The story of my wife's interview

[mspencer 0]

My wife had her naturalization interview in Buffalo, New York, yesterday, September 10, 2008. Since we live 100 miles south of Buffalo near the Pennsylvania border, we stayed at a Buffalo area motel the night to make sure we could get there all-right. Her interview was at 2:30 in the Federal Building downtown Buffalo. We got downtown two hours early, and since I didn't want her to sit somewhere getting nervous, we went to the observation floor at the top of the City Hall building two blocks away, which had great views of the area, and sat in Niagara Square in the sunshine outside teh City Hall.

After going through security we went into the lobby of the immigration office. We would have just sat there, but then I realized that we should check in at the counter, and the woman there sent us to an office on the second floor. My wife was very nervous, and unfortunately, the examiner came out 15 minutes late. In fact some time after we arrived an officer came out to ask why we were there, and I was worried that they had lost the appointment for her interview. Finally though a very pleasant woman came out and took her to the room.

First my wife had to swear to tell the truth. My wife had brought the many documents that we had gathered together over months, but the examiner didn't ask to see any of them, except for her green card, passport, and New York State ID (my wife does not drive, and has no driver's license.) Luckily from posts here I had thought she could need such an ID.

Six months before I bought a very useful book over the internet called "Becoming a U.S. Citizen, a Guide to the Law, Exam and Interview," by Ilona Bray. (A new edition is coming out in a month or so.) This lists all the government, civics questions that the examiners ask and also the sentences most of the examiners use that the person has to write out as part of the English exam ("Official USCIS List of Sample Quesitons") We had gone over these often before the interview. However, the examiner was very easy with her when it came to these things. She asked my wife to write only one sentence--"Today is a sunny day." The only civics question the examiner asked was what color are the stripes on the American flag. My wife was very keyed up and said "red. white, and blue," which was wrong. But then the examiner told her that she only wanted to know the color of the strips, the quesiton that my wife then answered correctly. (Ilona Bray's book said that if you do not pass these parts of the interview though, they have to give you another chance with another appointment.)

While the examiner was very easy when it came to these things, she tried to see if any fraud was involved, that our marriage was not fraudulent and in fact that I was her husband. She asked my wife one time if she worked and then another time later on who pays the bills. She asked one time if she drives, then another time how she gets around. Someone making up answers could have been easily tripped up one time of another with contradictory answers. She also asked her in what city I was born, for one thing, to see if my wife knew about my life. (I had given such information about my own life when I had applied for my wife's visa years before, and apparently the examiner had this information.) My wife also said her husband had brought her, then at the end of the interview the interviewer actually came out to me and asked me to show her an id (I used my driver's license) and she asked me several of the questions she had asked my wife to see if we gave the same answers. If I had been her cousin or boy friend, for example, or had a different address on my driver's license from my wife, I assume that would have been a problem. However, there was no problem or anything for us to worry about because we simply told the truth when she asked something.

After my wife came out after forty minutes, she said she had passed, and we were very happy that day.

[raymaga 25]

Congrats on getting the citizenship!!!

I got mine on September 2nd.

Best wishes.

[mooninlove 1]

congratulations to your wife..

[amorsiempre 0]

Congratulations!

[Lappa 0]

Thats very nice to hear. One of my friend has interview scheduled. She is asking me should she accompany with her husband for the interview? What does he do if he will not get a day off from work. Her husband is busy at work with his project its hard for him to get a day off. I told her since she does not speak English well (She is from Indonesia) its good to take him with her. Would you please let me know your opinion on this matter.

[Staashi 371]

Thats very nice to hear. One of my friend has interview scheduled. She is asking me should she accompany with her husband for the interview? What does he do if he will not get a day off from work. Her husband is busy at work with his project its hard for him to get a day off. I told her since she does not speak English well (She is from Indonesia) its good to take him with her. Would you please let me know your opinion on this matter.

I'd tell her to delay her interview and take some English classes. One of the requirements of citizenship is to have a functioning knowledge of the English language. If she can not answer the interviewer correctly her interview will be canceled, and she'll have another chance to take it again. This happened in my husband's citizenship class - a Chinese woman went for her interview, but her English was very, very poor. When the IO asked her "What color is your shirt?", which was red, she just blinked at him. He said to her, "I'm sorry, but I cannot approve you." Four hundred dollars down the drain.

Make sure her English is in good working order - she will need it!

[Zee Bee 61]

Congratulations

[Lappa 0]

Her English is not that much poor but not stamdard. She has an accent. She is afraid incase if her husband is not with her at interview, is that a problem?

