San Jose, CA Field Office

[Junior-sfo 9]

Hi all, any advise for oath ceremony? I am scheduled for a 12:45 pm session at Campbell on 6/20.

• How early should I get there to find a parking spot ? 
• Do I sign the N445 in front of the officer or can i sign it on that day before getting in line?
• One thing I did note is to write my full name on the naturalization certificate and not do a normal sign. Please let me know if this is wrong.

Taking a black pen with me, my pictures, SSN, my passports, Green card and N445. That's all I have.

 

Thanks for answering my questions.

[nikha 18]

On 5/29/2019 at 10:21 PM, Junior-sfo said:

Hi all, any advise for oath ceremony? I am scheduled for a 12:45 pm session at Campbell on 6/20.

• How early should I get there to find a parking spot ? 
• Do I sign the N445 in front of the officer or can i sign it on that day before getting in line?
• One thing I did note is to write my full name on the naturalization certificate and not do a normal sign. Please let me know if this is wrong.

Taking a black pen with me, my pictures, SSN, my passports, Green card and N445. That's all I have.

 

Thanks for answering my questions.

1. Get there early only if you are accompanied by some guest and they want to secure a seat. As far as I understand there are around 400-500 N400 oath takers. Additional 200 guests can be seated. Getting there early may be an hour or so only makes sense if you are being accompanied by guests. Oath takers are assured seat no matter what

2. You can sign the N445 whenever you want as long as it is done prior to handing it over the immigration officer at the Oath Ceremony venue

3. I signed my Naturalization Cert just as I sign any other doc. Passport folks accepted it without any issues

[Junior-sfo 9]

On 6/6/2019 at 8:27 AM, nikha said:

1. Get there early only if you are accompanied by some guest and they want to secure a seat. As far as I understand there are around 400-500 N400 oath takers. Additional 200 guests can be seated. Getting there early may be an hour or so only makes sense if you are being accompanied by guests. Oath takers are assured seat no matter what

2. You can sign the N445 whenever you want as long as it is done prior to handing it over the immigration officer at the Oath Ceremony venue

3. I signed my Naturalization Cert just as I sign any other doc. Passport folks accepted it without any issues

@nikha thank you for the valuable insight on all points. I will have my friend with me so we will make sure to get there early :)

 

[Frdk 1]

On 6/7/2019 at 10:08 PM, Junior-sfo said:

@nikha thank you for the valuable insight on all points. I will have my friend with me so we will make sure to get there early

 

I would caution though since you will be in the 3rd session of the day if you get there too early and you are driving you will find no parking as the folks and their families/friends from the first 2 sessions may still be lingering around doing passport applications and stuff. I arrived about 30 minutes before my scheduled time and found just as the previous sessions guests were leaving so thankfully didnt struggle to find parking

[Junior-sfo 9]

Just now, Frdk said:

I would caution though since you will be in the 3rd session of the day if you get there too early and you are driving you will find no parking as the folks and their families/friends from the first 2 sessions may still be lingering around doing passport applications and stuff. I arrived about 30 minutes before my scheduled time and found just as the previous sessions guests were leaving so thankfully didnt struggle to find parking

Great!! That gives us time for brunch  - Appreciate your response.

[nsical 0]

My naturalization ceremony was at 8:30am today. Great day. Not to repeat the experience noted in earlier pages, I would like to give a few  comments:

1. Lines were already long even at 8:00am but somehow almost more than half the people haven't applied for passport so passport line wasn't that long after the ceremony ended around 9:45am. It helps if you fill DS-11 online, then they just stamp there so you do not need to spend time filling the paper form they give there. I think I was in the passport line and then room for 15 minutes.
2. They separate everyone to 8-9 sections inside the theater. The 3rd digit from the right on your A# (Alien number) determines that. Unfortunately my wife and I ended up in different rows because of that. They allocate a few rows for each section. An official takes your invitation letter and green card(s) at the beginning of the row and you seat just next to the one who went in the row before you. That's how they order the naturalization certificates. Then as you exit the rows in order, the certificate on top is yours.

Edited June 20, 2019 by nsical

[haruka_t 7]

Have been lurking in here for awhile. Just wanna give back and updating that we (my wife and I) just got our interview notice. I updated the spreadsheet with the details. It's honestly a bit faster than we expected, a 4th of July present I guess--we're pretty excited.  Hope this is helpful to others who are still waiting... Now time to get into reviewing for the civics test!

 

Application accepted - 12/17/2018

Interview notice - 07/03/2019

Interview date - 08/09/2019

Edited July 6, 2019 by haruka_t

[SFO-Jan 0]

@Junior-sfo, I see you moved from SF field office to SJ while N400 in progress. Was the change hassle free? How long did it take for the change after you filed AR-11?

We bought a new house in San Jose and planning to move mid Aug and my N400 is currently in progress at SF with priority date in Dec 2018. How soon do you think I should file, since we know our move date tentatively? Your feedback would be really helpful. 

Edited July 8, 2019 by SFO-Jan
missed a part

[Junior-sfo 9]

1 minute ago, SFO-Jan said:

@Junior-sfo, I see you moved from SF field office to SJ while N400 in progress. Was the change hassle free? How long did it take for the change after you filed AR-11?

We bought a new house in San Jose and planning to move mid Aug and my N400 is currently in progress at SF with priority date in Dec 2018. Your feedback would be really helpful.

@SFO-Jan Congratulations on buying a home in bay area!!  

The move from SF to SJ was absolutely hassle free. Before moving, the SJ office was 15 minutes away but SF was more than an hour away, so it helped a lot.

They changed my address in 11 days and they also sent my interview notice with it. 

 

If you are talking about the forms, use the address change form AR11. This can be easily done online. 

Link:  https://egov.uscis.gov/coa/displayCOAForm.do

 

Wish you all the best.

[SFO-Jan 0]

@Junior-sfo, Thank you for quick response. I think you meant after moving SJ office was 15 mins away. Did you file for address change before the move or after? since we already know our tentative move dates.

[Junior-sfo 9]

Just now, SFO-Jan said:

@Junior-sfo, Thank you for quick response. I think you meant after moving SJ office was 15 mins away. Did you file for address change before the move or after? since we already know our tentative move dates.

I meant before the move since I was in Palo Alto, the last zip code serviced by SF office. 

 

You can file for address change within 10 days of moving. I filed after I moved.

 

[SFO-Jan 0]

Thanks  @Junior-sfo

[KIEth 1]

Hi Everyone. Just had my interview today and even though everything went well, the officer handed me a piece of paper indicating that a decision cannot be made. She said she had to have her supervisor review my case and if they need anything else they will let me know. My case is pretty straight forward so I am really confused as to how this happened. Did anyone else have the same experience? Thanks.

[Junior-sfo 9]

5 hours ago, KIEth said:

Hi Everyone. Just had my interview today and even though everything went well, the officer handed me a piece of paper indicating that a decision cannot be made. She said she had to have her supervisor review my case and if they need anything else they will let me know. My case is pretty straight forward so I am really confused as to how this happened. Did anyone else have the same experience? Thanks.

@KIEth Congrats for getting over with the interview. I had the exact same result and case was approved in 2 days. 

Best wishes.

[KIEth 1]

22 minutes ago, Junior-sfo said:

@KIEth Congrats for getting over with the interview. I had the exact same result and case was approved in 2 days. 

Best wishes.

Glad to hear I wasn’t the only one, and congrats to you too! Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Hopefully this long wait will end soon.