The Interview Day is Coming

[statman78 0]

I'm sure I'll find a lot of the answers as I search through everything but can anyone give my wife some advice for the interview. Her interview is scheduled for November 19. She has questions like....

What should she bring? (Everything we sent in?)

Can I (her USC husband) come in during the interview?

What is the test like?

Will she get approval at the interview?

How long before she can take her oath?

Plus feel free to add any other commenrts that can help her.

The journey is almost over!

[raymaga 25]

Your wife will get her naturalization interview letter in the mail, and it gives you a list of everything she will need to take. She will need to take the letter, Green Card, passport, marriage certificate, proof of death or divorce for each prior marriage of both of you, and U.S. citizens birth certificate or naturalization certificate.

My husband did not attend the interview with me, so I'm not sure whether spouses are allowed in the interview. I would have been way more nervous had my husband come in with me, so I'm glad I went alone.

The test consists of both a written and oral section. The sentences you have to read and write are VERY simple, such as "The dog ran down the street". The civics test consists of 10 questions, and you need to get 6 right in order to pass. They will only keep asking questions until 6 right answers are given, up to a maximum of 10 questions. They are selected randomly.

Your wife will be told whether she is "recommended for approval" at her interview. I was given my oath ceremony date after the interview was completed. I was given a choice of several dates and was allowed to pick one that worked for me. My oath ceremony was 2 weeks after my interview.

The oath ceremony was nice and to the point, and only took about one hour. My husband accompanied me to the oath ceremony.

After the oath ceremony, your wife should visit the local SSA office with her naturalization certificate to update her "status", register to vote, and apply for a U.S. passport.

[NickD 202]

Hi fellow Wisconsinite, we are from North Central WI, been down to Milwaukee twice on Knapp St, but only for biometrics, is that where your interview will be? We have been assigned to the St. Paul office for interviews. Kind of on the border line. Never saw an area in Milwaukee for interviews, was curious about that.

raymaga answered most of your questions, believe only one person since I have been on this board stated the interviewing officer wanted to meet the spouse. I have always taken my wife, long drive, but for the N-400, only the applicant is allowed to go in. We did take that opportunity to go over the 96 Civic questions on our drive over there.

Regarding notification of the oath ceremony apparently that varies with each of 81 different field offices and also within a field office depending on which IO you get. But suggest you ask your interviewer that procedure after you pass.

[statman78 0]

Your wife will get her naturalization interview letter in the mail, and it gives you a list of everything she will need to take. She will need to take the letter, Green Card, passport, marriage certificate, proof of death or divorce for each prior marriage of both of you, and U.S. citizens birth certificate or naturalization certificate.

My husband did not attend the interview with me, so I'm not sure whether spouses are allowed in the interview. I would have been way more nervous had my husband come in with me, so I'm glad I went alone.

The test consists of both a written and oral section. The sentences you have to read and write are VERY simple, such as "The dog ran down the street". The civics test consists of 10 questions, and you need to get 6 right in order to pass. They will only keep asking questions until 6 right answers are given, up to a maximum of 10 questions. They are selected randomly.

Your wife will be told whether she is "recommended for approval" at her interview. I was given my oath ceremony date after the interview was completed. I was given a choice of several dates and was allowed to pick one that worked for me. My oath ceremony was 2 weeks after my interview.

The oath ceremony was nice and to the point, and only took about one hour. My husband accompanied me to the oath ceremony.

After the oath ceremony, your wife should visit the local SSA office with her naturalization certificate to update her "status", register to vote, and apply for a U.S. passport.

Thanks for the info. It sounds like the interview part is not that hard. My wife started studying months ago but has not done anything recently so she must start again.

[statman78 0]

Hi fellow Wisconsinite, we are from North Central WI, been down to Milwaukee twice on Knapp St, but only for biometrics, is that where your interview will be? We have been assigned to the St. Paul office for interviews. Kind of on the border line. Never saw an area in Milwaukee for interviews, was curious about that.

raymaga answered most of your questions, believe only one person since I have been on this board stated the interviewing officer wanted to meet the spouse. I have always taken my wife, long drive, but for the N-400, only the applicant is allowed to go in. We did take that opportunity to go over the 96 Civic questions on our drive over there.

Regarding notification of the oath ceremony apparently that varies with each of 81 different field offices and also within a field office depending on which IO you get. But suggest you ask your interviewer that procedure after you pass.

I've been to Knapp Street several times with my wife. The first was for the conditional greencard. We live just south of Milwaukee so her interview will be in Milwaukee. Several weeks ago my wife went to Knapp Street by herself for the biometrics. I'll probably go with her that day but like you said she'll have to go in alone. I'm sure she can get 6 out of 10 questions correct and her English is good.

