Diriangén

Agreed! RiverCentre ramp event parking rate was $15, other ramps nearby charge less, street parking meters charge $2.25/hr, or there's even free street parking within a 1/2 mile on Exchange Street or just off West 7th Street where I parked (SW of the RiverCentre). Other logistically notes from 5/10 ceremony: the notice said to arrive at 1:45pm for the check-in process. I arrived a little earlier but arriving at 1:45 gave you enough time to check in and be seated before the ceremony started at 2pm. Arrive earlier if your family wants a better seat or just want a little more time to settle in. The ceremony was about 45 minutes long (2-2:45pm) with the opportunity to register to vote & take care of social security paperwork afterwards. 1,000 people were naturalized. They read out the birth countries represented (I think there were 95 different countries) and how many from each country. After the oath and as the ceremony ends, staff is ready to hand out naturalization certificates and new citizen info packets to you directly. Even though seating is not assigned, they know who is sitting in which row. They must use some kind of facial recognition technology to identify where everyone is sitting during the ceremony. It's a little unnerving to know they know exactly where you're sitting! But it definitely makes handing out naturalization certificates more efficient.

Processing is much faster than 15.5 months if you have a straightforward case. I applied under the 3 year rule and my oath ceremony was about 4 months from the N-400 application date. I think my case was straightforward (solid evidence of marriage & co-mingling of finances, no arrests or criminal history, etc.) but I may have just gotten lucky with the timing. Hopefully four months (or less) becomes the norm! 3 vs 5 years doesn't matter as long as you're eligible. If your wife wants to be a citizen, I don't think there's any reason to wait. We thought the online N-400 application was the easiest application in the process. There's a screening section to check if you're eligible to apply and under which criteria (the 3-year rule or 5-year), the application automatically skips any sections that don't apply, you don't need to worry about putting extra info in the addendum pages, you can save your work and come back to it, and the submission notice generates shortly after submitting the application.

Just got my oath ceremony notice: Wed 5/10 at RiverCentre at 1:45p. I was expecting 6-8 months for my N-400 app to the ceremony date, but it was about four months (app 1/8/23; ceremony 5/10/23). Hopefully that's a good sign for others that N-400 processing is moving faster.