roddie2k

@abfar..my documents weren't available at the time of the interview even though it was marked complete..infact it was available to me 2 weeks after my naturalization.

I suspect the moment it goes to complete a copy is electronically dispatched to USCIS .

Folks- my immigration journey came to an end today after 629 days here at Newark NJ. 

My appointment was at 7am. I reached the office building at 6:45 am (after parking at the nearby garage). The building was open to applicants at sharp 7am. After the TSA style security checks, I had to go to the 14^th floor. Right out of the elevator was a security officer who inspected the appointment letter and directed me to head to Window 2 which was specifically for N400 applicants (Window 1 was for AOS folks).

The lady at window 2 took my appointment letter (last I saw of it) and asked me to have a seat until an IO calls me. It was 7:20 at this point.

At 8:50 am, a lady IO greeted me and took me to the office for the interview. She apologized for the delay (which was due to system issues) and got right to the oath. Following this I was asked for my green card, ID and passport. The next section was the civics , reading and writing portion. I kid you not when I say this, it was done in under 4 minutes! We moved on to reviewing the actual application. The only things I was asked to confirm were:

·       Legal Name, and whether I want to change it

·       Birth date

·       Were parents married before I was born and whether they are US citizens

·       Date of my last trip

Note: No documents were asked for 

Following this were the Yes/ No questions. The officer was selective in the YES/NO questions she asked. Hence this too was short – probably 3 minutes at most

 Another 3-4 minutes was spent in signing/confirming data and that was it – I was done. She did ask if I intended to travel in the next few months as coming back into the US without a green card was not an option.

At 9:08 am I was escorted back to the common area and asked to proceed to the 15^th floor for the oath ceremony.

About an hour and 10 minutes later, 30 of us had a beautiful oath ceremony and we were pronounced US Citizens. Picture time!

Overall, I must say the Newark Field Office experience far exceeded my expectation. All personnel as far as I am concerned were courteous, professional- no horror stories to report here.

After exiting, I headed to the post office and submitted my passport application

There are so many people to thank on this forum for lending a helping hand or warm wish. The latest among them @sam713 has been a messiah of sorts for a large number of folks on this forum for cracking open the FOIA option – without which many of us Spring filers would be stuck in this rut forever. everyone who has been waiting for long and hasnt filed it- just do it. You have nothing to lose. Good luck and God bless!!

3 hours ago, Jayshark0107 said:

Can u help me what should i answer here or anyone of u leave it blank thank u

I left it blank..was not an issue

10 hours ago, abfar said:

Congratulations and thanks for sharing your experience. 

Any idea how bad the passport waiting is now? iirc it was really bad in early covid days. Howany months of wait do you guys expect for thr passport to process?

Many people of late are reporting that they are receiving their 'expedited' passports in under a month - one person from NY even reported he received his passport in 3 weeks.

Fellow NJers who completed the N400 process- do you have to visit the DMV to update your citizenship status? 

11 minutes ago, Rn400 said:

Thanks . How do we know ahead of time if oath is available in field office ? Any email prior to interview they sent out or we have to call and check ?

They just mention it to you at the interview

7 minutes ago, Rn400 said:

Thanks for update . I have 2 questions . Is there an option of oath given on same day of interview for everyone or is it random pick for some ? If there a place to keep kids in their ( sitting area?) during interview/oath ? I guess NO …I have to travel 7 hours to field office 

Newark is typically same day unless it's a snow day OR there's a system issue OR your interview gets delayed/ is in the late afternoon..they have oath ceremonies as late as 5:30 pm . I don't believe there's an area to keep kids .

Happy to inform my spouse completed her naturalization process today at the Newark field office..she had a kind officer  who went straight to business ..Standard civics questions, reading writing and the yes / no  questions..interview was done in 15- 20 minutes- most of the time really went into updating on the system. No vocabulary, no definitions.

She waited for about an hour and half  to be called for  the oath ceremony.  Time from entry to exit was approximately 2.5 hours.

Good luck to all of us .

Timeline: 

N400: May 26,2020

Biometric: Jan 26, 2021

FOIA applied: Dec 10, 2021

FOIA Step 3: Jan 5, 2022

Interview NOA: Jan 13,2022

Interview and Oath: Feb 7, 2022

Happy to inform my spouse completed her naturalization process today at the Newark field office..she had a kind officer  who went straight to business ..Standard civics questions, reading writing and the yes / no  questions..interview was done in 15- 20 minutes- most of the time really went into updating on the system. No vocabulary, no definitions.

She waited for about an hour and half  to be called for  the oath ceremony.  Time from entry to exit was approximately 2.5 hours.

Good luck to all of us .

4 hours ago, April202Filer said:

Did you find the documents? Just few minutes back, mine also completed, but I don't find the document in the library. Is it an timing? should I wait until tomorrow? Pls advise! Between my wife is still in step 2.

Did you find the documents? Just few minutes back, mine also completed, but I don't find the document in the library. Is it an timing? should I wait until tomorrow? Pls advise! Between my wife is still in step 2.

