N-400 October 2014

[amna-h 7]

deidre congratulations for getting through the interview!!

[SunnyCalifornian 6]

Good Morning Everyone!!

So i just completed my Interview & Test this morning! Success!! At least that what i think lol... unfortunately here at the Tampa office their "computer system isnt working today" and therefore they are unable to give out any determinations or print out of approval etc doh! but IO said that i passed everything and it all looks good, Ill get a notice in the mail.

So here is my experience:

My interview was set for 9am, I arrived at approx 8:15am so i stayed in my car to review my paperwork and go over civics questions, at about 8:30am i walked inside. As soon as you open the door, the security checkpoint is right there, they ask for your notice, shoes off etc etc and walk thru their checkpoint just like you do at an airport, then a couple of feet to the right is the Check-In Desk, so walked right up, they asked for the notice and got checked in (the guy said to the other lady at the desk "ive got 40 now", and she said "ive got 39", as they looked at their list of names), i was then told to go to the waiting area to the right.

Waiting area was large, at least 100-150 people could fit in there, and on one side were "booth windows" whereby if you had an InfoPass Appt you would go there. This morning there was maybe 40 people or so. At the end of the waiting area was a door where the IO's would come out and call names... was kinda funny to see everyone look up each time the door would open (incl myself!). I was surprised to see that peoples' names were called but no one ever came up to them, at least 4 or 5 times diferent names being called out but no one to be seen...

Finally I was called up, i was relieved to see my IO was smiling and pleasant (after all the horror stories ive heard lol), went thru the door and we walked down to her office. She asked me to take a seat for a moment while she finished up something on another persons file. Then when she was done, she asked me, "ok please stand up and raise your right hand... etc etc". Sat back down. Thats when she told me their computer system isnt working, but she'll be able to tell me if i pass everything. She asked me for my PR Card, Drivers License & Passport. She then asked me to confirm if it was me in the 2 photos i provided with the N400, and if thats my signature, and if my signature was the same on all the documents and IDs. Yes to all. She then asked for me to sign on the front of my photos on the left side edge with a sharpie. Done!... interesting to note, the IO did NOT look inside my passport or even a close look at my ID & PR Card.

So then she went over my N400 - reconfirming my name, address, age, where i work, where i live. She picked questions at random from the questions i answered on the N400 and would read these out, ticking off the ones she asked ensuring that i replied verbally the same answers i marked (the whole time she is looking down reading and marking). She asked my marital status, i told her i was divorced. She looked up and asked to see if there was any other document from the divorce in additon to what i submitted, i told her no thats all i was given by my lawyer and i tokk out the real copies and showed her, she glanced at them and said OK... she asked why I divorced, and told her that my Ex-Spouse cheated. (She never asked me for dates of marriage or separatin, only for the divorce).

She asked about travel outside US and when my last time was, then if i have any kids "no", ever used a different name "no", did i change my name after i married "no", and if i want to keep my original name or change it "yes keep my own name please" lol..

Then she looked back down at my N400 and continued asking randomly picked "NO" questions, kept marking as i was answering. Then she looked up and asked "have i ever been a prostitute"..no.. "have i ever married someone to get immigration status"...no.. "have i ever lied to get benefits"...no.. then looked back down.. "have i ever been to jail" ...no..."have i ever received a traffic ticket from a police officer", i said "yes", she looked up and then asked "when", and i replied "about 4 to 5 years ago", she said "ok"... and kept it going...onto the "YES" answer questions...

Tick tick tick, a few notes, then "please read the first line"... "Who Lives in the White House?" and then "please write on line number two 'Native Americans were the first to live here'". Done !. Then, while she was signing and stamping, she asks me a question, now realizing we are up to the civics portion... questions asked were:

1. What is the Rule of Law?

2. Who is your States Governor?

3. What are two national holidays?

4. Who wrote the Declaration of Independance?

5. Who was the first President?

6. What ocean in on the East Coast?

All done! She then asked for me to read out the Oath, and then asked me to also sign the last few pages. Then said "ok now remember i cant give you an official document today but you did good. If there is anything i need i will be in touch with you, but everything looks to be in order. So you will receive a notice with the final judgement". She then organized my file and said she will walk me to the door at the end of the hallway.

We walked to the door, i said thanks and shook her hand, she walked back and i went back out the door (again so funny because when i walked out, there were alot more people in the waiting area and everyone had eyes on me... sorry yall im not an IO!) lol

So.... yipppeeeeee all done. Less than 20 minutes in and out. Now i have the day off to relax! i have no worries about my result as everything was positive and did not sense at all that the IO was concerned about any topic we covered. Now the waiting of the Notice in the Mail begins

Congrats!! I had my interview yesterday, and I also didn't receive anything in writing, but my I.O. didn't mention a problem with the system. Maybe that was also the case. Hopefully we'll receive our Oath notice very soon!

