Oath Ceremony Questions

[futurecoloradogrl 82]

Finally got an oath ceremony date scheduled for just over 1 month after my interview! I was so disappointed to be told immediately after passing the interview that their computer system was down and so I couldn't do a same-day oath, and to wait 1-2 weeks for a letter. After waiting the full 2 weeks and nothing, USCIS finally updated today, and I'm so thrilled that my ceremony is scheduled for the 5th of February. A long time coming, it's been a year since I filed and my patience has never been tested more - I'm sure so many of y'all can relate. 

 

Quick questions:

 

- The ceremony is at the my local USCIS office where I took my interview (Orlando) instead of the courthouse downtown like I was expecting, is it still okay to bring guests? The letter doesn't mention it either way. I'll have a couple of friends visiting from the UK staying with me that week and they'd love to attend.

 

- I had a combo interview for the GC renewal and it looks like that was just approved and produced. Is it an issue if the card doesn't arrive in time to surrender at the ceremony?

 

- Attire! I'm a tall woman who lives in Florida (always hot and humid, ultra-casual dress code) and own no professional attire, so my wardrobe is comfortable cotton sundresses and short skirts. I wore a sweater and short wool skirt with tall boots to the interview, no one said anything. Is there any definite nos in terms of what won't be acceptable to wear? I'm on a budget and already struggle to find clothes that fit my height, so would prefer not to have to make a frantic last-minute shopping trip.

 

- Planning to schedule a post office passport appointment for the next day and pay for express processing (meant to be 2-3 weeks I think?) since I want to travel in March/April. I hear the waiting time has reduced since last year, has anyone recently received a passport who can confirm?

 

- Any other documents or essential info I need? Would hate to get turned away at this final hurdle. I have my expired green card, all the extension papers received, my UK passport, state ID, and will fill out the form on the physical letter once it arrives.

 

Thanks so much for any advice! 

Edited January 19 by futurecoloradogrl

[OldUser 6,589]

33 minutes ago, futurecoloradogrl said:

- I had a combo interview for the GC renewal and it looks like that was just approved and produced. Is it an issue if the card doesn't arrive in time to surrender at the ceremony?

You cannot surrender what you don't have. However, if you have 2 year conditional GC at the time of oath, you should surrender it.

 

34 minutes ago, futurecoloradogrl said:

- Attire! I'm a tall woman who lives in Florida (always hot and humid, ultra-casual dress code) and own no professional attire, so my wardrobe is comfortable cotton sundresses and short skirts. I wore a sweater and short wool skirt with tall boots to the interview, no one said anything. Is there any definite nos in terms of what won't be acceptable to wear? I'm on a budget and already struggle to find clothes that fit my height, so would prefer not to have to make a frantic last-minute shopping trip.

I'd say short skirts aren't the best things to wear to an official event. Options: rent some clothes or wear a long dress that's more or less formal looking.

[Thunderbolt 172]

Congrats! 

 

Yes, you can bring guests to your ceremony. We were the first group of the day at the local office, and applicants were put in one line for the security and guests were put in the line after them. They made sure applicants went through before the guests. We had 40+ applicants and about 100 guests for our group. 

 

Bring the card that you have with you. If you don't have new one by the time your oath, don't worry about it. 

 

Everybody was wearing smart casual clothes, some people had suits. Nobody wore sundress as it was very cold here in Virginia

 

Make appointment for your passport for the same day of your oath or for the next day. The lady at our post office was kind enough to make copies of the certificate. We've paid for expedited service and got the passport 2 weeks later and certificate week after. I think with the post office fees it was around $260. We brought our own picture for the passport. 

 

I think it was the oath letter, drivers license and green card. We had SS card with us too just in case. 

 

Everything took about 30 minutes. Don't stress about it

[randomstairs 300]

2 hours ago, futurecoloradogrl said:

 

- Planning to schedule a post office passport appointment for the next day and pay for express processing (meant to be 2-3 weeks I think?) since I want to travel in March/April. I hear the waiting time has reduced since last year, has anyone recently received a passport who can confirm?

You can try the same-day urgent processing if you travel within two weeks (so in mid February). The advantage of this is in that you don't have to mail anything to the DoS, and thus you avoid the risk of losing the certificate in mail, either when sending or receiving the document (it's extremely difficult to replace). For the future passport extensions you can then simply use the old passport instead of the certificate to prove your citizenship/nationality. 

[NorthByNorthwest 344]

3 hours ago, futurecoloradogrl said:

- Attire! I'm a tall woman who lives in Florida (always hot and humid, ultra-casual dress code) and own no professional attire, so my wardrobe is comfortable cotton sundresses and short skirts. I wore a sweater and short wool skirt with tall boots to the interview, no one said anything. Is there any definite nos in terms of what won't be acceptable to wear? I'm on a budget and already struggle to find clothes that fit my height, so would prefer not to have to make a frantic last-minute shopping trip.

