Oath Ceremony Experience in Atlanta Sep 2018

[Jamaican_Gooner 36]

My Oath ceremony was on Monday September 24^th at 8:00am. I got there at 7:55, went through security and went to the 2^nd floor. There you had USCIS staff checking the oath letter and that you had your green card. Do yourself a favor and fill out the back before just to save time, please note the city where you sign it must be Atlanta, Georgia as that is where USCIS Field office and the ceremony is being held. The staff member will go through the questions with you verbally. If you said yes to anything they'll ask you what is that about. I traveled outside the US so I just told them when I left(month); where I went to and how many days I was outside, that’s all they need. After that you go inside, hand in your letter and green card and are giving a number and you must sit in the assigned seat. I got number 64. They had pamphlets out for 85, but they said only 73 persons would be naturalized, some persons had family members with the as translators.

 

All other guests waited outside. They asked the guests to come in at 8:32. The ceremony started by talking about the process then they had someone speak about voter registration. Voter registration volunteers were on site on the third floor to assist at the end of the ceremony. Then we went through some videos on the faces of the nation; then the director speech and the video speech from the president and there was a musical video finally they had the roll-call of the Nations. This is where they call out the country from where everyone who is being naturalized is from and we would stand when they called out our countries name. In total there were 38 countries represented. One of the nice things was the gentleman leading the oath ceremony saying that after we did the call of nations and then the oath that when we sit back down we would be US citizens. So, everyone said the oath of office then we all applauded and sat down. Finally, the admin staff came out to collect the numbers and give us our certificates the they did this row by row you stood up and then you walked to the right and gave her your number and then walked to get your certificate and shake the hand of the officer who was running the program. Then we were done by 9:00 am

 

Afterwards people went to take pictures the entire process from signing in to get in the certificate took around an hour but from the start of the ceremony to the end it was probably 35 to 40 minutes. I went upstairs to the third floor to register to vote the voter registration volunteers made a copy of your naturalization certificate as that needs to be sent with your voter registration form. Please note you have to sign your naturalization certificate and that signature needs to match what you sign on your voter registration form. The voter registration form had seven items to complete: your name; date of birth; social security; address and that you are a US citizen and over 17 and a half years once completed the voter registration volunteers made a copy of my naturalization returned it to me and said that they would send it off to the secretary of state office

 

After leaving the field office, I immediately went to get my passport application. I stopped at a FedEx store nearby and made copies of my naturalization certificate as you need to send the original certificate and a copy with your passport application. I went downtown Atlanta to the US Postal Service passport agency located at 1072 West Peachtree Street NW. It's a good idea to get that done if you are pretty busy and at this US Postal Service location there is a dedicated passport area where you don’t need an appointment. This can be hit or miss but when I went at 10 am they had probably five officers working and no one was waiting so I got through immediately. So just to wait for my passport and naturalization certificate to return. All in all the oath ceremony was a quick and special occasion that I will always remember.

 

[Chris&Ale 153]

10 minutes ago, Jamaican_Gooner said:

My Oath ceremony was on Monday September 24^th at 8:00am. I got there at 7:55, went through security and went to the 2^nd floor. There you had USCIS staff checking the oath letter and that you had your green card. Do yourself a favor and fill out the back before just to save time, please note the city where you sign it must be Atlanta, Georgia as that is where USCIS Field office and the ceremony is being held. The staff member will go through the questions with you verbally. If you said yes to anything they'll ask you what is that about. I traveled outside the US so I just told them when I left(month); where I went to and how many days I was outside, that’s all they need. After that you go inside, hand in your letter and green card and are giving a number and you must sit in the assigned seat. I got number 64. They had pamphlets out for 85, but they said only 73 persons would be naturalized, some persons had family members with the as translators.

