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| Los Angeles CA |  Review on March 19, 2021: |
Scandi
Rating:  | Review Topic: Naturalization
Los Angeles County field office:
Filed the N-400 online on May 1, 2020.
Passed my interview on March 11, 2021.
Had the Oath Ceremony on March 16, 2021 (had a name change).
Aiso Parking Garage is still the cheapest option for parking when visiting the downtown L.A. field office. $1/hr for the first two hours, $5 for three hours. Plenty of parking too and only a 2 minute walk to the USCIS building.
I had my appointment at 1pm, there were only ~5 people in front of me in line to go through security at the USCIS entrance (they had their own entrance to the left of the main entrance, large signs saying USCIS on them). I stood in line from about 12:40, got through security at 12:45. Perfectly time to take the elevator up to the 6th floor and enter room 6024. The guard specifically asks when your appointment is and will refuse to let you in if you're earlier than 15 minutes. My husband was turned away, family members are allowed to enter the building but not the USCIS offices or waiting rooms.
Guard told me to go to Window 1, the lady at the window took my appointment letter and told me to put my forehead 1 inch from the machine outside the window to check my temperature. It was fast and easy. Then I was told to sit down and wait.
Appointment was at 1pm but my officer only called my name at 2:30, so quite the delay. I expected this as it was about the same when I was interviewed for my greencard in 2017, nothing had changed. She took me to another waiting room, much smaller, and other than the officer I was the only one there. She asked for my greencard, the passport I entered the US with (that had my K-1 visa in it), my current valid passport and my Driver License. She then told me to wait while she took copies of them and brought my file up (my paper file was HUGE btw, she had it on her desk, close to 8 inches thick).
10 minutes later she came back and brought me into her office. We both wore masks the entire time other than when she asked me to remove it briefly just so she could compare my face to my ID and passport. She was behind a plexi glass window.
She was very chatty, there was a lot of small talk which helped ease the nervousness. She asked me to stand up and raise my hand and swear to tell the truth. She then started with the civics questions right away, with a ton of small talk in between each, so the test took a long time, haha. She asked me ALL 10 questions even though I answered the first 6 correctly. These were the questions (she said they're computer generated, the office doesn't pick them):
-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.
After the civics test a sentence popped up on the tablet in front of me, I was asked to read it out loud to test my reading skills. Then she read me a sentence that I was asked to write on the tablet to test my writing skills, writing with the stylus pen was probably the hardest part of the whole interview.
The test part of the interview was then over and she started going through each question on the N-400 to see if there was any information that had changed since I filed. There were a couple of things that needed to be corrected due to the online filing system glitches, no actual information had changed. I then had to review the corrections on the tablet and sign with the stylus pen. Same thing happened for my name change (I had only requested to have one of my two middle names removed, so I didn't add anything), I had to review the spelling of my name and other info to make sure the Naturalization certificate will have the correct info on it, and then I had to sign that with the stylus pen too.
I was never asked any definitions, didn't have to explain any of the words on the N-400.
When the whole N-400 form had been gone through and all corrections were signed, she handled me form N-652 that showed I had passed the tests and was recommended for approval. She told me I would have my Oath Ceremony the following Tuesday (five days after the interview). She then took my 2020 tax return that me and my husband had filed jointly just a few days prior (no tax return transcripts available yet), brought me back to the small waiting room outside her office and told me to wait while she scanned the tax return into their system and printed the Oath Ceremony letter.
Then she came back with my tax return and the Oath Ceremony Notice showing the date, time and place. She told me to fill out the oath form at home on the day of the oath, but only sign it once I was actually at the oath ceremony.
That was it, very simple experience, it just took a while. I walked into the building at 12:45 pm and wasn't out until after 3:30 pm. The interview including all the extra random small talk took an hour all-in-all. The only things asked for was my driver license, two of my passports, my greencard and the 2020 tax return. My feeling is that she would've asked for more documents if I hadn't uploaded so much in the online account already (I kept adding documents almost every month my petition was pending).
The Oath Ceremony was pretty casual, it was outside behind the USCIS building - since it was outdoors family and friends were welcome too. One line of people was leading up to a table where a woman asked for form N-445 (the Oath Ceremony notice that you need to fill out the day of the oath) and all greencards, work permits, travel documents etc that USCIS has ever issued you. She then asked me all the questions on the form to make sure I had filled it out correctly (I had filled it out the same morning and signed it) and that nothing had changed since the interview, afterwards she made a hole in the greencard, stapled it to the form and gave it all back to me together with a big envelope containing a cute American flag and info on what to do after becoming a citizen. I was then told to go stand in another line waiting to line up for the actual oath taking ceremony.
A very nice gentleman lined us all up one after the other in a certain order and asked us to raise our right hand and repeat after him. Once we had done the whole Oath of Allegiance he congratulated us to have become new citizens and everyone who was there to watch was clapping their hands and hooray'ed.
We were then directed to yet another line that led up to a different table where we were asked to hand over the Oath notice form with the stapled greencard that we still carried from the first table, and we finally received our Naturalization Certificates (and the name change document from the court signed by the judge was stapled to the certificate). Then we were told we could take photos next to a large U.S. flag if we wanted to. It was a nice experience, casual and quick, but yet formal enough and so nice that our spouses etc could be there to witness it.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #29356