[MayoKy 10]

Congrats Deidre

Hope you get your Oath letter soon I didnt get an approval letter either after my interview! just the verbal "you passed and should get your oath letter soon. 6 days letter my online status changed and another week later I had my oath letter in hand Fingers crossed

Good Morning Everyone!!

So i just completed my Interview & Test this morning! Success!! At least that what i think lol... unfortunately here at the Tampa office their "computer system isnt working today" and therefore they are unable to give out any determinations or print out of approval etc doh! but IO said that i passed everything and it all looks good, Ill get a notice in the mail.

So here is my experience:

My interview was set for 9am, I arrived at approx 8:15am so i stayed in my car to review my paperwork and go over civics questions, at about 8:30am i walked inside. As soon as you open the door, the security checkpoint is right there, they ask for your notice, shoes off etc etc and walk thru their checkpoint just like you do at an airport, then a couple of feet to the right is the Check-In Desk, so walked right up, they asked for the notice and got checked in (the guy said to the other lady at the desk "ive got 40 now", and she said "ive got 39", as they looked at their list of names), i was then told to go to the waiting area to the right.

Waiting area was large, at least 100-150 people could fit in there, and on one side were "booth windows" whereby if you had an InfoPass Appt you would go there. This morning there was maybe 40 people or so. At the end of the waiting area was a door where the IO's would come out and call names... was kinda funny to see everyone look up each time the door would open (incl myself!). I was surprised to see that peoples' names were called but no one ever came up to them, at least 4 or 5 times diferent names being called out but no one to be seen...

Finally I was called up, i was relieved to see my IO was smiling and pleasant (after all the horror stories ive heard lol), went thru the door and we walked down to her office. She asked me to take a seat for a moment while she finished up something on another persons file. Then when she was done, she asked me, "ok please stand up and raise your right hand... etc etc". Sat back down. Thats when she told me their computer system isnt working, but she'll be able to tell me if i pass everything. She asked me for my PR Card, Drivers License & Passport. She then asked me to confirm if it was me in the 2 photos i provided with the N400, and if thats my signature, and if my signature was the same on all the documents and IDs. Yes to all. She then asked for me to sign on the front of my photos on the left side edge with a sharpie. Done!... interesting to note, the IO did NOT look inside my passport or even a close look at my ID & PR Card.

So then she went over my N400 - reconfirming my name, address, age, where i work, where i live. She picked questions at random from the questions i answered on the N400 and would read these out, ticking off the ones she asked ensuring that i replied verbally the same answers i marked (the whole time she is looking down reading and marking). She asked my marital status, i told her i was divorced. She looked up and asked to see if there was any other document from the divorce in additon to what i submitted, i told her no thats all i was given by my lawyer and i tokk out the real copies and showed her, she glanced at them and said OK... she asked why I divorced, and told her that my Ex-Spouse cheated. (She never asked me for dates of marriage or separatin, only for the divorce).

She asked about travel outside US and when my last time was, then if i have any kids "no", ever used a different name "no", did i change my name after i married "no", and if i want to keep my original name or change it "yes keep my own name please" lol..

Then she looked back down at my N400 and continued asking randomly picked "NO" questions, kept marking as i was answering. Then she looked up and asked "have i ever been a prostitute"..no.. "have i ever married someone to get immigration status"...no.. "have i ever lied to get benefits"...no.. then looked back down.. "have i ever been to jail" ...no..."have i ever received a traffic ticket from a police officer", i said "yes", she looked up and then asked "when", and i replied "about 4 to 5 years ago", she said "ok"... and kept it going...onto the "YES" answer questions...

Tick tick tick, a few notes, then "please read the first line"... "Who Lives in the White House?" and then "please write on line number two 'Native Americans were the first to live here'". Done !. Then, while she was signing and stamping, she asks me a question, now realizing we are up to the civics portion... questions asked were:

1. What is the Rule of Law?
2. Who is your States Governor?
3. What are two national holidays?
4. Who wrote the Declaration of Independance?
5. Who was the first President?
6. What ocean in on the East Coast?

All done! She then asked for me to read out the Oath, and then asked me to also sign the last few pages. Then said "ok now remember i cant give you an official document today but you did good. If there is anything i need i will be in touch with you, but everything looks to be in order. So you will receive a notice with the final judgement". She then organized my file and said she will walk me to the door at the end of the hallway.