 

All other guests waited outside. They asked the guests to come in at 8:32. The ceremony started by talking about the process then they had someone speak about voter registration. Voter registration volunteers were on site on the third floor to assist at the end of the ceremony. Then we went through some videos on the faces of the nation; then the director speech and the video speech from the president and there was a musical video finally they had the roll-call of the Nations. This is where they call out the country from where everyone who is being naturalized is from and we would stand when they called out our countries name. In total there were 38 countries represented. One of the nice things was the gentleman leading the oath ceremony saying that after we did the call of nations and then the oath that when we sit back down we would be US citizens. So, everyone said the oath of office then we all applauded and sat down. Finally, the admin staff came out to collect the numbers and give us our certificates the they did this row by row you stood up and then you walked to the right and gave her your number and then walked to get your certificate and shake the hand of the officer who was running the program. Then we were done by 9:00 am

 

Afterwards people went to take pictures the entire process from signing in to get in the certificate took around an hour but from the start of the ceremony to the end it was probably 35 to 40 minutes. I went upstairs to the third floor to register to vote the voter registration volunteers made a copy of your naturalization certificate as that needs to be sent with your voter registration form. Please note you have to sign your naturalization certificate and that signature needs to match what you sign on your voter registration form. The voter registration form had seven items to complete: your name; date of birth; social security; address and that you are a US citizen and over 17 and a half years once completed the voter registration volunteers made a copy of my naturalization returned it to me and said that they would send it off to the secretary of state office

 

After leaving the field office, I immediately went to get my passport application. I stopped at a FedEx store nearby and made copies of my naturalization certificate as you need to send the original certificate and a copy with your passport application. I went downtown Atlanta to the US Postal Service passport agency located at 1072 West Peachtree Street NW. It's a good idea to get that done if you are pretty busy and at this US Postal Service location there is a dedicated passport area where you don’t need an appointment. This can be hit or miss but when I went at 10 am they had probably five officers working and no one was waiting so I got through immediately. So just to wait for my passport and naturalization certificate to return. All in all the oath ceremony was a quick and special occasion that I will always remember.

 

Great story. Thanks for sharing and congrats on becoming an American!

[angelbrown 195]

Congrats!!

[velrich 50]

Congratulations. All you have left to do is go to the social security office with your certificate to update your status and they will send you a new social security card 

[Jamaican_Gooner 36]

48 minutes ago, velrich said:

Congratulations. All you have left to do is go to the social security office with your certificate to update your status and they will send you a new social security card 

Thank you. I intend to go once I get my passport as that can also do and I need to update my global entry to reflect the passport so making one go of it

[Mar8989 2]

9 hours ago, Jamaican_Gooner said:

Thank you. I intend to go once I get my passport as that can also do and I need to update my global entry to reflect the passport so making one go of it

 

9 hours ago, Jamaican_Gooner said:

Thank you. I intend to go once I get my passport as that can also do and I need to update my global entry to reflect the passport so making one go of it

Congrats, did your online status change after you attend Oath ceremony to certificate issued or it stayed oath letter was sent? 

[Jamaican_Gooner 36]

15 hours ago, Mar8989 said:

 

Congrats, did your online status change after you attend Oath ceremony to certificate issued or it stayed oath letter was sent? 

It stayed as oath letter was sent. 😕

[Mar8989 2]

1 hour ago, Jamaican_Gooner said:

It stayed as oath letter was sent. 😕

I went to my oath ceremony yesterday as well in San Diego and it hasn’t change it still showing my oath ceremony letter was mailed, I asked you because I seen other cases where it says their naturalization certificate was issued after they attended ceremony 😊

[AtlFalcons 3]

On 9/27/2018 at 9:49 AM, Jamaican_Gooner said:

It stayed as oath letter was sent. 😕

 

On 9/25/2018 at 4:48 PM, Jamaican_Gooner said:

My Oath ceremony was on Monday September 24^th at 8:00am. I got there at 7:55, went through security and went to the 2^nd floor. There you had USCIS staff checking the oath letter and that you had your green card. Do yourself a favor and fill out the back before just to save time, please note the city where you sign it must be Atlanta, Georgia as that is where USCIS Field office and the ceremony is being held. The staff member will go through the questions with you verbally. If you said yes to anything they'll ask you what is that about. I traveled outside the US so I just told them when I left(month); where I went to and how many days I was outside, that’s all they need. After that you go inside, hand in your letter and green card and are giving a number and you must sit in the assigned seat. I got number 64. They had pamphlets out for 85, but they said only 73 persons would be naturalized, some persons had family members with the as translators.

