Hedi&Colleen

Hello guys I had my interview today and wanted to share it with you.
 
My interview was scheduled at 10:10am in OKC field office, I got there around 9:40 am, after passing security I had to drop my letter in a box and wait for the immigration officer to call me in. I got called in around 10:20am Interviewer greeted me and first thing she did was swore me in and ask for my GC, passport and drivers license. Next she proceeded to take my fingerprint and picture.
 
After that we started with the English test, she had a paper with different questions and made me read the first one "Who makes laws?" then she marked it correct, she had another paper for me to write my answer, she also marked it correct. Then she had another paper with the 10 questions I got the first six correct and that was the end of the tests.
 
Next she went trough all the questions on the N400, it was fast. After that she showed me the name on a small screen to verify my name for the certificate, verified and signed on the screen. She told me that I was recommended for approval and that I should receive a letter with the date time and location. She gave me two papers one was general information about the oath ceremony and the other one was a checklist with the area for "passed English and civic test" and "recommended for approval" checked. 
 
As soon as I left I had already received an email saying an action was taken on my case, the old system says my ceremony will be scheduled the new system has not been updated yet. 
 
I hope to receive the letter fast.

Well, today I had my interview so I would like to share my experience with you all.
my interview was scheduled for 09:30am at local office in Kansas City Missouri. My wife and I arrived around 09:00, went trough security within few minutes and I was instructed to give my letter to one of the IO at the counter #1.
he told me to wait until they call my name. 10 min later IO officer who conducted my interview called my name. This guy was everything people think when they consider dealing with government. Former military and state trooper, short hair buzz, very very “cold”. He swore me in and ask me for my GC, verified my fingerprint and photo and then we went to English portion of the test. He ask me to read “Who lives in White House”, then asked me to write answer to that question. Then we proceed to civic part, missed one question (first one).
1. Name governor of your state
2. How many senators we have
3. Name two Holliday's
4. Who was first president 
5. What did MLK did?
6. Name 3 original colonies 
7. Name of the speaker of the house 
 
After that was done, we went over my N-400 form, this went very fast. I told him that I made mistake on my application with question about weapons training, explained I had weapons safety training when I got my CCW and IO informed me that was not consider weapons training. Then I verified my info again and he told me that I will revive my oath ceremony letter in 3-5 weeks and to follow instructions on paper that will be mailed with it. 
Entire  process lasted 10 min.
 
by the time I got home I revived 3 emails, last one saying my oath ceremony letter with date and time was sent out, now I need to wait until it’s updated on my account page.
 
that is it. I applied 2/24/18 and soon my journey will be over.
 
 
 
 

For those of you staring to memorize your answers to the Civics Test....
 
In the booklet you are given, there are several "correct" answers given to many of the questions.  My advice - highlight ONE answer in your study book, and just stick with that answer ALL THE TIME.
 
You don't need to know ALL the states that border Mexico - you just need ONE of them (New Mexico is the easiest answer, right?)
You don't need to know ALL the rights of a US Citizen - just memorize the one(s) that are easiest for you to remember.
 
If you were in 8th grade Civics, you might have to know ALL of them, but for your test - make it easy on yourself!
 
Sukie in NY (I'm the USC, and I only got 94 of 100 correct.  My excuse?  It's been 45 years since 8th Grade Civics)
 

Hello people,
 
I just wanted to share my interview experience.
 
I got to the USCIS office 20 minutes before my appointment. It was at 12:50pm. 12:51pm, a IO calls my name and asked me to follow him. He asked me why I was late to my appointment???....what????? I replied that I wasn't late. He looked at the appointment letter and realized that I was on time. He mentioned that the system shows my appointment at 12:15pm.....odd!!!
 
He sworn me in, and we started. 6 questions, all correct. Made me write a sentence and read another one.
 
Asked me all the list of questions where you have to respond if I am a communist or belong to any illegal party and so forth....... I think this took 75% of the time that I spent in his office.
 
After that he verified that all my information was correct. and made me sign electronically on an IPAD that was design for this purpose.
 
No weird questions, or anything from my past (which I have nothing actually)
 
While he was scanning and making copies and addressing my file (which was probably 2 inches wide), I asked him about my short wait for the interview since the process was started. He replied by saying that most of the delays are generated by the third parties they use to do the background and other inquiries about the applicant. He said I got lucky and probably they didn't find anything on me to delay. Well, good to know.
 
After all the paperwork, he made me sign a document that had my name on it and verify it was correct...again!! and explained I will be receiving a document by mail where all the details of my oath ceremony will be described. He said that he will be recommending me to be approved and walked me out.
 
The IO was a very polite gentleman. I am sure he noticed I was nervous and he tried to calm me down with his smooth talking....it helped. I felt very comfortable when we started the process.
 