[diday 0]

Good luck to your wife . As long as she got all the paper works complete and your relationship is reason, no reason to worry. Relax.......

Edited October 13, 2008 by shieangel

[Completely 3]

I'm sure I'll find a lot of the answers as I search through everything but can anyone give my wife some advice for the interview. Her interview is scheduled for November 19. She has questions like....

What should she bring? (Everything we sent in?)

Can I (her USC husband) come in during the interview?

What is the test like?

Will she get approval at the interview?

How long before she can take her oath?

Plus feel free to add any other commenrts that can help her.

The journey is almost over!

all of our VJ posted the correct answer in this topic..

I guess I will say, your wife need to read repeatedly the sample questionaire in USCIS website.. Tell her to go to this site, and answer the question online whenever she surf the net, this will help her pass the test.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...CRD&print=0

It is verbal test, so advice her to be calm and do not panic. Some officers are really strict and speak fast, so she need to listen very carefully what he/she have to say..

The Officer will also tell her to write a sentence to test her knowledge in english language.. but this is easy..

You can accompany her in the interview but you can not come with her when the officer call her name..

She have to come an 1hr at least in the place where they will conduct the interview as there will be a lot of people waiting for their name to be called.

Normally, the oath will be scheduled a month after, or it depends on the service center.. but mine did take the same day, I just waited for 4 hours, and then we did oath at 3pm.

The approval should depend on the documents that she submitted, the civic questions, and english test.. If she speak good english and read the questionaires well, there is nothing for you to worry about.

Being calm and confident is the secret to pass this interview.

Edited October 13, 2008 by Completely

[ladyinpink 1]

I'm sure I'll find a lot of the answers as I search through everything but can anyone give my wife some advice for the interview. Her interview is scheduled for November 19. She has questions like....

What should she bring? (Everything we sent in?)

Can I (her USC husband) come in during the interview?

What is the test like?

Will she get approval at the interview?

How long before she can take her oath?

Plus feel free to add any other commenrts that can help her.

The journey is almost over!

CONGRATS !!!!!! to your up coming interview

just relaxed make it sure all the papers is complate

and god bless

[NickD 202]

Like my last visit to SSA, brought in the originals and near perfect copies of it, always before, they glanced at the original next to my copy except this last time, I keep my copy machine in first class condition. Woman said she will not accept my copies, as would have to check line by line, made her own, smudged with a dirty drum, must be budget cuts. Sure you don't want my copies instead, very clean and readable, no, she said, she must be paranoid. Why would I lie about my copies, I replied, for now, between my wife and her employer, you are going to take and keep 14.8% of her gross wages, and if there is anything left when and if she can retire, we are going to have to show these originals again, so I would want to make darn sure this money goes under her name. No response from her, okay, I just tried to save you a nickel for a copy, if you want to used your smudge copy, it is fine with me, but will be checking her SS account is properly credited.

You run into people like this and was the same with her USCIS IO, wanted to compare all of our copies with the original, she took my copies of our tax returns with the original IRS labels on it, I don't even send those to the IRS, no problem with them and our copies of the 1099's and W-2's, for some reason, she wanted her own copy of our CD booklet with both our names on it with a 2008 date on it, but wife insisted we get that booklet back along with her's and my original divorce papers. Now that would costs us a lot of money to get certified copies of those. Other people from the St. Paul office had nice interviewers, guess my wife wasn't lucky. Not only that, her interviewer was an African-American, nothing wrong with that, but with a very strong, bumble type accent, wife had to tell her to slow down so she could understand her.

Hers started off with an oath, going through all the evidence, then line by line on the N-400, made of issue that we wrote down the number of days she was out of the country in the last five years, wife simply replied, that is what precisely that question asked. IO wanted the number of days she was out of the country as a permanent resident, wife replied, nicely, if they wanted that, why didn't they ask that then. No response. She just changed it. Suppose if we wrote down the number of days she was out of the country as a permanent resident, would have wanted the number of days she was out of the country in the last five years. Can't win.

Wife fired back six correct answers before the interviewer could finish the questions, that was done in less than a moment and was complemented on that. Then wrote a lie, LOL, I am a very good cook. Actually she is.

Was asked three times if she ever committed a crime she wasn't arrested for, each time my wife repeated a NO, louder each time, then she read the oath aloud, and signed the form and was approved, well not exactly, somebody else has to do the final approval, learned later, that is the district managers job. Her application was misplaced, called Russ and he squared that away for us.

