November 2008 Filers

nzu · April 27, 2009

Updating nzu...Congratulations nzu!

Thanks a lot!

phl_nov08 · April 29, 2009

Ok, back on track yet again.....

New Oath Date 5/8/09

Yeah!! :dance: :dance:

broma25 · April 29, 2009

Ok, back on track yet again.....
New Oath Date 5/8/09

Yeah!! :dance:

Yeah....now hopefully you will get to this one... :dance:

doxATL · April 29, 2009

Ok, back on track yet again.....
New Oath Date 5/8/09

Yeah!!

Good Luck phl, Hopeful this is the good one. :dance: :star: :dance:

lomeshp · April 30, 2009

Congratulations nzu! :thumbs:

updating phl_nov08 interview date... Good Luck!

Name.............Date sent....NOA1.....Biodate...Interview....Oath.....Center..Local Office..Check Cashed

MaryR............10/18/08...11/01/08...11/19/08...--/--/--...--/--/--...NSC....San Juan, PR....10/24/08

myfellah.........11/03/08...11/15/08...11/29/08...02/03/09...03/10/09...NSC....Columns,OH......11/10/08

ziia.............11/03/08...11/08/08...12/03/08...03/17/09...--/--/--...NSC....Chicago, IL.....--/--/--

RightD...........11/04/08...11/12/08...12/12/08...02/23/09...02/23/09...VSC....Baltimore, MD...11/10/08

rwj..............11/05/08...11/13/08...12/04/08...03/18/09...04/10/09...CSC....Reno, NV........11/13/08

phl_nov08........11/05/08...11/10/08...12/10/08...03/20/09...05/08/09...VSC....Philadelphia,PA.11/10/08

k1spain..........11/10/08...11/14/08...12/13/08...05/20/09...--/--/--...NSC....Detroit, MI.....11/12/08

hassan_debbie....11/06/08...11/15/08...12/04/08...02/24/09...02/24/09...TSC....Atlanta, GA.....11/10/08

asid.............11/07/08...11/20/08...12/06/08...04/07/09...05/08/09...VSC....Hartford, CT....11/14/08

duomi............11/07/08...--/--/--...--/--/--...03/03/09...--/--/--...VSC....Fairfax, VA.....11/19/08

JennySala........11/07/08...11/22/08...12/11/08...02/09/09...03/04/09...TSC....Houston, TX.....11/13/08

lomeshp..........11/10/08...11/21/08...12/04/08...03/03/09...03/03/09...TSC....Dallas, TX......11/17/08

Moe_Lisa.........11/10/08...11/18/08...12/10/08...02/23/09...05/08/09...NSC....St. Louis, MO...11/17/08

martingopher.....11/13/08...11/22/08...--/--/--...03/03/09...03/03/09...TSC....Dallas, TX......11/18/08

manty............11/14/08...11/24/08...12/18/08...03/27/09...--/--/--...VSC....Norfolk, VA.....11/17/08

bryand1..........11/15/08...11/22/08...12/10/08...03/05/09...--/--/--...CSC....L.A., CA........--/--/--

TridentMoss......11/15/08...11/19/08...--/--/--...02/17/09...--/--/--...VSC....Washington DC...11/19/08

mavsfans.........11/15/08...11/25/08...12/12/08...03/03/09...03/03/09...TSC....Dallas,TX.......11/25/08

chefdino.........--/--/--...11/20/08...--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...???....????............--/--/-

vital2006........11/18/08...11/28/08...12/11/08...03/31/09...04/03/09...VSC....NYC, NY.........11/21/08

Brian-Charisma...11/20/08...12/12/08...12/24/08...--/--/--...--/--/--...VSC....Charlotte, NC...12/05/08

gennyangel.......11/20/08...--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...CSC....Honolulu, HI....--/--/--

nzu..............11/20/08...12/01/08...--/--/--...03/10/09...04/17/09...CSC....Phoneix, AZ.....11/25/08

doodle...........11/24/08...12/10/08...01/06/09...04/08/09...--/--/--...TSC....Charlotte, NC...12/04/08

haiti............11/24/08...12/08/08...01/06/09...03/26/09...04/17/09...TSC....Greer, SC.......12/04/08

karotte..........11/28/08...12/12/08...--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...CSC....S.F., CA........12/14/08

cloud9villa......11/26/08...12/08/08...12/23/08...02/04/09...03/05/09...VSC....Boston, MA......12/04/08

