Atlanta Oath Ceromony Experience

[CocoG 5]

I arrived at the Atlanta USCIS field office today at 11:45 am for 12:00 noon oath ceremony appointment and after clearing security proceeded to the  2nd floor and stood in line for check in.  An officer greeted me and requested the oath ceremony notification letter, ID and green card.    N-400 applicants were seated on the second floor, while immigration officers confirmed  the information declared on the back of the oath ceremony letter. Note the back of the form is supposed to be completed and signed on the day of the oath ceremony and the city below the signature is the city where the ceremony is taking place and not the applicant's city. Many of us were asked to change the city to Atlanta. Family members  and friends of N-400 applicants were instructed to wait on the 3rd floor and were assured  they would be permitted to  return to observe the citizenship ceremony.

Applicants were called into  the ceremony room row by row beginning at the front of the room. Once inside the ceremony room, applicants stood in a line and 2 immigration offers reviewed the oath letter, took the green cards and assigned each applicant a number which coincided with a seat number. Applicants were instructed to sit in their assigned seat. There was a package on each chair containing, a  congratulations on becoming a U.S. Citizen letter, voting information, a copy of "The Citizen's Almanac", copy of the  Declaration of Independence, a U.S.flag, passport application,  etc.   Once all 149 applicants were seated, the officiator discussed rights and responsibilities of citizenship and a volunteer group discussed voter registration and said they would be available following the ceremony to assist with registration. Applicants were then permitted to ask questions, then guests were permitted into   the ceremony room and the  ceremony began. At the end of the ceremony , guests were asked to wait outside the ceremony room  while officers issued citizenship certificates to each applicant . Guests were told they could return after all  certificates were issued could take photos around the room if they wished.   The entire process took a little over 2 hours. There were 149 new Americans in today's ceremony representing 49 countries.

 

My Visa Journey has finally ended.    Again... I want to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who took  time to complete timelines, post and share their experience, and offer advise, support  and encouragement.  My journey to citizenship would not have been so easy without all of you.

 

Warm Regards and Best Wishes

 

CocoG

[Going through 5,671]

Congrats on being a citizen!

[bonjour2017 15]

Congratulations.  I had my ceremony yesterday in Baltimore Field Office.  Guests and citizens were all in the same room and never separated, except citizens were seated on one side of the room, where our packets were waiting . The ceremony was short, about 1/2 hour.  We were called to receive the certificate as they read our name in front of everyone.  There were only 65 people getting certificate in our session, with another scheduled for the afternoon.  They did call out our individual country and asked us to stand.

 

Your ceremony sounded very nice, and good luck being a new citizen!