zentaco

Update: Applied for my expedited passport on march 26th at the USPS in Santa Cruz. The passport office received the documents April 1st and it was delivered to my house today! Still waiting on supporting documents but apparently those were mailed out yesterday. That was lightning fast.

I wasn’t sure if I could actually talk to someone at passport Canada given how hard it is to reach a human when I call USCIS. I did try calling and after a 30 minute wait did get though to someone. Looks like they deliver to citizens living in the US via fedex which is actually faster than delivering within Canada (1-2 days with fedex vs ~5 days with Canada post). So I might mail in my passport application today.

As of half an hour ago I'm officially an American citizen!
 
It was an interesting experience - they handed us info packets and then had us get in one of several lines that wrapped around the parking lot. I think they were doing oaths in batches. At some point, an official came by to fetch my appointment letter and green card (+ expired docs). After that we just waited for the line to move. Once it was my turn, I got out of my car and swore the oath with a small batch of people (maybe a couple dozen?). Then we got back in my car and after a few minutes I was handed my certificate of naturalization. Thought there would be a little more fan fare, but I'm glad the process is over!

As of half an hour ago I'm officially an American citizen!
 
It was an interesting experience - they handed us info packets and then had us get in one of several lines that wrapped around the parking lot. I think they were doing oaths in batches. At some point, an official came by to fetch my appointment letter and green card (+ expired docs). After that we just waited for the line to move. Once it was my turn, I got out of my car and swore the oath with a small batch of people (maybe a couple dozen?). Then we got back in my car and after a few minutes I was handed my certificate of naturalization. Thought there would be a little more fan fare, but I'm glad the process is over!

As of half an hour ago I'm officially an American citizen!
 
It was an interesting experience - they handed us info packets and then had us get in one of several lines that wrapped around the parking lot. I think they were doing oaths in batches. At some point, an official came by to fetch my appointment letter and green card (+ expired docs). After that we just waited for the line to move. Once it was my turn, I got out of my car and swore the oath with a small batch of people (maybe a couple dozen?). Then we got back in my car and after a few minutes I was handed my certificate of naturalization. Thought there would be a little more fan fare, but I'm glad the process is over!

As of half an hour ago I'm officially an American citizen!
 
It was an interesting experience - they handed us info packets and then had us get in one of several lines that wrapped around the parking lot. I think they were doing oaths in batches. At some point, an official came by to fetch my appointment letter and green card (+ expired docs). After that we just waited for the line to move. Once it was my turn, I got out of my car and swore the oath with a small batch of people (maybe a couple dozen?). Then we got back in my car and after a few minutes I was handed my certificate of naturalization. Thought there would be a little more fan fare, but I'm glad the process is over!

As of half an hour ago I'm officially an American citizen!
 
It was an interesting experience - they handed us info packets and then had us get in one of several lines that wrapped around the parking lot. I think they were doing oaths in batches. At some point, an official came by to fetch my appointment letter and green card (+ expired docs). After that we just waited for the line to move. Once it was my turn, I got out of my car and swore the oath with a small batch of people (maybe a couple dozen?). Then we got back in my car and after a few minutes I was handed my certificate of naturalization. Thought there would be a little more fan fare, but I'm glad the process is over!

Woke up this morning and saw that my oath ceremony was scheduled for March 15th. Seems like USCIS is moving fast this year (not that I mind)!

Completed my interview! I was the last interview of the day for the officer (USCIS San Jose was pretty quiet at that point too). I passed and was recommended for approval.

It’s the San Jose office.
 
It’s a bit funny hearing about a really nice USCIS officer, as I described mine to my husband as possibly the most middle of the road as I could get (not too nice but not scary, we had a pleasant conversation about how expensive it is here and how everyone comes here for work 😂).

I'm officially a US citizen! 30 people from 19 different countries were in my ceremony today but it went by so fast! I think we were in and out in around 1/2 hour.
 
It seemed like everybody got there at the same time so the line stretched from security into the waiting area for interviews. Family members were sent into the ceremony room first and then the rest of us had to hand over our green cards/EADs and confirm the information on our naturalization certificates. They *did* use my entire name (my IO confirmed that dropping the second middle name would have required a name change and I'm not bothered enough to go through that process) but when they handed out the certificates they just referred to everyone as Mrs./Ms. or Mr. Last Name.
 
I think the bulk of all ceremonies are essentially the same (videos, call of countries, oath, pledge of allegiance, etc) but they let family members come to the front of the room for the oath for pictures and video. My husband stood right in front of me and filmed the whole thing! 
 
I will say that one of the coolest and best parts of the ceremony was seeing everyone interact with each other. There were people there with multiple family members and people there by themselves, but I don't think anyone felt alone. People were offering to take pictures for others, complete strangers were taking pictures together, families were hugging, one man got both of his small kids from the family section to be with him while he took the oath, and everyone applauded for everyone else. It was really nice to see.
 