 

All other guests waited outside. They asked the guests to come in at 8:32. The ceremony started by talking about the process then they had someone speak about voter registration. Voter registration volunteers were on site on the third floor to assist at the end of the ceremony. Then we went through some videos on the faces of the nation; then the director speech and the video speech from the president and there was a musical video finally they had the roll-call of the Nations. This is where they call out the country from where everyone who is being naturalized is from and we would stand when they called out our countries name. In total there were 38 countries represented. One of the nice things was the gentleman leading the oath ceremony saying that after we did the call of nations and then the oath that when we sit back down we would be US citizens. So, everyone said the oath of office then we all applauded and sat down. Finally, the admin staff came out to collect the numbers and give us our certificates the they did this row by row you stood up and then you walked to the right and gave her your number and then walked to get your certificate and shake the hand of the officer who was running the program. Then we were done by 9:00 am

 

Afterwards people went to take pictures the entire process from signing in to get in the certificate took around an hour but from the start of the ceremony to the end it was probably 35 to 40 minutes. I went upstairs to the third floor to register to vote the voter registration volunteers made a copy of your naturalization certificate as that needs to be sent with your voter registration form. Please note you have to sign your naturalization certificate and that signature needs to match what you sign on your voter registration form. The voter registration form had seven items to complete: your name; date of birth; social security; address and that you are a US citizen and over 17 and a half years once completed the voter registration volunteers made a copy of my naturalization returned it to me and said that they would send it off to the secretary of state office

 

After leaving the field office, I immediately went to get my passport application. I stopped at a FedEx store nearby and made copies of my naturalization certificate as you need to send the original certificate and a copy with your passport application. I went downtown Atlanta to the US Postal Service passport agency located at 1072 West Peachtree Street NW. It's a good idea to get that done if you are pretty busy and at this US Postal Service location there is a dedicated passport area where you don’t need an appointment. This can be hit or miss but when I went at 10 am they had probably five officers working and no one was waiting so I got through immediately. So just to wait for my passport and naturalization certificate to return. All in all the oath ceremony was a quick and special occasion that I will always remember.

 

Congrats on being a citizen! I came across your post when I was searching for oath ceremony in Atlanta. My ceremony is in Atlanta on Jan 11, I was wondering why you went to a post office that was 30 mins from the office? Is there a location in the USCIS building to apply for the passport? Thanks! 

[Jamaican_Gooner 36]

On 1/9/2019 at 9:36 AM, AtlFalcons said:

 

Congrats on being a citizen! I came across your post when I was searching for oath ceremony in Atlanta. My ceremony is in Atlanta on Jan 11, I was wondering why you went to a post office that was 30 mins from the office? Is there a location in the USCIS building to apply for the passport? Thanks! 

Hi there, thanks. Sorry I just saw this. I went to that post office as they specialize in passport application so I didn't need to set an appointment and I had no wait. Plus at that time of day the drive was traffic free. Hope that helps. There is no facility at the Atlanta uscis office to apply for a passport. Thanks

[RalphT 13]

On 9/26/2018 at 9:05 AM, Jamaican_Gooner said:

Thank you. I intend to go once I get my passport as that can also do and I need to update my global entry to reflect the passport so making one go of it

Did you have to go to airport to update to US passport?  

[Jamaican_Gooner 36]

1 hour ago, RalphT said:

Did you have to go to airport to update to US passport?  

I went to the office close to the airport. I just walked in, it was probably a 10 minute process

 

157 Tradeport Dr 

[RalphT 13]

28 minutes ago, Jamaican_Gooner said:

I went to the office close to the airport. I just walked in, it was probably a 10 minute process

 

157 Tradeport Dr 

Thanks... that location is shown temporarily closed.  I will go to the location at the airport.   Do you recall what you need to bring besides pasport?