We are exactly the same distance from Milwaukee as St. Paul and was tempted to request a change, but knew that would end up in a 30 year delay. Something about this Viking/Packer thing where people from Wisconsin are treated like second class citizens, it's crazy.

[NickD 202]

Oh, and what bugs me about the USCIS interviewer procedure, as the USC sponsoring spouse, my integrity is being questioned as well, so should be able to go in just for that portion of the interview. Especially the evidence proving that we are married and living together, I feel I am equally responsible for that just as my wife is.

Seems crazy anyway with all the proof we had to provide just to get her that green card, they totally ignored that and what we provided was the same old stuff, again.

[statman78 0]

To All:

Thanks for all of the information and encouragement. As long as Ying doesn't get to nervous it sounds like she'll do fine. She'll have to study some more and read through all of the documentation we submitted so that she in at least familiar with it. Once in a while her english skills go down hill when she gets nervous. I plan on going with her even though I can't be with her during the interview. This should help her.

NickD,

Where in Central Wisconsin are you? We are in Racine and we spend a lot of time in the Milwaukee area.

[NickD 202]

To All:

Thanks for all of the information and encouragement. As long as Ying doesn't get to nervous it sounds like she'll do fine. She'll have to study some more and read through all of the documentation we submitted so that she in at least familiar with it. Once in a while her english skills go down hill when she gets nervous. I plan on going with her even though I can't be with her during the interview. This should help her.

NickD,

Where in Central Wisconsin are you? We are in Racine and we spend a lot of time in the Milwaukee area.

Near Wausau, Wausau has a river running through it, but so does Racine, not only that, but a lake. Miss that lake, from that area, and have a ton of relatives in Milwaukee dating back 150 years. So why did they send us to St. Paul?

[statman78 0]

To All:

Thanks for all of the information and encouragement. As long as Ying doesn't get to nervous it sounds like she'll do fine. She'll have to study some more and read through all of the documentation we submitted so that she in at least familiar with it. Once in a while her english skills go down hill when she gets nervous. I plan on going with her even though I can't be with her during the interview. This should help her.

NickD,

Where in Central Wisconsin are you? We are in Racine and we spend a lot of time in the Milwaukee area.

Near Wausau, Wausau has a river running through it, but so does Racine, not only that, but a lake. Miss that lake, from that area, and have a ton of relatives in Milwaukee dating back 150 years. So why did they send us to St. Paul?

Wausau is a nice area. I was born and raised in Milwaukee so my family is there. I went to school there too and haven't strayed too far afer college. I did live in Ripon for awhile before moving to Racine. Either way, Milwaukee or St.Paul, you had a way to travel.

[thunder 0]

Statman78:

I just had my interview today. your wife will be just fine. They will ask her if she wants to take the old or the new test (I picked old). They asked me 6 questions and stopped since you need to answer 6 out of 10 correctly. They asked me to read "I like to go to work" and to write "I like to clean my house". So, if she knows all the civic questions, it will be a breeze. Good luck!

NickD:

I saw you wrote that your wife signed some papers but then she wasn't approved completely. I think the same thing happened to me today. I got the letter handed to me which had two things checked :

- You Passed the tests of English and U.S. history and government.

- USCIS will send you a written decision about your application.

I didn't see at the bottom of this paper that there was a spot with "Congratulations! your application is recommended for approval" until I got home. Naturally, I was very worried that something is wrong. But, seeing your post, made me think that I did sign some paper and the officer signed it as well. Like, everything was going well.

You said you called someone after your papers were lost. How did you get in touch with them?

Thanks for your feedback!

[NickD 202]

Statman78:

I just had my interview today. your wife will be just fine. They will ask her if she wants to take the old or the new test (I picked old). They asked me 6 questions and stopped since you need to answer 6 out of 10 correctly. They asked me to read "I like to go to work" and to write "I like to clean my house". So, if she knows all the civic questions, it will be a breeze. Good luck!

NickD:

I saw you wrote that your wife signed some papers but then she wasn't approved completely. I think the same thing happened to me today. I got the letter handed to me which had two things checked :

- You Passed the tests of English and U.S. history and government.

- USCIS will send you a written decision about your application.

I didn't see at the bottom of this paper that there was a spot with "Congratulations! your application is recommended for approval" until I got home. Naturally, I was very worried that something is wrong. But, seeing your post, made me think that I did sign some paper and the officer signed it as well. Like, everything was going well.

You said you called someone after your papers were lost. How did you get in touch with them?

Thanks for your feedback!

I called Sen. Russ Feingold's office, but after waiting five weeks when the IO promised my wife she should have it within two weeks. New IO's always seem to cause delays.