I'd tell her to delay her interview and take some English classes. One of the requirements of citizenship is to have a functioning knowledge of the English language. If she can not answer the interviewer correctly her interview will be canceled, and she'll have another chance to take it again. This happened in my husband's citizenship class - a Chinese woman went for her interview, but her English was very, very poor. When the IO asked her "What color is your shirt?", which was red, she just blinked at him. He said to her, "I'm sorry, but I cannot approve you." Four hundred dollars down the drain.

Make sure her English is in good working order - she will need it!

[KC♥MP 0]

Congratulations!!!

[RICHIE07 0]

Congratulations!!!

[archie07 0]

[happyinlove012408 0]

Congrats.

[NickD 203]

Her 40 minutes tops my wife's 32 minutes, why are others posting 20 minutes, you didn't mention the oath ceremony, that turned out to be yet another battle for us, good thing I have connections.

With about 98% of that interview thingy dealing with marriage, you would think the IO would at least wave back, don't some of those interviewers realize that marriage is a family? Well that's history now, they were very nice to me at the oath ceremony. But now it's dealing with the DOS, they will eventually get it done and just hope they don't lose that certificate. No, I am not paranoid, already happened to me before.

Hope you get your oath ceremony soon, I trained my wife to pop those civic and English test questions back in an instant, was to suppose to be the main part of her interview, that took her less than two minutes.

[Muuuuah 0]

Congratulations

[MariaKarlaMabulay 0]

Thank You Sir for sharing

My wife had her naturalization interview in Buffalo, New York, yesterday, September 10, 2008. Since we live 100 miles south of Buffalo near the Pennsylvania border, we stayed at a Buffalo area motel the night to make sure we could get there all-right. Her interview was at 2:30 in the Federal Building downtown Buffalo. We got downtown two hours early, and since I didn't want her to sit somewhere getting nervous, we went to the observation floor at the top of the City Hall building two blocks away, which had great views of the area, and sat in Niagara Square in the sunshine outside teh City Hall.

After going through security we went into the lobby of the immigration office. We would have just sat there, but then I realized that we should check in at the counter, and the woman there sent us to an office on the second floor. My wife was very nervous, and unfortunately, the examiner came out 15 minutes late. In fact some time after we arrived an officer came out to ask why we were there, and I was worried that they had lost the appointment for her interview. Finally though a very pleasant woman came out and took her to the room.

First my wife had to swear to tell the truth. My wife had brought the many documents that we had gathered together over months, but the examiner didn't ask to see any of them, except for her green card, passport, and New York State ID (my wife does not drive, and has no driver's license.) Luckily from posts here I had thought she could need such an ID.

Six months before I bought a very useful book over the internet called "Becoming a U.S. Citizen, a Guide to the Law, Exam and Interview," by Ilona Bray. (A new edition is coming out in a month or so.) This lists all the government, civics questions that the examiners ask and also the sentences most of the examiners use that the person has to write out as part of the English exam ("Official USCIS List of Sample Quesitons") We had gone over these often before the interview. However, the examiner was very easy with her when it came to these things. She asked my wife to write only one sentence--"Today is a sunny day." The only civics question the examiner asked was what color are the stripes on the American flag. My wife was very keyed up and said "red. white, and blue," which was wrong. But then the examiner told her that she only wanted to know the color of the strips, the quesiton that my wife then answered correctly. (Ilona Bray's book said that if you do not pass these parts of the interview though, they have to give you another chance with another appointment.)

While the examiner was very easy when it came to these things, she tried to see if any fraud was involved, that our marriage was not fraudulent and in fact that I was her husband. She asked my wife one time if she worked and then another time later on who pays the bills. She asked one time if she drives, then another time how she gets around. Someone making up answers could have been easily tripped up one time of another with contradictory answers. She also asked her in what city I was born, for one thing, to see if my wife knew about my life. (I had given such information about my own life when I had applied for my wife's visa years before, and apparently the examiner had this information.) My wife also said her husband had brought her, then at the end of the interview the interviewer actually came out to me and asked me to show her an id (I used my driver's license) and she asked me several of the questions she had asked my wife to see if we gave the same answers. If I had been her cousin or boy friend, for example, or had a different address on my driver's license from my wife, I assume that would have been a problem. However, there was no problem or anything for us to worry about because we simply told the truth when she asked something.

After my wife came out after forty minutes, she said she had passed, and we were very happy that day.