In general a good experience. My case has been updated in the website to "Oath Ceremony Will Be Scheduled". 
 
I wish you guys the best luck. This threat has helped to keep me busy and not be anxious about this process.
 
Thank you all.
 
Zukkaus

Hello everyone

So I had vacation right after interview so here is  my delayed info on
how it all went. I'll also post in parent as it might have some
interesting bits.

Key points of application and bits of Interview experience. 
Some details might be interesting and I’ll try to mention what
I saw gets discussed, asked ..
 
This forum is helpful as much as we all share as much as we can.
 
Regular 5 year rule application, family based gc.
Applied just month before 5y date.
 
Docs - form filled in online like everyone else  - and in addition to that uploaded green card front and back.
Decided to upload only drivers license as it had my first address so it was a proof of first address in the application. 
I think general logic should be if you be asked you should have something to show that you resided at the adresses 
you listed in the application. That was my logic.
 
I did not upload my child birth certificate as some recommend to do it ..
I did bring it to interview and i was not asked for it .. 
 
Taxes wise decided to bring to interview and not upload.
Had with me just the last(2017) year as I already had it
accepted. Never was asked for it. 
 
I did give a thought to make passport photos for interview 
as I read some folks  still are asked for them but then decided to not do it. 
I was not asked passport photos at interview.
 
I did not file taxes first two years so I answered yes to that big ‘have you ever’ question
as recommended here and everywhere else.  
What was interesting officer went over this with me and since I was not required - I did not
have income - what happened the office changed that answer to ‘NO’!
That was interesting turn but I did not object. So if not filing taxes question is one
of your worries be ready for this kind of turn
 
I’ve had  a few long trips and I thought I might get asked about them
All below six month. One was 179 days. No questions ..
 
On the interview I was quite stressed .. and was trying to act normal
Also it was hot in the room
I don’t remember questions but they were not the most difficult.
Civis test goes in interesting way - questions were printed on some
blank and looked like officer was reading them and writing down my answers in blanks. I guess
that is how process is to document our interviews and this is added to your case.
After first six or seven correct answers I was not asked the rest of it .
 
Final statistic point already 2 week and my status is still - ceremony
will be scheduled. Officer mentioned I might go in May but Im kind of
bumed no date no info and no letter yet :-(

Another minor interview tip: as you are under oath and all, you are only to answer by "yes" or "no" on the background questions. One one of them I answered "I do", and was reminded to only use yes or no!
 
My interviewer was all business, very little chit-chat if any at all. We were done in ten minutes, but I am older, long-time GC holder. Interviewer had my ancient GC application stuff in front of him, and I saw some really old-school yellow triplicate carbon copies!

My friend went for the interview recebtly.
 
Here are some tips for interview:
 
1. You do not pick the answer from A B C or D. They ask the question and you answer from your own knowledge.
 
2. Answer the full question as it says on the material. IO asked my friend: How old do you have to be to vote? She answered: 18. IO marked as wrong because she did not say “18 and older”. Details we may not think are important... 
 
3. They will ask details about your past, be ready to answer, such as international trips, previous marriages (if any), etc.
 
4. For the wifeys/hubbies, with or without I-751 pending: bring your marriage supporting documents as if this were a green card interview... you never know what they might ask!
 
Good luck to everyone and let’s go back to the audio questions 😁

Thanks, everyone, it actually means a lot to get all the good vibes coming my way. As promised, here's my interview experience at USCIS in Buffalo, NY:
 
1. Documents that I submitted scans of along with with my N-400 and brought originals of to the interview.
 
The full list is attached, short summary below:
- Appointment notice
- Green card
- My current and expired passports
- Marriage certificate
- My birth certificate, its translation to English, and letter certifying the translation written by a friend
- Wife's US birth certificate
- Speeding ticket and certified court record showing no balance due
- Information re: voter registration (see below)
- Joint leases for houses bearing mine and wife's names
- IRS tax transcripts and state refund check stubs bearing mine and wife's names
- Joint health, car, and renters' insurance documentation
- Evidence that I was in a non-immigrant status on my 26th birthday for Selective Service. I became a PR at 27, so just missed the requirement
- Passport photos
- Other miscellaneous items such as old USICS notices, explanation letters I furnished with my application, and etc.
 
2. The interview.
 
The interview was scheduled for 10:45 AM. I arrived at 10:15 AM. My wife accompanied me. As usual, we were screened by the security officers and checked in by the receptionist. Around 11:20, a young officer came out from the back and invited me in for my interview. He made no acknowledgement of my wife's presence.
After we entered his office, he asked that I make the standard affirmation that I swear to only tell the truth. Once we sat down, the officer apologized for the delay and explained that he was reading my admittedly rather detailed application.
 