Merindah13.......11/28/08...12/04/08...12/26/08...05/13/09...--/--/--...VSC....GardenCity, NY..12/04/08

Moe_lisa · May 8, 2009

Finally, Please turn us to red! Had the oath ceremony today and its all done and complete! Had the oath in Jefferson City, MO. Was unorganized and took forever to check them in and get everyone in as it was in a very small court room with 40 applicants taking the oath. Not enough seating for everyone. Hard to get any sort of pictures. Took forever but made it thru it. We are done except for the name change on everything! YEAHHHH!

Good luck to the rest that are still waiting!

Moe and Lisa

phl_nov08 · May 9, 2009

OATH DAY PART 1

8th May at 8 am, the day begins...

It's been a long, grey, rainy and damp week here in Philadelphia. But today it's Oath Day and the sun is shining!!

Plan for the day

1. Head down into the Center City Philadelphia on the train

2. Meet wife at USCIS office

3. Oath Ceremony

4. Champagne

I am taking

1. Camera

2. Oath Letter, need it to get in and also need to answer the questions on the back

3. Green Card

4. Travel itinary, boarding passes and passport in case I need evidence for an international trip I did a couple of weeks ago. It was only 6 days so wont be any issue, but they might ask to see evidence - unlikely, but best to be over prepared.

5. Two passport photos - they phoned me earlier this week, that was a stressful moment when I recognized the caller id, but they only wanted to tell me that they had misplaced my photos for the certificate and that I should bring two more on Friday just in case.

6. Umbrella - chance of rain this afternoon

Dress code - suit and tie for today.

To be continued.......

phl_nov08 · May 9, 2009

OATH DAY Part 2

Later.....

Catch an earlier train that expected, it just rolled in so I hopped on, so I am down town earlier than planned. Hang out again at the Borders Books at Broad St and Chestnut in Center City Philadelphia.

Arrive 15 minutes before start time. My wife beat me there, and was holding my place in the queue. Shock!!

Proceedings were split into two phases

Phase 1 - 2pm - Everybody was called up individually to hand in green card, completed oath form and to check and sign the certificate.

Note on signature - I had previously signed my N-400 with my normal signature, so they said to sign the picture the same way, and finally sign the Certificate also with my normal signature (not full name).

Phase 2 - 3pm - Director arrives, countries are called out and folks from each country stand up (there were about 60 people taking oath, from 30+ countries) today.

Then we do the oath, YEAH!!!!

After that there's some welcome speeches, a video from Janet Napolitano.

Then the call up to get the certificate, followed by lots of photos. There were some folks handing out voter registration forms so I completed one of those and handed it in.

It was a really nice ceremony, kudos to the staff at the Philadelphia office. A great experience..!!!

Finally, we drive down to Rittenhouse Square, and sit outside of Rouge drinking expensive glasses of Champagne and basking in the sun........

phl_nov08 · May 9, 2009

Some day counts for Philadelphia Processing, starting November 2008 to May 2009

From posting N-400 To:

Finger prints = 35 days
Interview Letter = 89 days
Interview Day = 135 days
To 1st Oath Date = 156 days
To third and final Oath Date = 184 days

broma25 · May 9, 2009

OATH DAY Part 2
Later.....

Catch an earlier train that expected, it just rolled in so I hopped on, so I am down town earlier than planned. Hang out again at the Borders Books at Broad St and Chestnut in Center City Philadelphia.

Arrive 15 minutes before start time. My wife beat me there, and was holding my place in the queue. Shock!!

Proceedings were split into two phases

Phase 1 - 2pm - Everybody was called up individually to hand in green card, completed oath form and to check and sign the certificate.

Note on signature - I had previously signed my N-400 with my normal signature, so they said to sign the picture the same way, and finally sign the Certificate also with my normal signature (not full name).

Phase 2 - 3pm - Director arrives, countries are called out and folks from each country stand up (there were about 60 people taking oath, from 30+ countries) today.

Then we do the oath, YEAH!!!!

After that there's some welcome speeches, a video from Janet Napolitano.

Then the call up to get the certificate, followed by lots of photos. There were some folks handing out voter registration forms so I completed one of those and handed it in.