Nope..no documents yet.. definitely has to do with my tenure in the US over two decades

20 hours ago, avmvisajourney said:

Hi, I had the interview today afternoon at Newark NJ. I had to wait for 1:30 hrs for the interview. But the was quick and it took only 20 minutes. I didn’t have oath ceremony today as the interview was over only after 3pm and officer told that I will get invitation later for oath. Anyone is waiting for oath from Newark? Or recently, anyone had oath ceremony separately?

Congratulations!What questions were asked apart from civics/reading/writing and the yes/no one's? Thanks in advance

1 hour ago, STurcotte77 said:

Did you get your interview date?

 

I got my interview date a week after it went to Step 3 (1/12) . Interview is scheduled for  2/14. 

38 minutes ago, keyuree1 said:

So my FOIA was completed. Where can I find the documents? It's not in my document library. Thanks!

Same here ..mine was completed today as well..no documents in the library . Note: My wife received hers in the library it was about 140 pages only.

Here's an Interesting question: My spouse has her interview next week .I will have mine the week after.

Assuming she gets through her process , when I go for my interview, I'm wondering if I need to carry her naturalization certificate/ would a copy suffice ? Trying to get her passport application in as soon as her oath is done.

53 minutes ago, keyuree1 said:

My FOIA just jumped to phase 4 today. My interview was scheduled on the 18th, about two weeks after Phase 3. 

Congrats..mine also went to Step 4 today

3 hours ago, STurcotte77 said:

I received this yesterday from my congresswoman’s office. It’s the first time I’m getting a response other than “your files are stuck”.   I am trying to be positive and take it as a good sign and hopefully not another excuse.   Being cautiously optimistic! 
On that note my FOIA went to step three on Saturday.  

This is great news!! 

13 minutes ago, adityaag said:

Well it's happened. My wife had her interview and oath ceremony in the same day today. Interview was scheduled for 9am and she was called in at 11am for the interview itself.

 

The interview itself only took 5-10 minutes. She was asked only for her passport, greencard, and drivers license. None of the rest of the documents were requested. She prepped enough apparently and aced her 6 interview questions. She was then asked if she has travel plans in the next month because if so, the oath ceremony would take place later as you surrender your green card at that time.

 

Then the real fun began as she had to wait 4 hours for a slot for an oath ceremony. Two of them took place while she was waiting but was told those were mainly filled by people who were called in specifically for an oath ceremony. Anyways, at around 3pm or so, she took her oath. quadruple checked her naturalization certificate, and wave a tiny American flag.

 

We just got back from picking up some apple pie and an ice cream sundae from McDonalds to celebrate all the best that America has to offer in the most American of ways. Good luck to all and thanks to VJ for being and guiding us through this journey! Next step is getting a US passport and renunciating prior citizenships... very much looking forward to ending the onslaught of paperwork once that's all over!

Congrats! We're there any specific questions asked ( outside of the civics questions and the yes /no questions..such as definitions , number of trips etc)?

4 hours ago, roddie2k said:

Hopefully that should not be a dependent factor as Sam713 mentioned he went through the interview (and completed the process) while his case was still in Step 3

@Sam713..keep.me.honest on above statement.

36 minutes ago, April202Filer said:

Great. Nice! Mine Still in Step 2, but I got my interview scheduled, hopefully they will not cancel or move to later day, because of this 😞

Hopefully that should not be a dependent factor as Sam713 mentioned he went through the interview (and completed the process) while his case was still in Step 3

Folks - just wanted to let you know that as of yesterday (1/21) my spouses' FOIA status went to Complete and the A-file details could be retrieved in the document library within the FOIA site itself. It was about 140 pages consisting of records/evidence  submitted during the GC process and the N400 application 

Timeline

FOIA submission : 12/10/2021

FOIA to Step 3 : 1/5/2022 

Interview notification : 1/7/2022

FOIA  Complete: 1/21/2022

I found an interesting case flag as part of the N400 document that stated : Applicant may not have been an LPR for 5 years. I suspect this is because we did early filing based on the N400- early filing calculator.

Questions to those who already had an interview at Newark in the last few months

a. When the officer asks about things pertaining to the 'last 5 years' - do they refer to the last 5 years since submitting the application or do they mean from the date of the interview ? I ask this given that for many of us the interviews are happening almost 2 years since applying -and a lot of things change

b. When asking for evidence, do we  hand it over to them or display it through the glass separator ( if there is even one due to Covid) 

Thanks in advance

15 minutes ago, Labradoodle said:

What do you mean when you say “entire” A-file? When I sent mine in, there was a selection box with a bunch of form numbers and names, and I selected “A-file.” Is that the same thing as “entire” A-file? Is there such a thing as a partial A-file? 

Yep- just selecting A-file.amounts to that

2 hours ago, AH2020 said:

I weirdly did not get an email notification. I logged into my account and it was there. 

Yes it varies from case to case . For instance my wife loggied into the account and found out, while I received an email notification.

3 hours ago, STurcotte77 said:

I guess to be safe your enitre A file....?

 

I have requests for both A file and N400 but I think from what I am reading just the A file will do. 

Request the entire A-file - it goes through the complex track but it is comprehensive.