N400 (Citizenship) Experience

[CxP 22]

I posted this in the US Citizenship tracking forum but figured this might be a good place for people to read about the experience:

 

Here is our experience with the U.S. citizenship application (N400).  Our local office is in New York City.

 

We filed online on 9/26/2023, about 3 months before the 3 year anniversary date of entry to US.

 

Interview was scheduled for 1/5/2024.  Interview was fine but the person handling the case had zero experience with people who have multiple names as their first name and could not give much practical advice as we wanted to fix my wife's name format.  For example in Vietnam, a woman's name may be formatted as such: LastName,  1stFirstName 2ndFirstName 3rdFirstName.

 

We wanted to make sure that the format would match how it should be in Vietnam.  Unfortunately, USCIS/State Dept/whoever, in their infinite wisdom only used my wife's 1stFirstName for her First Name, and assigned 2ndFirstName and 3rdFirstName as her middle name when she was given her green card.   This is the typical experience if you're Vietnamese unfortunately.

 

The interviewer suggested a name correction, but a name correction has no paper trail to show that the name was corrected.  Our main concern with this option is that my wife has several accounts and documents that may contain the wrong formatted name, and it would be nice to have paper documentation that the name format was corrected. 

 

Option 2 was to opt to change her name to a more "western" name, which she already uses for work.  Unfortunately, we heard that name changes requires an oath ceremony with a judge and appointments with judge may take longer than an oath with a USCIS officer.  The interviewer said that's not necessarily true but did not tell us how long it would usually take get scheduled an oath ceremony with a judge.  So we opted not to legally change her name, as weren't sure how long it would take and we also wanted to travel in the Spring.

 

Well lo and behold, we were scheduled for an oath ceremony at the Brooklyn Federal District Court with a judge on 1/30/2024, less than 30 days, even though my wife opted to not change anything with her name... so some advice for NYC residents, if you do want to legally change your name, you should consider doing it because you might have to wait for a court oath ceremony anyway.

 

Ceremony day/morning was kind of long.  They take your phones before you enter.

 

They tell you to arrive at 8 AM but people were still strolling in at 9-9:30 AM.  Family had to wait in the third floor cafeteria while my wife and other soon to be US citizens were in the courtroom making sure their paperwork were correct.  No possibility to request name to be changed at this point unfortunately.

 

Family was then permitted to sit in the courtroom to watch the ceremony at around 10:30-11 AM.  Judge arrived and made a speech and we left at around 11:30 AM-12 PM.

 

 

 

Regarding the name correction/change.  My wife my opt to change her name legally via a court proceeding in the future when we have time.  But it obviously will cost money to do so.

Edited February 22 by CxP

[Dashinka 23,419]

It is unfortunate you didn’t choose Option 2.  Our cousins are taking their oath today about 3-4 weeks after their interview with a name change.

 

Regardless, congrats on you wife’s naturalization!

[CxP 22]

21 hours ago, Dashinka said:

It is unfortunate you didn’t choose Option 2.  Our cousins are taking their oath today about 3-4 weeks after their interview with a name change.

 

Regardless, congrats on you wife’s naturalization!

Yeah honestly I should have researched more about NYC ceremonies but some of the stories I read were during or right after peak COVID which I assumed were different from how things are done now. Hopefully my anecdote will be a good barometer/data point to whoever will go through this in the near future. 

 

Thank you!

Edited February 23 by CxP

[Dashinka 23,419]

4 hours ago, CxP said:

Yeah honestly I should have researched more about NYC ceremonies but some of the stories I read were during or right after peak COVID which I assumed were different from how things are done now. Hopefully my anecdote will be a good barometer/data point to whoever will go through this in the near future. 

 

Thank you!

One thing I learned yesterday at our cousin’s oath ceremony is that the judge is not scheduled (at least in Detroit) for an hour after the time stated on the interview NOA.  My cousin’s notice stated 2pm, but the judge showed up at 3:15pm and apologized for being 15 minutes late.  Apparently the notice time is when future citizens need to be in line to check in.

[Crazy Cat 39,839]

1 hour ago, Dashinka said:

One thing I learned yesterday at our cousin’s oath ceremony is that the judge is not scheduled (at least in Detroit) for an hour after the time stated on the interview NOA.  My cousin’s notice stated 2pm, but the judge showed up at 3:15pm and apologized for being 15 minutes late.  Apparently the notice time is when future citizens need to be in line to check in.

Wife's non-judicial oath ceremony was like that.  We had to be there at 7:30am.....but the ceremony didn't start until around 9:30am. They actually did a good job of getting everyone processed as there were more than 1,000 new citizens sworn in during that ceremony. 

[Dashinka 23,419]

47 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

Wife's non-judicial oath ceremony was like that.  We had to be there at 7:30am.....but the ceremony didn't start until around 9:30am. They actually did a good job of getting everyone processed as there were more than 1,000 new citizens sworn in during that ceremony. 

Wow, there was only 75 in the ceremony yesterday afternoon.  As far as i know, Detroit only does Judicial oaths.