N-400 May 2020 filers

[CLT_CZ2020 19]

13 hours ago, roddie2k said:

Congrats - did you apply under the 3 year rule or the 5 year rule?

Thank you! I was 5-year rule

Edited March 11, 2021 by CLT_CZ2020

[BerakDicelana 4]

Atlanta field office for me.

 

My interview for March 16 just got cancelled this morning and estimated time jumped to 9 months.

 

Hopefully nothing wrong and will get rescheduled soon.

 

 😭

[Chrisfer77 46]

3 minutes ago, BerakDicelana said:

Atlanta field office for me.

 

My interview for March 16 just got cancelled this morning and estimated time jumped to 9 months.

 

Hopefully nothing wrong and will get rescheduled soon.

 

 😭

Same happened to me, but they cancelled in my face when I was waiting to be interviewed at the USCIS building 😣😪. They said the system was down the whole morning and that they will reschedule, but havent heard from them since february 3rd.

And the estimated time went from February to november. 

[Harold_Oakland 133]

1 minute ago, Chrisfer77 said:

Same happened to me, but they cancelled in my face when I was waiting to be interviewed at the USCIS building 😣😪. They said the system was down the whole morning and that they will reschedule, but havent heard from them since february 3rd.

And the estimated time went from February to november. 

That's quite tragic! Sorry that happened to you.

[roddie2k 68]

4 hours ago, CLT_CZ2020 said:

Thank you! I was 5-year rule

Thanks for responding- quite frankly it's the first time I am hearing someone being asked for a birth certificate ( they typically ask for it if you are applying by virtue of marriage to a US citizen). I assume that is not your case?

 

[Chrisfer77 46]

3 hours ago, Harold_Oakland said:

That's quite tragic! Sorry that happened to you.

It was tragid haha ! But well I Feel better now, all we can do is just wait.

[Scandi 4,176]

Had my interview today at the Los Angeles County Field office in DTLA. Got 10 questions even though I answered the first 6 correctly. 😄

 

Oath ceremony will be on Tuesday next week, March 16. Got the Oath Notice in hand before I left the field office right after the interview. I will also have a name change. 

 

These were the 10 questions I got:

 

-What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?

-There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.

-Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?

-What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?

-What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

-What did Susan B. Anthony do?

-Name one state that borders Canada.

-What is the capital of the United States?

-Where is the Statue of Liberty?

-Name two national U.S. holidays.

 

Reading: Who elects congress?

Writing: The people elect congress.

 

She didn't ask for any definitions, just went through the N-400 form quickly to see if anything had changed since I filed, and then I had to sign/approve the corrections.

 

Will post a more indept review in the L.A. thread in a few days for anyone who might be interested.

[Lettyana 70]

My interview is next Tuesday at 7:30 am and I am starting to get nervous. Any tips would be highly appreciated. My main concern is the civics test, are those open-ended questions? I haven't had a chance to study yet due to a lot of changes in life but I'm planning to study hard on Sunday and Monday. Do they always select questions from the list on the website? 

Edited March 12, 2021 by Lettyana

[Dublindave 52]

15 hours ago, Scandi said:

Had my interview today at the Los Angeles County Field office in DTLA. Got 10 questions even though I answered the first 6 correctly. 😄

 

Oath ceremony will be on Tuesday next week, March 16. Got the Oath Notice in hand before I left the field office right after the interview. I will also have a name change. 

 

These were the 10 questions I got:

 

-What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?

-There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.

-Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?

-What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?

-What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

-What did Susan B. Anthony do?

-Name one state that borders Canada.

-What is the capital of the United States?

-Where is the Statue of Liberty?

-Name two national U.S. holidays.

 

Reading: Who elects congress?

Writing: The people elect congress.

 

She didn't ask for any definitions, just went through the N-400 form quickly to see if anything had changed since I filed, and then I had to sign/approve the corrections.

 

Will post a more indept review in the L.A. thread in a few days for anyone who might be interested.

So happy for you. Our immigration timeline has been sort of similar. Glad we are both coming to a end with our deals with Uscis. 

[Ismar&Brandy 46]

46 minutes ago, Lettyana said:

My interview is next Tuesday at 7:30 am and I am starting to get nervous. Any tips would be highly appreciated. My main concern is the civics test, are those open-ended questions? I haven't had a chance to study yet due to a lot of changes in life but I'm planning to study hard on Sunday and Monday. Do they always select questions from the list on the website? 

It is not multiple choice. You answer it or you don’t... not multiple choice 

[Scandi 4,176]

3 hours ago, Dublindave said:

So happy for you. Our immigration timeline has been sort of similar. Glad we are both coming to a end with our deals with Uscis. 