We walked to the door, i said thanks and shook her hand, she walked back and i went back out the door (again so funny because when i walked out, there were alot more people in the waiting area and everyone had eyes on me... sorry yall im not an IO!) lol

So.... yipppeeeeee all done. Less than 20 minutes in and out. Now i have the day off to relax! i have no worries about my result as everything was positive and did not sense at all that the IO was concerned about any topic we covered. Now the waiting of the Notice in the Mail begins

Congrats SunnyCalifornian Hope you get your oath letter soon! I didn't get anything either from my IO after my interview but he told me verbally that I had passed

Congrats!! I had my interview yesterday, and I also didn't receive anything in writing, but my I.O. didn't mention a problem with the system. Maybe that was also the case. Hopefully we'll receive our Oath notice very soon!

[deidre 13]

Swweeeet!! I'll be checking my online status daily lol thanks yall... I'll update as things change...

[NikosF 6]

I had my interview this morning so a quick update on my experience.

I was interviewed at the Chicago office. My appointment was for 8.30am and I arrived at the building at about 8.20. After going through security I went straight up to the 3rd floor and checked in. The time stamp for my check in was 8.25. I was given a pager and told to wait near door 2.

After about 20 minutes my pager number was called by the officer - a very nice Polish lady.

She showed me into her office, before sitting down she made me swear in and asked for my driving license, green card and all passports.

She checked my name then proceeded to the 'exam'. I was asked 6 questions, I don't remember them all, but of the ones I remember:

- How many voting representatives are there?

- For how long do we elect a representative?

- Who is the chief justice of the supreme court?

- Who is the father of our nation?

- In which month do we vote for the President?

The list appeared to have been computer generated, so it didn't seem she had chosen the questions herself.

I was then asked to read a sentence and write out : "In what month do we elect President". I asked her if it was OK to write, what I thought was grammatically superior "elect THE President" and she laughed and told me that I needed to learn how to dumb down my English now that I was going to be an American. Having moved from Europe herself where she had been educated in "British English" she told me about her experience not being understood.

We then reviewed the answers in my N400, made a few amendments (like my cell phone number that had changed), signed the photographs and the form in two places and that was it.

I wasn't asked for any original paperwork (I had a whole file with me).

At the end she congratulated me, told me I would be coming back to the same building for my oath, reminded me I wasn't a citizen until after the oath ceremony, that I needed to update my details with the SSA after the oath (she learned the hard way herself apparently).

I got a 'certificate form' to review - with my personal details. She kept that.

I then got a N-652 form "Naturalization Interview Results" - showing that I passed the test and the box next to "Congratulations! Your application has been recommended for approval" was ticked.

I have to now wait for the oath letter in the mail.

All in all, very painless. I was out of the building and on the street by 9.17am.

Good luck to all the other October filers.

Edited February 4, 2015 by NikosF

[SunnyCalifornian 6]

I had my interview this morning so a quick update on my experience.

I was interviewed at the Chicago office. My appointment was for 8.30am and I arrived at the building at about 8.20. After going through security I went straight up to the 3rd floor and checked in. The time stamp for my check in was 8.25. I was given a pager and told to wait near door 2.

After about 20 minutes my pager number was called by the officer - a very nice Polish lady.

She showed me into her office, before sitting down she made me swear in and asked for my driving license, green card and all passports.

She checked my name then proceeded to the 'exam'. I was asked 6 questions, I don't remember them all, but of the ones I remember:

- How many voting representatives are there?

- For how long do we elect a representative?

- Who is the chief justice of the supreme court?

- Who is the father of our nation?

The list appeared to have been computer generated, so it didn't seem she had chosen the questions herself.

I was then asked to read a sentence and write out : "In what month do we elect President". I asked her if it was OK to write, what I thought was grammatically superior "elect THE President" and she laughed and told me that I needed to learn how to dumb down my English now that I was going to be an American. Having moved from Europe herself where she had been educated in "British English" she told me about her experience not being understood.

We then reviewed the answers in my N400, made a few amendments (like my cell phone number that had changed), signed the photographs and the form in two places and that was it.

I wasn't asked for any original paperwork (I had a whole file with me).

At the end she congratulated me, told me I would be coming back to the same building for my oath, reminded me I wasn't a citizen until after the oath ceremony, that I needed to update my details with the SSA after the oath (she learned the hard way herself apparently).

I got a 'certificate form' to review - with my personal details. She kept that.

I then got a N-652 form "Naturalization Interview Results" - showing that I passed the test and the box next to "Congratulations! Your application has been recommended for approval" was ticked.

I have to now wait for the oath letter in the mail.

All in all, very painless. I was out of the building and on the street by 9.17am.

Good luck to all the other October filers.

Congratulations!!! Hope you get your Oath letter very soon.

[KASH2011 382]

I had my interview this morning so a quick update on my experience.

