!!

[moonhunt 1]

It's finally arrived! My husband's interview notice. Nov. 6, 2008 is the date. We are so excited! It's been such a long, long wait for us.

Good luck on your hurby's interview!

I wish best luck for the interview, so it won't cause any further problem/delay any more. ^^

[NickD 202]

It's finally arrived! My husband's interview notice. Nov. 6, 2008 is the date. We are so excited! It's been such a long, long wait for us.

Heard life was a little slower down south, but an additional ten month wait is ridiculous. But far improved from what is was one or two years ago. Ha, any changes since you have sent in your application? Well, we have ten children now, and 50 grandkids, and we both been retired now for fifteen years, they also invented electricity and the printing press, oh, and we traded our horse in for one of those new fangled horseless carriages.

Now for the civics test, who is the president of the United States?

Teddy Roosevelt was when we applied, let's see, (counting on fingers).

Good luck is not running into traffic jams and getting a fair interviewer, the rest is up to you, should be taking the old 96 question civics test yet. Recently been sticky on tax returns with 1099's and W2's, but who knows what will be their bug this week.

[DDL 1]

It's finally arrived! My husband's interview notice. Nov. 6, 2008 is the date. We are so excited! It's been such a long, long wait for us.

Heard life was a little slower down south, but an additional ten month wait is ridiculous. But far improved from what is was one or two years ago. Ha, any changes since you have sent in your application? Well, we have ten children now, and 50 grandkids, and we both been retired now for fifteen years, they also invented electricity and the printing press, oh, and we traded our horse in for one of those new fangled horseless carriages.

Now for the civics test, who is the president of the United States?

Teddy Roosevelt was when we applied, let's see, (counting on fingers).

Good luck is not running into traffic jams and getting a fair interviewer, the rest is up to you, should be taking the old 96 question civics test yet. Recently been sticky on tax returns with 1099's and W2's, but who knows what will be their bug this week.

LOL Very good!

We knew that the Charleston office was one of the slowest in the country, but I must admit it's been very trying. Unfortunately, we were one of those whose application was submitted just after the fee increase. Alas.

Thanks for the good wishes, everyone! Now we just hope that they don't schedule the swearing in ceremony the week after Thanksgiving while we're away on our cruise!

[Oasis 0]

Woa that sure is a long wait.

I applied way after you guys and I am done.

Maybe it took so long because of the mass applications they received last July.

Congrats and best of luck on your interciew. Keep us posted.

[*JG* 2]

Congrats.

[DDL 1]

My husband's US Citizenship Interview/Exam was held 06 Nov at the Charleston SC Field Office. His interview was scheduled for 10:20am. Despite there being hardly anyone in the waiting room, it took 30 minutes before he was called back.

The interviewer reviewed his paperwork and as he was signing certain papers, she was asking him the test questions. He answered the first six correctly so she did not proceed with asking him the other four questions that were on the computer screen. He said they were easy questions - mostly about the US flag, who was the current President, etc.

In reviewing his file, she specifically asked him how many times he had been married (3) and how many times I had been married (this is my 3rd marriage as well). My husband said that the interviewer was very good at spotting - and then clarifying - things that she was not 100% clear about.

Everything was moving along well until ..... she looked at the sheet that listed his children (he has 6 - all adults except for the youngest, a 16-year old son). She asked, "Where does (son's name) live?" to which he replied, "In England with his mum." To make a very long (and nerve-wracking) story short, she brought into question my husband's "good character" (a requirement for US citizenship) because when asked, he told her that he did not pay child support. He explained to her that his ex-wife is remarried, financially independent, and that he and his ex-wife have had an understanding since the day of their divorce that there would be no child support. My husband has, over the years, provided on his own in many, many ways for his son - and continues to do so. But this was apparently a red flag. She looked at the UK divorce decree (which had no mention of child support) and then she left the room to talk with her supervisor. She eventually returned, and did not mention anything more.

Finally, she stamped his sheet APPROVED and told him to return at 1:30 for the oath ceremony which was a HUGE surprise to us because we didn't think the ceremony would be on the same day. Apparently, they are processing close to twenty applications a day in Charleston and doing daily oath ceremonies to keep things from backing up any worse than they already are.

The oath ceremony ended up taking place at about 2:30 - it took that long for everyone to review their Naturalization Certificates and sign. All the applicants raised their right hands and read aloud the oath from a piece of paper, recited the Pledge of Allegiance together, then were called up one at a time (they were seated in their A-number order) to receive their certificate. We were allowed to take pictures throughout the entire ceremony. I think there were 17 or 18 people - from places like the UK, South Africa, China, Canada, India, Russia, and a couple of other countries. It was all over by 3:00, and both me and hubby had to return to work.

We have since applied for his US passport, and will go to Social Security office to change of status from Permanent Resident to US Citizen; apply for his voter registration form; etc. We're withholding any "official" celebration of his citizenship until our cruise to the Bahamas in two weeks!

We can't believe this 52-month journey is finally over. It started with an I-130 in London in July 2004, and ended with an N-550 in Charleston in November 2008. We could never have done this so efficiently if it weren't for this forum and the support, encouragement, help, advice - AND FRIENDLINESS - of everyone here. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

Fondly,

Denise and Tony

Charleston, SC

P.S. to Moderators: I've updated our Timeline.