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| Charlotte NC |  Review on August 5, 2016: |
kiwivisa
Rating:  | Review Topic: Naturalization
Its been a week since my interview and oath in Charlotte. Since there so little information on the Charlotte location I figured I'd write it out properly for people searching in the future. Ill post this on the Charlotte office reviews as well.
I had an 8.25am interview, arrived an hour early as I had a 2 hour drive to get there and wasn't sure what Charlotte traffic would be like. The check in lady just laughed at me being there so early, but had no problem with me staying in the first waiting room. at 8.15am she called me up and had me go through to the "appointments" waiting room. There were a few families there with little ones, in both waiting rooms, I mention that as I've seen it asked a few times.
At 8.25 I was called by a friendly but professional IO. He took me back to the interview room. Had me sit down, then swear in, and then hand over my GC and drivers license.
He went trough the N400 yes/no questions really quickly. Without even looking at the sheet, he clearly had them memorized, and I joked with him that he must have done this a few times. The joke was well received.
From the N400 questions, he moved straight into the civics test. The questions he asked were the exact same that Ste&Velma got, even in the same order. So I'm copying them here.
1. Amendments about who can vote,
2. U.S. concern during Cold War,
3. Reasons colonists came to America,
4. Right or freedom from the First Amendment,
5. Who is in charge of the executive branch,
6. If President can no longer serve, who becomes President
I got all 6 right, and then he asked me to read a sentence 'Which State has the Most People?". However, curiously, he gave me a answer to a different question to write. I can't actually recall what it was, but it had New York in it.
He congratulated me and said that I had passed, and was approved. No evidence needed out of the stuff that I had bought along.
He asked if I could take the oath that day at 12.15. I had been hoping that this would happen due to living 2 hours drive away, so I jumped at the chance. He asked me to return to the waiting room while they put together the Oath Appointment notice. the interview took less than 10 minutes I think. I waited for close to an hour in the waiting room, and noticed that several other people who did not have family with them also returned to wait from the interview area, also waiting for the same day oath notices.
After an hour a different man came out and called out a few names including mine. He lead us to the oath ceremony room, explained that we would be coming back to this room at 12.15. He handed us our notices, and asked that we check everything before leaving. there was one person in the group that had a name change, and he said that she would be going to the Court Oath Ceremony later in August. We were then told to go get some lunch and come back about 12.
I arrived back at about 12 (After checking out the NASCAR museum downtown). There was a line out the door to get through security, and it became evident that a lot more people would be taking the oath today than just the people who had been interviewed that morning. After getting through security there was a series of lines that they took us through to make sure that we were seated in a particular order so that they could present the certificates sequentially. It took through to 1pm to get everybody seated, and get family in and settled. 75 people from 41 countries. It was interesting to see that the mood within the USCIS facility had become much lighter, the staff are always pretty friendly there, but all of the visitors were either naturalizing or watching family/friends naturalizing, so everyone was smiling and joking around etc. That was a nice aspect.
We started off with a speech from the Womens Voting League to tell everyone about getting registered. Then a video about immigrant history (Images and music). Then the presenter, who was a supervisor at the USCIS location made a speech about her own immigration journey. Then they read out the countries alphabetically, and as you heard your own country, you stood. We also said the oath, and sang the national anthem. Shortly after that they then presented the certificates. One by one your name was called, and you went up in front of everyone had received your certificate. As that happened you were free to pause and let your family/friends take pictures. This was actually quite entertaining, trying to see people take a perfectly timed photo, usually on a phone they were unfamiliar with. Then the video from Obama welcoming us. And that was it! I think I was out of there by 2pm.
Quite a good experience. If you are interviewing early at Charlotte, later in the week, then I guess there is a good chance that you will do the same day Oath. If you did want to delay it, then I'm sure that would be fine and you could then invite family and give them the heads up.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #20094