interview in downtown Los Angeles

[DanieLMelara 7]

I applied under the 3 year rule. Married to a USC. It was scheduled for 7:45am in downtown Los Angeles. I waited for half an hour which it helped me to calm down. I was pretty nervous and even though the room was not warm I was hot.

The interview started at 8:15. The officer was a middle age Asian man. He did have some sort of accent, but was hard to tell where he was originally from. He had a serious demeanor. He made me swear and the first thing he asked me was to see my ID, passport and green card. He compared my full name in all of the 3 documents. He made me read a simple sentence and write another very simple sentence. He asked me the 6 questions about civics. I do not remember any of them. Lol.

He continued with questions about my wife, if we lived together and so on. He wanted to see proof that we are still together. He said: “do you have any bills or something like that” I provided with copies of bank statements for the last six months, water & power bills, landline & internet bills. I was going to give him the IRS original transcripts but he said that he already had a copy of those on file. He looked at every document very closely and marked the dates of the bank statement & the utility bills. I guess he wanted to see if those were recent and if I had transactions under the bank statements. He was satisfied with the documents provided.

Then he proceeded to ask me every single question on the application N400. He asked for my full name, address, my spouse’s name and so on. He asked me of how many times I have been out of the U.S. and for how long. He compared all the times I listed on the application to the entries on my passport. He looked at every single page in my passport. It was a bit strange when he finished looking at every page on the passport he took a second look at every single page. All my trips have been short trips and only to one single country, so no problems there.

He asked me about my traffic tickets and if I had paid them. I said yes to all and I mentioned to him that all of the citations have been minor infractions and even though I had to pay fines, they were all below $500. He said OK.

He gave me all the documents and didn’t say a word. He stayed silent and looked over his folder to make sure that he wasn’t missing anything. He seemed like a very meticulous guy. Like 3 minutes of silence passed until I asked:

- “that’s it?”

-He said “yeah, you should be getting a letter within 90 days with the time and place of your oath ceremony”

OMG! I was so happy to hear those words. The officer stated that I was very organized and it made his job easier, the interview lasted about 40 minutes which didn’t seem long since he went over all the questions on the N400 and all the detailed scrutiny of my passport and supported documents. He gave me the letter and walked me out.

Now, I want to know how long does it take to get the email about the oath and then how long after the email to get the letter. Anybody in the same situation? Any experiences at the LA office?

[Mufmer 24]

Long story, full of stress lol, but finally u approved, Congratz on this n have some dance....

[TigerFlower 61]

Congrats!!!!

[BigDaddy28 228]

I applied under the 3 year rule. Married to a USC. It was scheduled for 7:45am in downtown Los Angeles. I waited for half an hour which it helped me to calm down. I was pretty nervous and even though the room was not warm I was hot.

The interview started at 8:15. The officer was a middle age Asian man. He did have some sort of accent, but was hard to tell where he was originally from. He had a serious demeanor. He made me swear and the first thing he asked me was to see my ID, passport and green card. He compared my full name in all of the 3 documents. He made me read a simple sentence and write another very simple sentence. He asked me the 6 questions about civics. I do not remember any of them. Lol.

He continued with questions about my wife, if we lived together and so on. He wanted to see proof that we are still together. He said: “do you have any bills or something like that” I provided with copies of bank statements for the last six months, water & power bills, landline & internet bills. I was going to give him the IRS original transcripts but he said that he already had a copy of those on file. He looked at every document very closely and marked the dates of the bank statement & the utility bills. I guess he wanted to see if those were recent and if I had transactions under the bank statements. He was satisfied with the documents provided.

Then he proceeded to ask me every single question on the application N400. He asked for my full name, address, my spouse’s name and so on. He asked me of how many times I have been out of the U.S. and for how long. He compared all the times I listed on the application to the entries on my passport. He looked at every single page in my passport. It was a bit strange when he finished looking at every page on the passport he took a second look at every single page. All my trips have been short trips and only to one single country, so no problems there.

He asked me about my traffic tickets and if I had paid them. I said yes to all and I mentioned to him that all of the citations have been minor infractions and even though I had to pay fines, they were all below $500. He said OK.