I was interviewed at the Chicago office. My appointment was for 8.30am and I arrived at the building at about 8.20. After going through security I went straight up to the 3rd floor and checked in. The time stamp for my check in was 8.25. I was given a pager and told to wait near door 2.

After about 20 minutes my pager number was called by the officer - a very nice Polish lady.

She showed me into her office, before sitting down she made me swear in and asked for my driving license, green card and all passports.

She checked my name then proceeded to the 'exam'. I was asked 6 questions, I don't remember them all, but of the ones I remember:

- How many voting representatives are there?

- For how long do we elect a representative?

- Who is the chief justice of the supreme court?

- Who is the father of our nation?

- In which month do we vote for the President?

The list appeared to have been computer generated, so it didn't seem she had chosen the questions herself.

I was then asked to read a sentence and write out : "In what month do we elect President". I asked her if it was OK to write, what I thought was grammatically superior "elect THE President" and she laughed and told me that I needed to learn how to dumb down my English now that I was going to be an American. Having moved from Europe herself where she had been educated in "British English" she told me about her experience not being understood.

We then reviewed the answers in my N400, made a few amendments (like my cell phone number that had changed), signed the photographs and the form in two places and that was it.

I wasn't asked for any original paperwork (I had a whole file with me).

At the end she congratulated me, told me I would be coming back to the same building for my oath, reminded me I wasn't a citizen until after the oath ceremony, that I needed to update my details with the SSA after the oath (she learned the hard way herself apparently).

I got a 'certificate form' to review - with my personal details. She kept that.

I then got a N-652 form "Naturalization Interview Results" - showing that I passed the test and the box next to "Congratulations! Your application has been recommended for approval" was ticked.

I have to now wait for the oath letter in the mail.

All in all, very painless. I was out of the building and on the street by 9.17am.

Good luck to all the other October filers.

Congrats!

[SunnyCalifornian 6]

On-line status updated: Oath Ceremony scheduled; notice was sent by mail with the date, time and location of ceremony. Yey! Fingers crossed that everyone waiting get their letters soon!

Edited February 5, 2015 by SunnyCalifornian

[Nanners 0]

Congrats to everyone that has passed their interview so far! Seems like it's been going very smoothly for all.

I received an email notice that my oath was scheduled on Monday (less than a week after my interview!). I'm hoping that letter gets here today with my date.

[mewbaby 0]

just called the Seattle, WA office, they are currently working on the applications submitted in May. it looks like it runs behind in Seattle.

[amna-h 7]

Im seriously confused how uscis works :/ Its just taking too long now..

[SunnyCalifornian 6]

Im seriously confused how uscis works :/ Its just taking too long now..

I understand how frustrating this must be for you. My AOS journey took a very long time, about a year and a half, including two RFE's. From my experience, there is not much you can do, infopass and calling them is just a waste of time, as well as asking help to your Congressman or Senator. Hopefully you'll get good news soon!

[JimmyHou 611]

I understand how frustrating this must be for you. My AOS journey took a very long time, about a year and a half, including two RFE's. From my experience, there is not much you can do, infopass and calling them is just a waste of time, as well as asking help to your Congressman or Senator. Hopefully you'll get good news soon!

I agree that doing those things are a waste of time when your application isn't taking longer than other people... people just need to understand that this process is slow.

People who filed in October and were expecting to be done by February were being very optimistic.

On the other hand, there are some people who waited 2 years for an interview result... contacting their political representatives certainly did make a difference... there are a number of cases where people waited over a year after the interview, emailed their congressman, and then got an oath letter within a month or two... all the politician does is contact USCIS... all that does is it tells them that the applicant is willing to make some noise, so they tend to move things along.

[MayoKy 10]

Congrats both of you

Congrats to everyone that has passed their interview so far! Seems like it's been going very smoothly for all.

I received an email notice that my oath was scheduled on Monday (less than a week after my interview!). I'm hoping that letter gets here today with my date.

On-line status updated: Oath Ceremony scheduled; notice was sent by mail with the date, time and location of ceremony. Yey! Fingers crossed that everyone waiting get their letters soon!

[deidre 13]

Is anyone else not able to check their status on the USCIS site today? I first got an error saying I was locked out for either inactivity (I check every day) or too may unsuccessful attempts (the page was not loading properly yesterday).

When I click on the password link as instructed to correct it tells me my user name is not valid, but it's tha same as before, just my name.

Ohhhh noooo... I'm having the same issue ever since Tuesday

Tried the "forgot password" option however when I put my answer in to the secret questions, says it's wrong and I need to email the customer service.

I emailed customer service however got an error back stating cannot send or delayed send... ughhh...