Thank you! Yes I feel like we've sort of been in this process together for years now, you're one of the names that I have seen on here through the years, going through the same process as me, at more or less the same time. It's cool to see the progress, happy for you that you finally got your interview date too. That part was the important part for me, the oath is more like "yeah okay, it's impossible to fail, so whatever", but having the interview done gave me such relief! 😆

[Scandi 4,176]

8 hours ago, Lettyana said:

My interview is next Tuesday at 7:30 am and I am starting to get nervous. Any tips would be highly appreciated. My main concern is the civics test, are those open-ended questions? I haven't had a chance to study yet due to a lot of changes in life but I'm planning to study hard on Sunday and Monday. Do they always select questions from the list on the website? 

The civics test has very easy but strict answers, there are no vague answers to them. Either you give the right or the wrong answer, there's no in between. Some questions have several correct answers, you just need to know ONE of the answers unless the questions specifically asks you to mention more than one. Do NOT use the app to practice the questions as it's just confusing since it gives you multiple choices and that's not how the real test is conducted. The immigration officer will simply ask you a question, and you need to have memorized the answer, you won't be given any choices. They only ask you 10 questions at the most, but you still need to memorize all 100 as the computer will give you any random 10 questions out of those 100. You never know which questions you'll get.

For me personally I had the geographic, government and politics questions down immediately, but the history part was harder for me with all the crazy names (Wilson, Jefferson, Eisenhower, Franklin, Lincoln, Jay etc) so I focused more on those when I practiced. The main thing that really worked for me was to listen to the youtube videos over and over while working. Within just a couple of days I knew all the answers to every single question. There are many youtube videos to choose from, pick the newest ones to make sure the answers are up to date. In the beginning you want to start out with the slower videos where they seriously repeat every single sentence and answer twice. Once you know the answers you can move on to the quick videos, where they don't repeat questions and answers, it will really test your speed if you can manage to give the answer before they do in the video.  But remember - the naturalization test itself is not timed or anything. 

[Eternati 13]

20 hours ago, Lettyana said:

My interview is next Tuesday at 7:30 am and I am starting to get nervous. Any tips would be highly appreciated. My main concern is the civics test, are those open-ended questions? I haven't had a chance to study yet due to a lot of changes in life but I'm planning to study hard on Sunday and Monday. Do they always select questions from the list on the website? 

I used the flashcards - just type "uscis civics test flashcards" in google, and click the first link. I flipped through these twice - 2 days before and the night before my interview, and was good to go. But I am also in med school so tests like these don't faze me - mnemonics, mental roadmaps, and other memory tricks is the best way to approach this test in my opinion.

[Boston19 10]

Hi All,

My journey ended last week.

Timelines:

Application based on 3 year rule.

 

5/28/2020 - application received notice.

12/11/2020 - biometrics reuse notice.

12/21/2020 - interview notice

02/04/2021 - physical interview

03/11/2021 - oath ceremony 

 

Interview was straightforward. IO did mention, I was lucky as the day before all systems were down and all the interviews for that day had to be rescheduled.

 

6 questions boom.

1 reading

1 writing.

 

Went over the application. Asked me if anything had changed. I said my physical address ( bought a new house)  new work company and weight gain due to Corona. He chuckled.

Any crimes ? He asked this sternly with an audible change in his voice. I said yes, moving violation tickets promptly paid off. He asked me for documentation.

I said it is still in the mail from the DMV and haven’t received my drivers record yet due to slow postal services holiday season, Corona et al. I mentioned, if I hadn’t paid off the tickets, then, there would’ve been warrants issued for me which would have been caught in the background check. IO was satisfied with my answer.

 

IO collected recent documents which proved marriage in good faith.

1) Mortgage + title in our names.

2) Insurances (health + auto )

3) rental accommodation leases showing our names

 

Printed out the naturalization interview result with tick marks on both English + US  history AND congrats you have been recommended for approval check boxes.

 

I was in and out in 40 minutes right from security check to approval. Actual interview was 25 minutes tops.

 

I was extra careful about the time between post interview and oath ceremony so as not to gather any tickets. Bit of a lead foot. Not into drugs/alcohol/weapons/major/minor crimes so that was easy.

 

Reached the oath ceremony 1/2 hour before. They collected just the 10 year card and the questionnaire of if anything changed post interview. There were around 40 people. Strictly no hugging, kissing, pictures within the building. You can celebrate outside the building.

Again 40 minutes from security check to receiving naturalization certificate. Actual ceremony 17 minutes.

 

Best of luck to all who are waiting.

I might not respond to questions if any rightaway, but, eventually whenever I get to it, I will. This is a great community with tonnes of resources and guidance.

 

Sincere thank you to all contributors!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Boston19
Correction

[magentahaze 34]

Checked my account earlier this week, as I've been doing everyday since March began, and my estimated completion date that WAS this month, has now disappeared.

The "We are taking longer than expected to process your case" message still remains and the initial message under my case status is still that they have received my application and a receipt notice has been mailed. I'm a bit disheartened that I have to continue to wait.

Oh well, I waited almost 10 years to apply, I guess I can wait longer.

 

Applied - May 6th/2020 (I live in Iowa)

Bio Reuse notice - Jan 20/2021