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| Fresno CA |  Review on January 7, 2011: |
Griffon64
Rating:  | Review Topic: Naturalization
So, I went in for my N-400 interview yesterday. ( Based on 3 years of marriage to a US citizen. ) Below is my experience, to help anybody else who may be interviewing at this office know what it is like.
I don't know if I just happened to have a really good IO, but I received a call the day before from the IO who interviewed me, saying that she'd like me to bring some Christmas cards, utility bills & bank statements, she noticed I didn't have any in my application. ( My bad! I included bigger things like house mortgage and vehicle deeds. ) She also said she noticed my interview time was early in the day and it might be foggy on the 2 and a half hour drive there, so I wasn't to worry if I arrived late, just get there and they'll fit me in.
When we got to USCIS, we went through security ( you have to take off your belt and everything, like at the airport, and some people who had the kind of nail clippers that has a blade in it had to take those back to their cars or throw it away ) and they had us candidates stand off to the side, directing our spouses and the like to the waiting area. When a few of us were gathered together, they took us up in the elevator to the floor our interviews were on. I was about 30 minutes early for my appointment, and waited maybe 12 minutes to be called. The IO was friendly and professional, she had me stand with right hand raised to swear to tell the truth. Then we sat down and she asked for my passport and green card, and after that, the additional evidence. She went to make copies of it and handed the originals back to me.
After that, we went through my application. She basically just asked me things like birth date, current employer, and how long we've been living at our current address - just stuff on the application. She did inject a couple of questions as we were going through the application that seemed aimed at checking if I was lying about the marriage, for instance, asking if my husband was out in the lobby waiting for me [ he wasn't, he was downstairs in the waiting area there, because they don't allow spouses up to the lobby ]. She also went through the questions that had the yes/no tick marks, the moral character stuff. I mentioned that I had a traffic ticket which was only a $200 fee and traffic school, so I didn't add it to the application. She made a quick note about that on the application and we moved right on. She didn't ask to see the receipt and notice and stuff I saved from that and brought with me.
When this was all done, she had me sign my two photos with my normal signature, not the long hand one I used on the form.
Then on to the tests. As others reported, really straight forward, easy sentences to read and write, and six questions from the study material. I remember I got the one about how many representatives ( 435 ) and the chief justice ( John Roberts ) , first president ( George Washington ), how many years a representative is elected for ( 2 ) and to name a war the US fought in the 1900's ( World War II ). I can't remember the last question.
After that, she gave me the forms to sign ( name, birthday, etc details correct ) and I got my recommendation for approval, as well as my oath ceremony letter.
Yay!
It was very easy and quick. In fact, I walked out of there with my husband at 8:25, 5 minutes before my scheduled interview time.
Now I just have my oath ceremony left, and then the final push of admin: SSN update, DMV, and the scary part of mailing off that certificate to get a passport.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #7034