Portland, OR judicial oath ceremony

[sciencenerd 56]

My wife had her oath ceremony this week in Portland, OR and I was asked to share some details for folks who are in the citizenship process in Portland. Since she got her name changed, the ceremony had to be a judicial ceremony rather than the regular one. In Portland, judicial oath ceremonies take place once a month (it seems the 3rd Thursday of the month at 8:30 is standard) at the federal courthouse downtown. This will have way more detail than most people will care about, but I hope it's helpful for folks in Portland who will have a judicial ceremony.

We arrived around 8:00 and went through security. We took the elevator up to the top floor and there were already several other people waiting for it. There are floor to ceiling windows so lots of people were checking out the view cause you could see lots of downtown and the West Hills. At exactly 8:30, they opened the doors to the courtroom and everyone went in. At first, everyone (the soon-to-be citizens and their friends/family) had to sit in the benches and there wasn't enough room for everybody. The MC then went to the front to tell everyone there would be enough room once they called everyone up.

He said it was their favorite thing to do at the courthouse and they were happy to have all of us there. He said we were all free to take photos and video and for family/friends to feel free to step outside in the hall if your baby was crying or you needed to take a call. They then had some people talk about the importance of voting and went through exactly how to fill out the voter registration form. Then he started calling people one by one and they went to the front desk and turned in their green card and the naturalization letter (with all the questions on the back) before taking a seat. They were given a packet with lots of new citizen materials. Most people filled out the voter registration form while they were in their seat (but they had to wait to check off the "I am a US Citizen" part until after the ceremony). This part took quite a while since there were about 55 people to get through. Note that there was one family where both parents were becoming citizens and their daughter (about 4 years old) had to stay back and sit on the benches without her parents the whole time. She did great, but if you have a kid, definitely make sure you bring another adult to hang out with them during the ceremony. There was also one person who was asked to reschedule because she spoke no English and could not understand the questions on the back of the naturalization letter. We felt so bad for her!

Once all of the soon-to-be citizens were seated, a couple speakers from local groups said a few words congratulating everyone and encouraging them to get involved locally. Then the judge came in and welcomed everyone. They had each person stand and say their name and their country of origin. After that they did the oath followed by the pledge of allegiance (they had one of the new citizens volunteer to lead that). Then there was someone there to sing the Star Spangled Banner. There was a paper with the words to all three (oath, pledge, song) in the packets, but they neglected to tell anyone and people were definitely winging it. The judge spoke for a couple minutes about how the ceremony was especially meaningful to him as his grandfathers on both sides were immigrants. He said some things about everyone being citizens of America now but that didn't mean they had to give up the rich language and traditions that they came from. After that they gave everyone their naturalization certificate and name change documentation.

That was pretty much it. We were out of there about 10:15 or so. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions I didn't answer in this.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Thank you for posting this and congratulations!