arnab221

Do they capture the biometrics again before resubmitting or do they resubmit the ones captured 15 months prior ?
 
Looks they are now striving to keep interview timelines to < 15 months ( hence the April 21 acceleration ~ 14 months) to avoid the 40 minute delay in each N400 interview. Also if they are filling two batches a day of 30 each , barring a few offsite naturalization events, they are tracking at 1200 naturalizations a month. I am not sure how they intend to eliminate the backlog at this rate . 

Unlike 485 , we also do not have a way to determine intake by month else we could have understood if there are any dips in N400 intake during mid or latter part of 2021 . 

Hi , 
 
We were approved , below is my experience for EB consular processing. 
 
We were up and early at the Mumbai Consulate General Bandra Kurla Complex(BKC) on a balmy 30th December 2016. Ushered in quickly through to the immigrant visa section.The number of people were much less than I had expected. The Non-immigrant sections was flooding in with hundreds of people even as the immigrant section was seeing only around 20 people at most and almost all appeared family immigrants. I saw newly married wives convincing the consular officers in what appeared like a newly put on American accent on how much they knew their husband and how much they loved them. ?  ?  ?  Then there were also many elderly couples and large families who were looking to immigrate. 

We were issued tokens by the greeters and our first stop was an Indian consular officer who brought our NVC file out of the cabinet.He returned some unnecessary filed paperwork(remember Name spelling and Priority date change paperwork??) from my file back to us. He asked us for my originals and quickly returned them after verification. He then tore open the teal colored medical envelope/s, looked at reports and placed them in the file.The X-ray CD's were not required and hence I left them at home.Consulates do not allow CD's anyways. He retained the original police clearance , and the original copy of the new one month validity employment letter and put it in the file and asked us to go back to the waiting area.We waited and watched as all members of some families were grilled one by one for over 25+ minutes by consular officers in the adjacent windows. 

Around 15 minutes later our number flashed in the interview booth and the interviewer was a beautiful young American lady. She quickly looked at my file first and asked the below questions.

1. Who is calling you ? 
2. What do you do now and where ? 
3. Tell me about your previous US trips ?
4. Where do you intend to land in the US ? 

My interview was done in 4-5 minutes of which most of it was her looking through the file and typing. She also mechanically validated the dates of the employment letter(1 month) and police clearance (1 year) and circled them off in ink. 

She closed my file and then opened my wife's file. My wife too had US travels from her organization which were independent of mine. She was asked the below questions.

1. How did you meet your husband ? 
2. When did you get married ? 
3. How many people came to your marriage ?
4. What do you do in India ?
5. What business did you have when you traveled to US ? 

She was looking at the monitor and was mechanically entering stuff while asking questions. She then looked at me and gave me a small piece of paper asking me to sign it . It stated in a few lines of text that I promised to work for the employer who sponsored my visa. She then said "Sir, your visas are approved, have a nice day" while giving me the below paper. Process took 10 minutes at most. Very light questioning when compared to grilling that family and marriage immigrants were receiving.   
 
 

My and my wife had our interview today and we were both approved. We also took our younger kid ( baby)  to the interview. Below is my experience . 

We arrived at 8:15 AM and found that parking meter was broken and no attendant was present . We parked and entered the building at 8:16 AM and went through security and customer service. Customer service gave us tags with P numbers. We went to the second floor seating area and waited for over 40 minutes .We were called by separate officers into two different interview rooms one after another for face to face interviews . Interview experience was nothing special . My officer started with civics questions following by reading/writing and finished with the N400 questions . In the citation question, I  did mention that I had two pretty old traffic citations which I wanted to mention. She said I did the right thing by non mentioning them in N400 application , given that they were older than 5 years. I finished and came out to the waiting area in about 20 minutes and found my wife ( she had the baby as well) had already finished her interview. My wife stated that her officer was very accommodative with our baby ( who was sleeping most of the time btw). We came back to the first floor for a quick  oath ceremony and the were handed our certificates. When we came out we saw that the parking attendant had just arrived and was collecting the tickets . We paid $8 on the way out. 

I felt that the process was very efficiently managed and I am grateful that they were very accommodative with our baby. 
 

Ahhh congrats!! Yeah I wish I had known just how chill the interview process would be. I was so nervous about it for a solid two weeks before my interview! I'm happy for you
 
What's everyone doing to celebrate?

Congrats bud!! I'm surprised they made you wait so long but I'm glad it was so smooth, especially with the baby. Now you get to sit back and relax!

My and my wife had our interview today and we were both approved. We also took our younger kid ( baby)  to the interview. Below is my experience . 

