My experience @ LA Convention Center.

[Trk393 1]

I hope this is the right place to post this. Id just like to thank all of you here for the help you've given me. The least I could do is offer my experience as to how it all played out. My oath ceremony was at the LA Convention center, over 6,000 people were expected to be there. Anyways I got there at 6AM, now, coming early is a double edged sword, you will be first to get processed and seated and you will be one of the first to get your certificate and leave, however, you'll be standing for 2 hours. Im not even kidding here, standing for 2 hours in 1 place is harder than it sounds, so its up to you. If someone is weak or sick they won't be able to make it standing for that long, I could tell some people were about to fall and my legs were killing me at this point.

1 hour into waiting for it to begin, someone comes out, it was a immigration officer. I was really happy thinking we would begin to start moving, but nope, they asked everyone to split up, only guests were allowed to go inside and sit first. Another hour later applicants turn came, they asked us to have our green card and letters in our hand and to enter. Finally we went inside the auditorium which had a huge row of immigration officers sitting in front of desks with numbers on the wall. I went up, showed my green card and letter, he's like "Oh wow expired" with a smile on his face, my green card expired years ago.

Anyways, he started asking me questions from the back of the oath ceremony letter. Be careful here, all of the answers to the questions on the back of the letter should be NO, however the immigration officer can word it differently when he asks you the question in person, for example, one of the questions on the back of the oath ceremony letter which you are required to fill out goes something like this "Have you changed your mind to bear arms?", the answer should be NO, however the immigration officer said "Will you bear arms for the united states", I asked him to repeat it, he said it again, I said yes. So make sure you listen carefully to the questions and not to say NO to everything he says lol.

After that, he wrote a BIG OK on the letter, and the number of the desk I needed to goto to pick up the certificate after. He punched a hole in my green card, stapled it to my letter and asked me to go sit down. I was in the front row. An immigration officer was walking down one of the rows and looked at us and said "You guys have the best seat in the house".

Now the longest part came, waiting for everyone to arrive. During this time, someone came and passed out voter registration cards. Now the strange part about this was, he said it in a way where everyone thought it was REQUIRED to fill out. I believe he said "Make sure you fill out this voter registration card because we will picking them up when the judge is finished" And when I asked the person handing out the voter registration cards if I could fill it out at home, he said "I can't tell you that", which was odd.

At this point everyone scrambled to fill out the voter registration card thinking it was required. So we're waiting for everyone to arrive, you'd be amazed how late some were. Finally around 9:30 it began, a judge came out and said that this was now a court room, something along those lines, asked everyone to rise and to raise their right hand and to repeat after him. After that he congratulated us on being citizens. A short video of obama came on, and then a "proud to be american" music video.

After that it was all over. I was indeed one of the first to get my certificate and leave. Trust me you'll wan't to get there real early, those who came near the end or even on-time were going to spend a very long time getting out of there. Some people were trying to cut in line and you could hear someone talking over the intercom saying "If you cut in line, we'll make sure you'll be the last to leave" lol.

Oh, and filling out the voter registration card is not required, but I guess they word it in a way where they wan't you to think you have to fill it out right there and then. So now im a US citizen, finally. Thanks again everyone and Godspeed.

Edited February 24, 2012 by Trk393

[N400-2011 24]

Congratulations!

[HuffyTheSlayer 22]

Congratulations, Trk393! I really appreciate you sharing your experience, it was really helpful. I hope to be going through this in a few months time so it's great to know what will happen. We were thinking of bringing our son, but it doesn't sound like that would be a good idea with all the waiting around, etc. So we will start to make other plans for him.

[arvinb 17]

Congratulations! I have my interview in LA in less than 2 weeks... do you mind telling your n400 story? When you applied, complications with your application, when your interview was, what the process was like, and how long between interview and oath?

[Kajikit 65]

Congratulations. But I'm glad that Fort Lauderdale is a lot quieter than LA... I'd go stark screaming mad if I had to go through the oath ceremony with 6000 people pressed in around me. Not to mention standing in line for three hours. I have trouble standing still in one place for more than 15 minutes.