The interview started with the English test. I was asked to read "Columbus day is celebrated in October" and then to write it down.
Next, I was asked the following civics questions:
- If the president and the vice president can both no longer serve, who becomes president (Speaker of the House)
- Name one branch of the government (Executive)
- What is the Declaration of Independence (we declared out independence from the United Kingdom)
- How many justices are on the Supreme Court (9)
- How many years do we elect senators for (6)
- What does the President's cabinet do? (advises the President)
 
First, I was asked for my name, my DOB, where I was born, my wife's name and DOB, and whether I were interested in changing my name.
Next, I was then asked what I expected to be the hardest question - the one about my voter registration. I do not think I mentioned this on VJ in detail before. I was one of the people affected when the State of Vermont erroneously transmitted records for a number of permanent residents to the Secretary of the State during the implementation of the "motor voter" laws. More details can be found in this article or by Googling the matter. As a result, I was automatically registered to vote after changing the address on my car registration. When I found out, I was mortified and immediately began working to fix this. Luckily, I was eventually able to get in touch with the director of operations for the VT DMV, who took full responsibility and promised to help me obtain solid proof that I am not an fault for this registration. He provided me with a certified copy of my original VT DL application,as well as an official letter explaining that I was registered due to an error on their side and not through any fault of mine. I attached these, along with a detailed explanation of the situation, a copy of the local voter roster from my town clerk that showed I did not vote in the only election that was held while I was registered, and a copy of a newspaper article about another permanent resident being erroneously registered by the DMV. This proved sufficient - the officer took a look through a copy of the letter from the DMV official and did not examine any other documents in my presence. He then changed my lengthy answer to the related question to "I was registered to vote by VT DMV in error". The officer did not look at any of the other supporting documents that I've brought, although I suspect he had looked through the copies in my file before inviting me in.
 
Next, he went through the rest of my application question by question. For some reason, the copy that he had did not reflect that my wife was a USC by birth (although I can see it in my online application), he fixed that. He made a few other small adjustments to wording on various questions. His last question was how old I was when I became a PR. Given the fact that I managed maybe 2 hours of sleep the night before, I was stumped by the requiured calculations, so I just mumbled that I was a non-immigrant at 26. That satisfied him. At that point, he asked me to review the changes that he had made on an iPad attached to his desk and to sign for them. He then asked me to sign for a few more things, acknowledging that I know and understand the oath I will have to take and verifying the information that will appear on my naturalization certificate.
 
The officer then said that he is recommending me for approval and congratulated me. He explained that the decision will need to be reviewed by his supervisor, which is standard procedure (it does appear to happen with many junior officers). He then said that he will go ahead and schedule me for the oath. I asked if the Buffalo field office did same day oath ceremonies, and he said that they did not. He then told me my oath will be held on 5/14 in Rochester and provided my with a copy of the N-652 with the Congratulations box checked. He then printed and handed to me a copy of the oath letter, N-445, listing the details of my oath ceremony. At this point, he congratulated me again, I thanked him, and he walked me out.
 
The whole interview took about 20 minutes. After my wife and I left and were walking down the street back to our car, my arm around her shoulders, we ran into the office that interviewed me leaving to get some lunch. He smiled at us, and it was a cute little moment that we shared.
 
3. Next steps.
 
As of right now, my.uscis.gov is still showing the following:

 
egov.uscis.gov is showing the following:

 
finally, under case history and next steps on the same site, I see the following:


 
While these are not entirely consistent with the fact that I have an oath date and letter in hand, I am not reading into them too much. Unless I hear anything from the USCIS between now and 5/14, I am going to continue operating under the assumption that my application is approved and I will be making the oath on that date. To add to this, when I asked the interviewing officer at what point I should expect the final decision, he told me that this was it, and that the quality review thing is just "written that way".
 
This concludes my interview experience at USCIS in Buffalo, NY. Please feel free to ask any questions, and thanks again for the good vibes. I apologize in advance for any typos and mistakes, I am running on just a couple of hours of sleep and am completely exhausted by all of the anxiety that surrounded this interview. 
Good luck to everyone!
 
List of documents in naturalization folder (redacted).doc

MY INTERVIEW APRIL 16 EXPERIENCE
 
Hi guys! I just want to share my interview experience yesterday and hopefully it helps in you preparation in your upcoming interview! Good luck! 
 
My interview was scheduled at 8:00am, I arrived 25 mins early. I was checked in and called by the officer around 7:50am. 
Documents I brought with me
- Interview Letter
- Green Card/ Driver's License
- Passport (expired and renewed)
- Husband's birth cert & passport
- Updated form of recent travels
- Marriage certificate
- IRS we filled joint
I  brought the original &photocopied them as well
 
Documents that the officer asked
- Interview Letter
- Green Card/ Driver's License
- IRS tax that we filled joint
 
I started with the English test and just have to read 1 sentence and then write the sentence he asked me to write. That was it! I then proceed to the CIVIC questions. They gave me this red booklet about the 100 questions to study for Naturalization when I did my biometrics. Everything is on the booklet.  The officer probably asked me 10 questions total. Like how many supreme court justice? What does declaration of the independence entails? Give me one branch of the government? etc. I got them all right. Then we proceed to the next part of the interview...
 
So, Its kinda like adjustment of status interview but w/o my husband. lol. I was asked about our relationship. Me and my husband are together for 4 years and no kids yet. He asked me like maybe 5 times if I have kids. I said "we don't have kids" and I" don't have kids". So he asked for more evidence. Health insurance, bank accounts, life insurance etc. But I didn't bring any with me. Luckily I brought the IRS tax we filled joint 2014-2016  with me so I gave it to him. So that kinda stopped him and then he write notes in his computer. I was then asked about the yes or no questions in the N-400 form that we filled up and questions about pledging loyalty to the United States. I also wanted to point out that the officer also asked me if I have arrested or had any traffic violations. So I kinda paused because I just had a recent one, its obstruction of control/vision. From holding my phone! lol. Anyway I told him that I went to court and pay the fees so I wont get the points. Its my 1st ever ticket. So he put that in his computer again. Kinda freak me out because I thought its gonna be the only reason that I wont be approved. The officer is nice and professional. After that, I was asked to review infos he typed in his computer in this IPAD and signed couple pages. And then he told me Congratulations! I will send recommendation in your case for approval ! He congratulate me 3 times. Yeyyy!!
 
I just checked my status online when I woke up today and it says 
 
We approved your application
Your final step to becoming a citizen is to attend your naturalization ceremony
We will mail you a letter when we schedule your naturalization ceremony.
 
I'm over the moon. I'm gonna kissed the USCIS good bye soon. Over all it was a smooth process. Our field office here is very organize and not so busy. I wont be able to complete this journey w/o my VisaJourney family my no.1 source of information  . 
Let me know guys if you have more questions. Good luck to everyone!!!  

Indeed! haha
 
Just remember to do a few things after you become a citizen:
 
Get your US passport (Get it directly with the Department of State. The post office takes too long and they never returned my wife original birth certificate) Oh and get a passport card too.
 
Update your records with the Social Security
Update your records with the DMV
Register to vote
 
Then you're all set. I might be forgetting something but if anyone knows if there's anything else that needs to be done.
 

you can take your naturalization certificate, your travel plans / reservations and make an appointment at a Passport agency - they can issue your passport within 24 hours.
if you are within 2 weeks of your oath date and travel date, you can even book the appointment ahead of time so you can save the slot.
I booked the appointment a week before the oath for the date immediately following the oath - I was then able to do a walk in and filed the same day as the oath - went from the ceremony to the agency - and picked up the passport the next day.
you can take your naturalization certificate, your travel plans / reservations and make an appointment at a Passport agency - they can issue your passport within 24 hours.
if you are within 2 weeks of your oath date and travel date, you can even book the appointment ahead of time so you can save the slot.
I booked the appointment a week before the oath for the date immediately following the oath - I was then able to do a walk in and filed the same day as the oath - went from the ceremony to the agency - and picked up the passport the next day.

Strongly recommend you that you should submit your N400 online! I just had my interview today, and the TVs in the waiting all had this information on display, suggesting people to submit N400 online.
I submitted mine online in Oct 2017, and it has been easy to see updates, documents etc. Also you can use a credit card/debit card to pay for the application fee online. Way easier in my opinion.

I wanted to send a quick message to this great Visa Journey community and all of you that have helped my fiance and I through our journey. The advice and help I received here was invaluable and I truly want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. I had so many questions and it was very overwhelming at times. I am sure each and every one of us have felt that way at one time or another. My fiance picked up his Visa today and he will be traveling here in the next few weeks after he spends some much needed time with his whole family. We could not be happier than we are right now! My wish is for all of you to be with your loved ones very soon. We are so thankful and blessed for all of you. Thank You!
All of our love,
Christie and Salim

AichaNicholas, I and my fiancé are in the exact same situation - we know our case is there, we filed the DS-160 and paid the fee. On Monday I sent them an email (with our receipt number, case number, and DS-160 confirmation number, names and birthdates) requesting a K1 interview. If I don't hear from them by Wednesday, I am going to start calling every day.
I know that our case arrived because we looked at this website (look under Immigrant visa with your case number). If it says "ready", that's a good sign.
https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx?eQs=o/iS8zDpeAKjMWCuebHqOw==
Please let me know if you have any news or information, and I will be happy to do the same! Good luck!