Its been a *long* day but I'm so glad the whole process is over. I don't intend to ever go back to that office unless I somehow lose my certificate (*knock on wood* because they told us it costs around *$600* to replace it!) or I randomly find myself working there someday. I think the least friendly people we encountered all day were the security guards and even they weren't that bad. I hope everyone has a similar experience at their FOs! 
 
Now to register to vote, update my SSN, and (eventually) get my passport!

Woke up this morning and saw that my oath ceremony was scheduled for March 15th. Seems like USCIS is moving fast this year (not that I mind)!

Just finished my interview! I passed! I'll try to recap what I remember, but parts of it honestly felt like an out of body experience.
 
My appointment was at 10:45 and we got there 20ish minutes early. It was super busy at the Pittsburgh FO today - my husband and I and another couple got off the elevator and one of the security guards said "are they ever going to stop coming today?!" lol. I think my interview started a couple of minutes late, but I hadn't checked my watch because I jumped up mid-sentence and hustled to the door when they called my name. 
 
My IO was *super* nice and put me at ease right away. I remarked on how busy it was today and she said "I know! I don't know WHAT they were thinking! There are interviews all day AND ceremonies! There's a lot going on here today!" We started with the reading and writing portion ("what do we pay to the government?"/"we pay taxes") and then the civics test. My questions were:
 
1) Name two cabinet level positions
2) What is the supreme law of the land?
3) Who is the current speaker of the house?
4) We elect a US representative for how many years?
5) Why are there 50 stars on the flag?
6) What is the highest court in the land?
 
I got all of them right and told her that my husband had laughed at how hard I had studied, but that I wanted to be prepared to be able to run all 100 if I needed to. She laughed and said it was a good strategy. We went over some of the yes/no questions on the N400 and she yawned a couple of times but laughed and apologized. She said it wasn't a reflection on me, just that those questions are very repetitive for IOs. We also fixed one old address I'd accidentally entered wrong. I'd dropped my interview letter off at a window when I first arrived, so all she wanted to see was my current green card. Literally nothing else.
 
I signed off on the oath, verified my information, and then she asked if I was prepared to be naturalized today! I guess today is the first day they've started to do same day ceremonies again because they've been short staffed, so that was great timing. We have to go back in a couple of hours for the oath to happen, but I'm glad it'll all be done!
 
As she was walking me out, we were talking about nerves and preparing for the test. She asked if I'd noticed that she has some of the answers posted on her wall, and when I said that I didn't she took me back to her office to show me. She has the full anthem, the bill of rights, the constitution, etc all on large posters, and she was like "we want to help people when we can and realize that it's harder for some than others, so those are just there in case." I thought it was really sweet.
 
Anyway, I can post a brief update about the ceremony itself but I wanted to write out the interview details while I can still remember them! Good luck to everyone who still has to do their interview - I was so nervous, but it really is the smoothest part as long as you're prepared. 

Woke up this morning and saw that my oath ceremony was scheduled for March 15th. Seems like USCIS is moving fast this year (not that I mind)!

Woke up this morning and saw that my oath ceremony was scheduled for March 15th. Seems like USCIS is moving fast this year (not that I mind)!

Completed my interview! I was the last interview of the day for the officer (USCIS San Jose was pretty quiet at that point too). I passed and was recommended for approval.

Hardly anything! Just my letter and green card.  

Completed my interview! I was the last interview of the day for the officer (USCIS San Jose was pretty quiet at that point too). I passed and was recommended for approval.

Completed my interview! I was the last interview of the day for the officer (USCIS San Jose was pretty quiet at that point too). I passed and was recommended for approval.

Completed my interview! I was the last interview of the day for the officer (USCIS San Jose was pretty quiet at that point too). I passed and was recommended for approval.

Completed my interview! I was the last interview of the day for the officer (USCIS San Jose was pretty quiet at that point too). I passed and was recommended for approval.

T-minus one week until my interview. Starting to get nervous! I’ve got a good grasp of the civics questions at least.

Got my interview scheduled as well! February 27th, wasn’t expecting to get it so quickly.

Filed my N-400 online late last night, January 2nd. Quickly got a receipt notice and notice that they were reusing the biometrics they already had. I found this out through the My USCIS portal, is it usually the case that you don't get email notifications as well? I'm guessing they'll sent things in the mail like they did for my original K-1 Visa application. Plan to visit my family in less than 2 weeks, so hoping further notices will show up online as well.

Congrats on all the speedy interviews! Just 21 days until mine. How are you all preparing for it? I'm having my husband regularly quiz me on the civics questions. I've watched a couple of mock interviews on Youtube as well. Assuming as a native English speaker I likely won't need to study for the language portions.