It was a really nice ceremony, kudos to the staff at the Philadelphia office. A great experience..!!!

Finally, we drive down to Rittenhouse Square, and sit outside of Rouge drinking expensive glasses of Champagne and basking in the sun........

Congrats...now for the passport!! :dance: :dance:

asid · May 11, 2009

The journey is finally over. I had the oath ceremony on the 8th in New Haven.

When we got to the courts at 12.20pm the room was almost full and we barely managed to get three seat together. The USCIS officials had already started explaining the process ahead of the 12.30pm scheduled time. The process at the New haven courts seemed very organized. Citizens of 35 countries took the oath that day

- Our names are called and we walk to the front of the room to handover form and green card.

- Then the judge arrives and we take the oath

- The judge then spoke for about 10 mins touching on her immigrant grandparent from Russia, congrats, welcome, etc

- Each person's name is called up again to collect the certificate.

The last person got the certificate by 2pm. There's lots of sitting around waiting for the next step while the USCIS folks sort out all the paperwork.

After reading Phl nov08's comments about the signature, I have a decision to make. I signed my normal signature on the picture that's on the naturalization cert, but at the ceremony the USCIS handed out a sheet of paper that says the Nat. cert is invalid if it is not signed with the full name. It's good to know that the message was different in Philly.

I have an appointment at the CT passport office next week to get a same-day passport as I have a trip at the end of the month. The signature decision will be made by then.

Good luck to everyone still waiting to complete the process. I will miss checking VJ regularly, but see myself checking until all of us Nov08s get done. Cheers

Edited May 11, 2009 by asid

phl_nov08 · May 11, 2009

The journey is finally over. I had the oath ceremony on the 8th in New Haven.
When we got to the courts at 12.20pm the room was almost full and we barely managed to get three seat together. The USCIS officials had already started explaining the process ahead of the 12.30pm scheduled time. The process at the New haven courts seemed very organized. Citizens of 35 countries took the oath that day

- Our names are called and we walk to the front of the room to handover form and green card.

- Then the judge arrives and we take the oath

- The judge then spoke for about 10 mins touching on her immigrant grandparent from Russia, congrats, welcome, etc

- Each person's name is called up again to collect the certificate.

The last person got the certificate by 2pm. There's lots of sitting around waiting for the next step while the USCIS folks sort out all the paperwork.

After reading Phl nov08's comments about the signature, I have a decision to make. I signed my normal signature on the picture that's on the naturalization cert, but at the ceremony the USCIS handed out a sheet of paper that says the Nat. cert is invalid if it is not signed with the full name. It's good to know that the message was different in Philly.

I have an appointment at the CT passport office next week to get a same-day passport as I have a trip at the end of the month. The signature decision will be made by then.

Good luck to everyone still waiting to complete the process. I will miss checking VJ regularly, but see myself checking until all of us Nov08s get done. Cheers

I have seen much conflicting info on this on the various forums and web pages I have searched. You should be able to track down a bunch of threads with the various forum searches and Google.

The advice that I found most believable was that the signature on the certificate should be the same as how you signed the photograph. That just made a lot of sense to me because it's a good confirmation that the photo and the certificate belong together. I did ask before I signed it in Phily and the officers said to sign with normal sig.

But usual cautions apply, I don't know absolutely for sure.

asid · May 11, 2009

I have seen much conflicting info on this on the various forums and web pages I have searched. You should be able to track down a bunch of threads with the various forum searches and Google.

The advice that I found most believable was that the signature on the certificate should be the same as how you signed the photograph. That just made a lot of sense to me because it's a good confirmation that the photo and the certificate belong together. I did ask before I signed it in Phily and the officers said to sign with normal sig.

But usual cautions apply, I don't know absolutely for sure.

Thanks for the additional info. Agree that it makes sense, in my case, to sign my normal signature that is already on the picture. The USCIS official who did the interview told me to sign my normal signature.

Will let you know if I get shut down at the passport office next week.

MsAnn · May 12, 2009

Just wanted to congrat phl_nov08 and asid!!! :dance: :dance: :dance: Thanks for telling your experiences!

Edited May 12, 2009 by MsAnn

lomeshp · May 12, 2009

Congrats to Moe_Lisa, phl_nov08, and asid

Really happy to see this list turning into RED :dance: :dance: :dance: