My interview experience at the Philadelphia field office (February 2014)

[Shub 78]

Good morning VJ,

I had my citizenship interview yesterday and thought it wouldn't hurt for me to post my experience there.

The field office is located at 30 N 41st St. It happens to be just a few blocks from where I work, and I live in Montgomery county. I usually take SEPTA to go to work but my wife and I went to the appointment by car. The commute was fine even though I was stressing out the whole time, the GPS was taking me places I didn't know and the clock was ticking. I know how to get there without GPS but my GPS has traffic so I trusted it rather than my personal knowledge of how to get there. It worked out because I was thinking of taking the Schuylkill Expressway and later I heard on the radio that it was heavily jammed. In the end we got there 15 minutes early so all in all the trip took 50 minutes.

There's free street parking everywhere around the building, if you can find a spot. Right across from the office is a parking lot with plenty of space (at least at the time I arrived). It's a $12 flat fee regardless if you park there for 30 minutes or all day. There's no booth, just a security guy in an SUV who will wave at you if you pull in. I parked there to make my life easier.

The building looks brand new, and recently I walked past the old field office at 1600 Callowhill, they had signs up on the doors saying they had moved, so there you have it. The new building is actually not on Google Street View (you can see it under construction there).

Anyway, I got there, went through security (pretty much like at an airport except no need to take your shoes off), then they told me to go wait in front of a small booth where a lady was calling people by appointment time. Multiple people had an appointment at 9 so it was kind of a first-come-first-served thing where you knew who was there before you, who wasn't, and who got up when 9 AM was called. The lady in the booth just took the fingerprints of both my index fingers, then took my picture, checked my green card and my appointment letter, gave me everything back plus a sealed envelope, then sent me to the second floor.

On the second floor, I checked in at the reception desk and was told to go wait in front of door #2 (I believe there were three doors). By then it was 9:15. I think around 9:45 or 10, my interviewing officer called me in. She was somewhat stern but professional and courteous. She placed me under oath, had me give her my interview letter, driver's license, green card and the aforementioned sealed envelope. I later found out that that had my earlier fingerprints in it. She gave me the civics and English test first -- the questions were:

- Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s? I was stressed and I guess I had a brainfart so I said the Civil War because I heard 1900s and processed it as 19th century. Once you give a wrong answer, you can't correct it, so keep that in mind. She told me to listen to the question and think carefully before answering and I would do fine.

In retrospect I feel silly for feeling stressed because she did everything she could to make me feel comfortable, but nobody outside of us immigrants understands what it's like being grilled by government officials

The remaining questions were:

- Who was the father of our country?

- How many representatives are there in the House of Representatives?

- Who is the current Chief Justice of the United States?

- For how many years do we elect Representatives?

- In what month do we vote for president?

- What does the judicial branch of the government do?

For the English test, she had me read a question (I believe it was "who was George Washington?"), then told me the answer ("George Washington was the first president"), I wrote it down and that was it. She told me I passed.

Then we went over my N-400 form. She informed me that that is also part of the English test. I had applied based on the 3-year rule but she reviewed everything even prior to seeing me and decided to change it to the 5-year rule because there was no reason for me to apply under the 3-year rule. I am a permanent resident since January 2008 so I was definitely eligible under the 5-year rule, I just chose not to use it because I was out of the country for about a year between June 2009 and 2010 (although I split my absence into several trips of less than 6 months each). I didn't want to have to deal with explaining that so that's why I applied under the 3-year rule and I was worried that they would consider my various long absences as one longer absence and make me justify it. Her considerations basically ended at the fact that my trips abroad were less than 6 months each and we moved on. She said that the number of days I was out of the US was well within the acceptable limits and I was perfectly fine, so I trusted her judgment and went with it. I thought about explaining my whole thought process for using the 3-year rule but thought better of it and simply left it alone.

I still broke a cardinal rule and volunteered information -- she didn't ask me if I took any additional trips after sending in my application, but I did, and as we were going over my trips, I mentioned the ~7 day trip I took to go home over Thanksgiving, so she amended that in my form. I felt that was important to mention, as well as harmless, and after all, one of the questions in part 9 of the N-400 form is "have you ever given false or misleading information while applying for any immigration benefit" and it didn't seem like a good idea to test that

Other than that, she just went over the form and made me re-state most of the information within from memory (state my address, phone numbers, where I work, when I got married to my wife, how many times we've both been married, etc.). Funnily, she asked me how many children I had, I said zero, she added "anywhere in the world?" and I confirmed that. I nodded my head rather than said it, but she made me say it.

Then she asked me all the good moral character and attachment to the constitution questions, made me sign the last part of the form you're not supposed to sign when first sending in the application. At the last minute, she seemed to remember something and looked through my paperwork for my copy of my selective service registration confirmation letter, saw it and was relieved to see it as not having it in the package would have been a problem, she said. After that, that was it.

She then told me she was recommending me for approval and made sure I understood everything would be reviewed by another person, but she was comfortable with my application. She then scheduled me for an oath ceremony, much earlier than I had expected (this Monday already), and that was that. We left and went back home where we still had no power since 6 AM the previous day, but we got it back at 9 PM last night

(side-note: due to the power outage, I had no heat or hot water so I had no way of showering before my interview but I did a good job of not looking like a hobo anyway)

For the record, here is everything I had submitted with my application, aside from the form and the check:

- Green card

- Picture page of my passport

- Picture page of my wife's passport

- My wife's birth certificate

- IRS tax transcripts for tax years 2010, 2011, 2012 (we have not filed for 2013 yet)

- My selective service registration confirmation letter

And I feel there was something else but I can't remember what.

So I brought originals of all that, plus what was requested in the interview letter:

- Proof of residence (I took the IRS form 1099-INT from our bank we received recently)

- Driver's license

And I feel like there was something else again but I can't remember what either -- just bring what it says in the letter.

In any case, she didn't ask to see any of that, so whatever.

I guess that's it but let me know if you have any questions and I'll see if I can answer them.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Shub

[Nica_In_Love 98]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm sure it will help others going to the same field office.

They made me take my shoes off at the Chicago office grrr.

[kool 0]

Cangratulation shub for your approval.

[huckerman26 3]

Congratulations

[Messybrownhair 251]

Thanks for sharing! I'm going to the Philly office as well. I'm getting nervous, applying in April

[razspaz13 30]

well done shub thanks for sharing

some tough questions many in the US couldn't answer LOL

[feelings 0]

This was very useful! Thanks so much for sharing