gbn (lisa)

CONGRATS!! I think I will call USCIS tomorrow and ask whether my oath ceremony has been scheduled and for when. With Sandy on its way, there will be delays at USPS and also the letter may end up being "kidnapped" by the wind from my open-top mailbox!!

Thanks

Thanks Jamaican jnr

Can someone updates me please....

I'm officially a US citizen...

I actually didn't. There was no one there to register with. By the time I found where to register it was too late. But its okay I guess......we all know that no matter what with it without my vote NY is always a democrat state. Guess I'll be voting in 2016

Happy Monday morning everyone, I was able to open a service request this morning!!! Hopefully that will get some movement on my case! Now its waiting for 15 day to lapse to see do I get any response.

I'm glad they finally were able to open the the archive request.

Best if luck

Big day has arrived. I will be leaving work for my interview. I hope everything will go easily and have no problems. I will share my experience after the interview. Wish me luck guys.

Good luck

I used info pass yesterday to check on Tita's status. She passed the test 09/12/2012 so I was a little concerned. Apparently she was not put into the Oath queue until 10/15/2015. I do not know now whether she will get the Oath before election day, but we remain hopeful.

Thanks hopefully she will get oath soon.

Well, my interview is done. I arrived at 26 Federal Plaza at 1.15 for my 1.45 interview. There was a line for security but it didn't take long. I was upstairs and waiting by 1.25. My lawyer arrived around 1.35 p.m. We were called at 1.40 p.m. (5 minutes early!!) and the interview began. He went through my papers, explained that he can't recognize my same sex marriage for immigration purposes, so I am down as single (I have 5 years from Green Card so no biggie). Then went through all my trips out of the USA and crossed off all the ones where I spent less than a full day in another country (you have to be outside the US from midnight to midnight for it to count as a full day apparently, alot of my trips are NY - Toronto -NY one the same day, or with one night away, so they don't count). He couldn't find my birth certificate in the file, but my lawyer had a copy. He spent a long time shuffling the papers making sure everything was correct. He asked six questions:

1. What is the rule of law?

2. What is the name of the national anthem?

3. What happened on 9/11/2011?

4. Why are there 13 stripes on the flag?

5. How old do you have to be to vote for President?

6. What ocean is on the west coast of the United States?

He asked me to write "We pay taxes" and to read "What money do we give the government?"

The interview finished at 2.10 and he gave me a piece of paper and said my letter would come in the mail. My lawyer asked if we could wait, but the officer explained that the area that does the letters stops doing them at 2 p.m. and there is nothing he could do. So I guess I will have to wait.

I found the whole process quite straightforward, the officer was very professional and friendly. I think that once I have taken my oath, I will write to Secretary Napolitano and commend the officer.

Congratulations.

no progress yet (except yellow letter on 10/05/12), but on monday i will be on 91 day so i hope to be able to open a service request and maybe get some movement.

when is your oath day?!

People usually get yellow letter right before interview letter so hopefully that's your case. Although I didn't receive that.

My oath is for October 26. So hopefully I can still vote.

Congrats Lisa, I am sure you are glad to put this process behind.

BK-M, good luck!!!

Thank you, I'm glad the interview part is over. I Just want to get the oath ceremony over with. I'm glad is soon.

How about you? Have you had any progress?

Quite frankly, these are civil servants who are employed to provide a service to immigrants that pay fees for that service. I find it unacceptable that any of these people behave in an unprofessional manner. Fortunately, I will have my lawyer with me, which I am hoping will discourage any unprofessional behaviour, but I can assure you if I get less than professional treatment, I will be writing to Secretary Clinton and cc'ing Sen Gillebrand, Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Clarke and expressing my disappointment at the lack of professionalism and courtesy. I don't care if an officer is having a bad day or their haemorrhoids are painful or whatever, I deserve and should receive respectful, professional treatment.

Good luck today.

Yeah, the letter is going to arrive sooner or later... But, yes, this kind of strange, tense situation can make the whole process feel... less exciting, less... celebratory.

don't worry the oath ceremony will give you that feeling....

Yeah,i can imagine how you felt. Getting a good officer is like winning the lottery. Sorry.... Well hopefully you receive your oath soon.

I called and was informed by a very kind officer that USCIS has 120 days to make a decision/schedule oath ceremony after interview, which usually happens sooner. And "please call us if 90 days have passed and you have not received anything from us." It is certainly better to wait 3.5 hours and get the oath date right on the spot than be made to wait in yet another line...

Did they give you the option to wait?

I called and was informed by a very kind officer that USCIS has 120 days to make a decision/schedule oath ceremony after interview, which usually happens sooner. And "please call us if 90 days have passed and you have not received anything from us." It is certainly better to wait 3.5 hours and get the oath date right on the spot than be made to wait in yet another line...

Very true.

Good luck today gbn(Lisa) on your interview...

Thank you.

I passed!!!

Everything went smoothly. The officer ask me just 6 questions, asked for my passports and my id went over my application and in 10 minutes I was out waiting for my oath ceremony appointment......which took 3.5 hours of wait time. But its was worth it my appointment is for October 26 hopefully I can still register to vote.