We arrived at 8:15 AM and found that parking meter was broken and no attendant was present . We parked and entered the building at 8:16 AM and went through security and customer service. Customer service gave us tags with P numbers. We went to the second floor seating area and waited for over 40 minutes .We were called by separate officers into two different interview rooms one after another for face to face interviews . Interview experience was nothing special . My officer started with civics questions following by reading/writing and finished with the N400 questions . In the citation question, I  did mention that I had two pretty old traffic citations which I wanted to mention. She said I did the right thing by non mentioning them in N400 application , given that they were older than 5 years. I finished and came out to the waiting area in about 20 minutes and found my wife ( she had the baby as well) had already finished her interview. My wife stated that her officer was very accommodative with our baby ( who was sleeping most of the time btw). We came back to the first floor for a quick  oath ceremony and the were handed our certificates. When we came out we saw that the parking attendant had just arrived and was collecting the tickets . We paid $8 on the way out. 

I felt that the process was very efficiently managed and I am grateful that they were very accommodative with our baby. 
 

My and my wife had our interview today and we were both approved. We also took our younger kid ( baby)  to the interview. Below is my experience . 

We arrived at 8:15 AM and found that parking meter was broken and no attendant was present . We parked and entered the building at 8:16 AM and went through security and customer service. Customer service gave us tags with P numbers. We went to the second floor seating area and waited for over 40 minutes .We were called by separate officers into two different interview rooms one after another for face to face interviews . Interview experience was nothing special . My officer started with civics questions following by reading/writing and finished with the N400 questions . In the citation question, I  did mention that I had two pretty old traffic citations which I wanted to mention. She said I did the right thing by non mentioning them in N400 application , given that they were older than 5 years. I finished and came out to the waiting area in about 20 minutes and found my wife ( she had the baby as well) had already finished her interview. My wife stated that her officer was very accommodative with our baby ( who was sleeping most of the time btw). We came back to the first floor for a quick  oath ceremony and the were handed our certificates. When we came out we saw that the parking attendant had just arrived and was collecting the tickets . We paid $8 on the way out. 

I felt that the process was very efficiently managed and I am grateful that they were very accommodative with our baby. 
 

Congrats to you both !!!

Fam—
 
I. Am. A. US. Citizen!
 
What a journey it has been. 
 
First things first, thanks for everyone for have shared your stories. They help me not only prepare for what to expect, but also stress a lot less. Thanks for the DMs as well, you know who you are
 
Second, on the stressful part, I can’t stress how trivial the whole process is really. It might differ for some, but the whole thing was done in less than 5 min for me. No documents asked whatsoever, no clarifying questions on my N400, nothing.  The bulk of the remaining “interview” time was chatting and laughing with the officer. I spent a lot of time studying my N400 application (what if I forget the exact history of my addresses, etc.) just in case. When I applied I forgot to mention a couple of trips outside the country and a speeding ticket, absolutely no big deal, the officer didn’t sweat it. I bought coffee on my way to the interview, couldn’t bring it in the building, and by the time I was out the coffee was still very warm for me to drink. Out of the ~50 min in the building (including oath), ~40 min was just waiting. 
 
I knew I would feel good at the end of all this long journey, but man o man is this relaxing. I’ll still hang in there from time to time until life gets my focus away, but it has been a pleasure fam. 
 
Best of luck to those still waiting. Work on your civics questions and review your application, but don’t loose sleep over it. All in all the interview is the easiest part. 
 
🤗

My and my wife had our interview today and we were both approved. We also took our younger kid ( baby)  to the interview. Below is my experience . 

We arrived at 8:15 AM and found that parking meter was broken and no attendant was present . We parked and entered the building at 8:16 AM and went through security and customer service. Customer service gave us tags with P numbers. We went to the second floor seating area and waited for over 40 minutes .We were called by separate officers into two different interview rooms one after another for face to face interviews . Interview experience was nothing special . My officer started with civics questions following by reading/writing and finished with the N400 questions . In the citation question, I  did mention that I had two pretty old traffic citations which I wanted to mention. She said I did the right thing by non mentioning them in N400 application , given that they were older than 5 years. I finished and came out to the waiting area in about 20 minutes and found my wife ( she had the baby as well) had already finished her interview. My wife stated that her officer was very accommodative with our baby ( who was sleeping most of the time btw). We came back to the first floor for a quick  oath ceremony and the were handed our certificates. When we came out we saw that the parking attendant had just arrived and was collecting the tickets . We paid $8 on the way out. 

I felt that the process was very efficiently managed and I am grateful that they were very accommodative with our baby. 
 

Thanks man! 
 
She actually only wanted my current and last address, and I gave the full address for both (including zip code etc). I made sure I remembered my older addresses too though, best to be prepared.

Hi folks, the journey is finally over - I'm officially a US citizen!! I loved when people shared detailed experiences on VJ, so here's mine: 
 
My interview was early in the morning. Parking was straightforward in the USCIS lot. I entered the building 15 minutes before my appointment time. There was no one ahead of me in security so it all went really smoothly - it functions like an airport security checkpoint, you have to take off your belt, shoes, jacket, etc. and put your bag through a scanner. Then at the next window, I got my photograph and fingerprints taken again, and then I was directed to go upstairs to the waiting room for my interview. 
 