He gave me all the documents and didn’t say a word. He stayed silent and looked over his folder to make sure that he wasn’t missing anything. He seemed like a very meticulous guy. Like 3 minutes of silence passed until I asked:

- “that’s it?”

-He said “yeah, you should be getting a letter within 90 days with the time and place of your oath ceremony”

OMG! I was so happy to hear those words. The officer stated that I was very organized and it made his job easier, the interview lasted about 40 minutes which didn’t seem long since he went over all the questions on the N400 and all the detailed scrutiny of my passport and supported documents. He gave me the letter and walked me out.

Now, I want to know how long does it take to get the email about the oath and then how long after the email to get the letter. Anybody in the same situation? Any experiences at the LA office?

Hello DanielMelara

Congratulations on your successful interview and I hope you hear something soon about your oath ceremony. I have a question about the N400. I've seen that the officer asked you about your traffic tickets, what did you answer for question 16 (arrested, cited...?). If you answered yes, did you send any proofs with the N400 that you paid the tickets or no? If you could tell me as much as you know about that subject because I have 4 tickets, 1 of them was dismissed. All of them thank God were less than $500 dollars.

What proofs that you sent with the N400 for genuine marriage? Did you send any, not at all.

Thank you so much. Sorry for the many questions that I have but I'm trying to clarify the way that I should do my application to make it as smooth as possible.

[DanieLMelara 7]

Hello DanielMelara

Congratulations on your successful interview and I hope you hear something soon about your oath ceremony. I have a question about the N400. I've seen that the officer asked you about your traffic tickets, what did you answer for question 16 (arrested, cited...?). If you answered yes, did you send any proofs with the N400 that you paid the tickets or no? If you could tell me as much as you know about that subject because I have 4 tickets, 1 of them was dismissed. All of them thank God were less than $500 dollars.

What proofs that you sent with the N400 for genuine marriage? Did you send any, not at all.

Thank you so much. Sorry for the many questions that I have but I'm trying to clarify the way that I should do my application to make it as smooth as possible.

Thanks, I am very happy about it.

1) I marked question 16 as a yes. The officer didn't seem so concern about the traffic tickets. I obtained proof from DMV and the court about these tickets and did sent proof when I sent the N400. however, the officer didn't ask me to provide him with any proof that I paid or resolved these issues at the time of the interview.

2) I sent everything I could get my hands on: electricity, water, internet, health, dental and car insurance. I also sent bank statements and most importantly the IRS transcripts which you can obtain by calling the IRS free of charge. I sent all of these documents when I applied and I also printed the most recent ones when I attended the interview.

My best advise is to sit down and organize all of your documents. it is OK to overprepare. The way I though about is that this was the most important interview of my life and there was no room to be lazy or to leave anything to fate.

You should consider every possible scenario and continue your "education" here at VJ. You will be fine.

[BigDaddy28 228]

Thanks, I am very happy about it.

1) I marked question 16 as a yes. The officer didn't seem so concern about the traffic tickets. I obtained proof from DMV and the court about these tickets and did sent proof when I sent the N400. however, the officer didn't ask me to provide him with any proof that I paid or resolved these issues at the time of the interview.

2) I sent everything I could get my hands on: electricity, water, internet, health, dental and car insurance. I also sent bank statements and most importantly the IRS transcripts which you can obtain by calling the IRS free of charge. I sent all of these documents when I applied and I also printed the most recent ones when I attended the interview.

My best advise is to sit down and organize all of your documents. it is OK to overprepare. The way I though about is that this was the most important interview of my life and there was no room to be lazy or to leave anything to fate.

You should consider every possible scenario and continue your "education" here at VJ. You will be fine.

How many months of bills and bank statements did you send?

Thank you.

[DanieLMelara 7]

How many months of bills and bank statements did you send?

Thank you.

I sent statements for the last 3 years, but i didn't send every month worth of bank statements, instead I sent every 4 months of bank statements. You can do every other month, or one every quarter, or you can send them all. Whatever you consider necessary. good luck.

[BigDaddy28 228]

I sent statements for the last 3 years, but i didn't send every month worth of bank statements, instead I sent every 4 months of bank statements. You can do every other month, or one every quarter, or you can send them all. Whatever you consider necessary. good luck.

Thank you so much for the help I hope you hear something from USCIS soon about your oath. Good luck to you.