Case by case. The manhattan office will give you an option after your interview approval whether 1) you'd wait for a few hours at the same spot to get the oath ceremony schedule letter, or 2) you prefer to go home and wait for the notification letter in your mailbox. If you choose to pickup the oath letter while you are there at same day where your interview was taken (* this process from interview to post decision might take any time between an hour upto six hours. ) If you don't mind kill a few hours sitting on a chair or go to cafeteria while your waiting. I highly recommend you to get it done at the same day since its not rare losing your oath letter sent by mail. Back to your original question, changing your name does not necessarily delay your process. Each case varies. Hope it helped.

Thanks

Hi guys.

My question is, I haven't worked in the past five years. Do I still need the IRS history for those part five years?

Anybody?

Not in Manhattan, but I am awaiting a judicial oath ceremony in Queens. Sixteen days have passed since my interview and still no date. On a side note, I thought that all naturalization ceremonies in NYC (NY state?) take place in courts. Has this changed? Anyway, I am trying to be patient as much as I can. I will not be able to vote in the coming election, but I guess in NY one voter more or less doesn't really matter.

Yeah I think all Manhattan oath ceremonies take place in courts and yeah hopefully by judges. My appointment is Tuesday and I want drop my first name and stay with my middle name. I just got married a week ago and I am still thinking if I should take his last name during citizenship.. Even though in marriage certificates says I will take his last name.

Hopefully they have a huge ceremony before the elections that you can attend to. like Jamaican jnr mention you have til the 26 for people that just becamecitizens.

Anybody changed their first name during naturalization? Wonder how long it would take to get a judicial oath ceremony in Manhattan NY.

Here is the end of story. I had my oath at Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn NY. It took way too long than I expected. I checked-in around 8:15am and judge appeared at 12pm and total time I stayed in ceremony was over five hours. It looks like it wasn't an exception but a normal procedure since USCIS officials have to do some pre-processing (they call everyone for signing certificate, name changes, warnings, right and responsibilities after citizenship, etc.) before oath. I would strongly recommend you to bring magazines or books to entertain yourself or find somebody to chat with. After all, most of time was passed basically just for waiting. My other observations:

o Security collects all cell phones at the entrance of building.

o You are allowed to bring guests but they send guests to the cafeteria upstairs where they can watch ceremony live from a TV.

o Oath part was pretty emotional and our judge was pretty passionate while speaking and we felt her energy and enthusiasm.

o You are allowed to go out for short breaks but you need to make sure to be there while judge shows up.

Last but not least, I really enjoyed following this forum and I found all answers of my questions from this forum (I think this forum saved me thousands of dollars for lawyer costs :)). I wish you good luck with your journey from my heart and welcome as a citizen in advance

Congratulations

Today I had my interview and passed it. My experience, however, was not a very pleasant one. The IO who interviewed me was a very grumpy lady and who gave me an impression that she totally disliked her job. I was finally called after two hours of waiting in the waiting area (having seen most of the people who arrived after me go in and leave before I was called) and then walked slowly to a little office where I was sworn in. Then, for what felt like five minutes, the IO looked into my fat file (Is everyone's file this fat?, I wondered as she looked through mine), page after page, not saying a word to me. Then, she finally asked, "What is your name?" I said it and she instantly shouted back at me, "This is not your name!!" My eyes went wide open and all I said was "Huh??" The IO began explaining to me how last name goes automatically back to a woman's maiden name when she divorces. She didn't let me say a word, explain, whatever, just talked and talked and then, when she was done lecturing me, she crossed my last name, the name I had after my husband, off my application!! I decided not to argue with her, I was changing my name to my maiden name anyway; I just sat there and stared and her. She must have had a really bad day, I thought to myself, but this, of course, hardly excused her unprofessional behavior. Anyway... When the part of making me uncomfortable, nervous, and feeling like an idiot was over, the IO went through my application (in a very sleepy manner), then asked me civic questions, followed by English test.

Questions were:

1/ What does the President's Cabinet do?

2/ What did the Declaration of Independence do?

3/ How many justices are on the Supreme Court?

4/ We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?

5/ If President and Vice President can no longer serve who becomes President?

6/ Name one branch of the government.

The reading part: Columbus Day is in October.

The writing part: Mexico is south of the United States.

The interview lasted 15 minutes in all. However, these 15 minutes had made me feel so drained I went back home and slept for three hours straight afterwards. To those still awaiting their interviews, my hope for you is that you won't have to deal with a moody IO....

Sucks you had to deal with someone so rude.

Congratulations on passing and hopefully your oath is soon.

Any new yorkers that changed their names??I live in NYC, Manhattan to be more specific. I wonder if it'll take longer for me to get an oath day,Since oath ceremony needs to take place in a judicial court.I wonder how often they have those.Add Reply

Any new yorkers that changed their names??

I live in NYC, Manhattan to be more specific.

I wonder if it'll take longer for me to get an oath day,

Since oath ceremony needs to take place in a judicial court.

I wonder how often they have those.

THANK YOU

JNR!

Can someone update me please.

I was in line for an interview since july 11, got schedule for an on Monday September 10th

Received interview letter on the 14th and I my interview is for October 16.

Little update on my case as of this AM. Still no schedule date on horizon. Called USICS who told me to expect interview date scheduled in next 60 to 90 days, as the file has not been requested by NYC field office, and is sitting at the national center. And still not able to open service request.

Oh my goodness..it seems that NYC waits for files to stack up for a while in the national center. And later everyone gets schedule for appointments in the same time frame