My interview was virtual. A really friendly assistant came and took me to a large room with about 8ish office-style cubicles. I had to take out my passport, ID, and green card and put the rest of my stuff in a drawer. The interviewing officer turned on their video on the iPad the moment I sat down, and the interview began. She was very professional and very serious. We started with the reading and writing test, followed by the civics questions (and stopped after I got the first six correct). Then we went through a lot of the N400 questions (current employment, current and old addresses, many of the yes/no questions). I let her know about a correction I needed to make to the form, and it was no big deal -- she made it for me. She also asked me how I met my wife and if we rented/owned our house - but this didn't feel like an interrogation, just like a chat. She asked about our marriage evidence, and I told her about a few of the documents I had brought in. She wanted our latest tax transcript, so she sent a message to the assistant to come fetch it from me. The assistant took the papers and scanned them and then brought them back. While we waited (about 5-10 mins), the officer turned her video off and I just hung out 😄 Then she asked me to confirm all my details were correct on the iPad for my naturalization certificate, said I was approved, and sent an approval notice to the printer that was on the desk next to me. The only issue with the interview was that people in the room were really loud, and occasionally I had to ask the officer to repeat herself -- but it really wasn't a big deal. While the interview started out really serious, I chatted with the officer a little while she was entering things into her computer and we ended up having a nice conversation and joking a little too.
 
Then the assistant came back to fetch me and congratulated me a few times 😊, and I went back downstairs to the auditorium. The officer there took my green card and threw it in a bag 😂 it felt weird seeing it dumped into a bag like that after I've guarded it with my life for so long. I asked if my wife could come in for the ceremony and she said yes! So I texted my wife and met her outside, and then we both came back inside together (had to go through security again). There were about 15 other people at the ceremony and it was only about 10 minutes long, but it was still nice -- the officer smiled a lot and said how momentous the occasion was and how long our journey has been, and congratulated us. Then we said the oath and received our naturalization certificates and little US flags. Some folks posed for photographs in the auditorium afterwards. 
 
The whole thing took about 1.5 hours (30 min interview, 10 min ceremony, plus waiting around). Overall, it was a great experience. Everyone was SO nice and friendly and chatted with me and put me at ease -- the security guards, biometrics person, the assistant, the interviewing officer, and the ceremony officer. I'm so glad to be done! Good luck to the rest of you with interviews coming up, and I'm happy to answer any questions.
 
 

Very hard to say . Judicial ceremonies depend on the Judge's docket and timelines. You can learn about the type of ceremonies here. 

https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-j-chapter-6

Very hard to say . Judicial ceremonies depend on the Judge's docket and timelines. You can learn about the type of ceremonies here. 

https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-j-chapter-6

Name changes are linked to the Oath ceremony. Ceremonies are of two types Judicial( Judge administers the oath) and Non Judicial(USCIS official administers the oath) . Name changes can be allowed in Judicial ceremonies only which are far and few in between. Most ceremonies are non judicial . If you like to change your name , be prepared to wait for your Judicial oath ceremony. 

Could you please tell us about the evidence of the emergency that you needed to show. I am assuming this the Seattle Passport Agency ? 
 
 

😁🤞 . There is little one can do other facing whatever comes at them . My only hope is that we are done with everything that day and we can close this chapter. 😁

I feel a lot of folks, myself included, overthink the interview. 
 
I was sweating it before hand but the interview is really just a chance for the officer to ensure that you know your civics stuff and that you are being truthful. 
 
Study. And as to the veracity of your claims, if you told you truth in what you claimed on the form and throughout the immigration process, you will be fine. 

This is exactly how it was with only one change. There are two tablets (or in the case of my wife two tablets and a monitor because the screen on one was having issues). One tablet is used for video conferencing and the other is used for the reading/writing portion. 

Good luck tomorrow, @PedroDaGr8 ! Come back and tell us how it went!
 

Thanks, I'll let you know how my wife does and all the details!

A lot of folks are scheduled in August . Please write up your experiences when you get a chance .

There is nothing to worry . The online system is only for convenience and nothing more . USCIS is legally bound to send a notice by mail to the applicant. It is unfortunate that this bug has chosen to strike a certain set of applications , but I would just keep calm , prepare for the test and keep and eye for that invite in mail. 

There is nothing to worry . The online system is only for convenience and nothing more . USCIS is legally bound to send a notice by mail to the applicant. It is unfortunate that this bug has chosen to strike a certain set of applications , but I would just keep calm , prepare for the test and keep and eye for that invite in mail. 

I had my interview at 8:30 am in early July. After I was done with interview, which was before 9 I was sent to the auditorium (where they were just  finishing another oath ceremony) and I have oath ceremony with +/- 15 other people within 20 min. I had my biometrics done after I applied for N400, so I didn't need to wait for them to be reapproved.
 
Of course that's just how it happened to me...