 

My ceremony had people in jeans and shirt, suits, sweaters, the whole spectrum. Totally up to you.

 

3 hours ago, futurecoloradogrl said:

- Any other documents or essential info I need? Would hate to get turned away at this final hurdle. I have my expired green card, all the extension papers received, my UK passport, state ID, and will fill out the form on the physical letter once it arrives.

 

If you have traveled outside the US since you filed the N-400 you may want to bring the details of those trips. I had two trips, but the officer already saw those on her computer and added them as we were speaking.

[HarryWL 262]

On 1/19/2024 at 11:17 AM, futurecoloradogrl said:

Finally got an oath ceremony date scheduled for just over 1 month after my interview! I was so disappointed to be told immediately after passing the interview that their computer system was down and so I couldn't do a same-day oath, and to wait 1-2 weeks for a letter. After waiting the full 2 weeks and nothing, USCIS finally updated today, and I'm so thrilled that my ceremony is scheduled for the 5th of February. A long time coming, it's been a year since I filed and my patience has never been tested more - I'm sure so many of y'all can relate. 

 

Quick questions:

 

- The ceremony is at the my local USCIS office where I took my interview (Orlando) instead of the courthouse downtown like I was expecting, is it still okay to bring guests? The letter doesn't mention it either way. I'll have a couple of friends visiting from the UK staying with me that week and they'd love to attend.

 

- I had a combo interview for the GC renewal and it looks like that was just approved and produced. Is it an issue if the card doesn't arrive in time to surrender at the ceremony?

 

- Attire! I'm a tall woman who lives in Florida (always hot and humid, ultra-casual dress code) and own no professional attire, so my wardrobe is comfortable cotton sundresses and short skirts. I wore a sweater and short wool skirt with tall boots to the interview, no one said anything. Is there any definite nos in terms of what won't be acceptable to wear? I'm on a budget and already struggle to find clothes that fit my height, so would prefer not to have to make a frantic last-minute shopping trip.

 

- Planning to schedule a post office passport appointment for the next day and pay for express processing (meant to be 2-3 weeks I think?) since I want to travel in March/April. I hear the waiting time has reduced since last year, has anyone recently received a passport who can confirm?

 

- Any other documents or essential info I need? Would hate to get turned away at this final hurdle. I have my expired green card, all the extension papers received, my UK passport, state ID, and will fill out the form on the physical letter once it arrives.

 

Thanks so much for any advice! 

 

Unless you were changing your legal name, it would still be at the USCIS office. Does your case tracker say a new card is in production? It's likely they won't issue a new green card because your N-400 has been approved and you had a combo interview.

[futurecoloradogrl 82]

On 1/24/2024 at 12:53 AM, HarryWL said:

 

Unless you were changing your legal name, it would still be at the USCIS office. Does your case tracker say a new card is in production? It's likely they won't issue a new green card because your N-400 has been approved and you had a combo interview.

 

Thanks for the response, I didn't know that! My tracker showed a new card was being produced and mailed to me, which I received just days before the ceremony, so it was promptly handed in. It was nice to have it for those few days at least! 

[futurecoloradogrl 82]

Updating with my experience for reference just in case anyone in future has similar questions! Thrilled I finally did it, officially became a citizen and got my certificate, feels weird that the 5 years of stress is over with & might take a while to get used to. 

 

- Guests: I took my partner and two friends with me, my partner had to show his driver's licence and friends showed their UK passports to the security officer with no issues. It was really special getting to have them there. 

 

- GC combo approval: as mentioned in my reply above, the card got produced and arrived days before the ceremony, and I handed it in when checking in.

 

- Outfit: I'd originally set aside a long lightweight dress and dressy sandals to wear, but Florida decided to be properly cold so I wore a sweater and skirt with boots and no one said anything. The most casual outfits I saw were an American print button-up shirt with vintage style jeans (loved it!) and a trendy zip-up jacket with wide leg jeans. Men were mostly wearing suits, and women were either wearing some kind of suit-style outfit, or a modest style dress in various designs. My guests were flying home immediately after and no one minded their jeans and sweatshirt travel outfits. 

 

- Successfully applied for my passport at the post office today and got quoted 2-3 weeks for express. 

 

- I only needed my state ID, most recent green card, and the paperwork attached to the ceremony letter which I'd already filled out at home - the letter only just arrived on Thursday, my ceremony was on Monday. Took my paperwork folders from the interview just to be safe.

 

- Did get slightly told off at check-in when the desk attendant verbally confirmed some of the questions on the paperwork - I said 'yep' to one of them and was sternly told 'it's YES, not YEP'. So make sure you say 'yes' or 'no' very clearly!

 

Will fill out my Orlando office experience on my timeline.