RedBluff

Had my ceremony today and it was a bit more eventful than I had anticipated. Let's start off with some pointers though. There were 50 new citizens in this ceremony so they went through all of us first to ensure the certs were correct. The ceremony started 1h15min after the stated time on the letter. If you have a lot of family i would recommend they show up later. 
 
We needed two volunteers to tell their story so might want to prep for that if you feel so inclined. There was no shortage of volunteers in our group of 50. 
 
The ceremony started with a pledge of allegiance to the flag but later on, after everyone has completed the oath we had to redo the pledge. To my surprise the judge called me out to lead the audience in the pledge of allegiance. I thought it was odd and turns out that one of my co-worker is the niece of the judge so she was pranking me. 
 
All in all the ceremony took no more than 40 mins or so with opportunity to take pics both during and after the event. 
 
Glad this is over but I understand I'm fortunate to have lived in areas with low population so my wait times have been minimal compared to some of the stories here. Oh, one last thing. Make sure you also take your driver's license. Doesn't say on the letter but it is required. 
 
Good luck to everyone else here! 

Had my ceremony today and it was a bit more eventful than I had anticipated. Let's start off with some pointers though. There were 50 new citizens in this ceremony so they went through all of us first to ensure the certs were correct. The ceremony started 1h15min after the stated time on the letter. If you have a lot of family i would recommend they show up later. 
 
We needed two volunteers to tell their story so might want to prep for that if you feel so inclined. There was no shortage of volunteers in our group of 50. 
 
The ceremony started with a pledge of allegiance to the flag but later on, after everyone has completed the oath we had to redo the pledge. To my surprise the judge called me out to lead the audience in the pledge of allegiance. I thought it was odd and turns out that one of my co-worker is the niece of the judge so she was pranking me. 
 
All in all the ceremony took no more than 40 mins or so with opportunity to take pics both during and after the event. 
 
Glad this is over but I understand I'm fortunate to have lived in areas with low population so my wait times have been minimal compared to some of the stories here. Oh, one last thing. Make sure you also take your driver's license. Doesn't say on the letter but it is required. 
 
Good luck to everyone else here! 

Had my ceremony today and it was a bit more eventful than I had anticipated. Let's start off with some pointers though. There were 50 new citizens in this ceremony so they went through all of us first to ensure the certs were correct. The ceremony started 1h15min after the stated time on the letter. If you have a lot of family i would recommend they show up later. 
 
We needed two volunteers to tell their story so might want to prep for that if you feel so inclined. There was no shortage of volunteers in our group of 50. 
 
The ceremony started with a pledge of allegiance to the flag but later on, after everyone has completed the oath we had to redo the pledge. To my surprise the judge called me out to lead the audience in the pledge of allegiance. I thought it was odd and turns out that one of my co-worker is the niece of the judge so she was pranking me. 
 
All in all the ceremony took no more than 40 mins or so with opportunity to take pics both during and after the event. 
 
Glad this is over but I understand I'm fortunate to have lived in areas with low population so my wait times have been minimal compared to some of the stories here. Oh, one last thing. Make sure you also take your driver's license. Doesn't say on the letter but it is required. 
 
Good luck to everyone else here! 

No such thing as too fast. 🙂

It seems to me that some of the other posters feel entitled to get approved immediately, don't forget that we are still staying at someone else's 'house' here and unless we become US Citizens we will never be considered an equal member of society from a status perspective.
I would rather wait an extra 2 months if it means that I don't need to take a day off to go do an interview or jump through other hoops. The fact that we're paying quite a bit of money for every step of the process does not mean they owe us anything.
What difference does it make anyway? We all have our letter that allows us to stick around and do whatever we want until the end of this year or early 2015, just chill out and enjoy the upcoming spring weather.