coralee

Had my oath ceremony today (yay!)

Following the advice, I parked at the Kellogg square parking ramp and walked to the building. The time printed on the paper was actually not the oath ceremony time but to make sure to have the people come in early enough to get ready for the ceremony. My time was 10:45am on the paper, but when I went to the courthouse, the program said the ceremony is at 11:30am. I arrived around 10am to be rather on the early side, so ended up waiting quite a bit of time.

It was a small and intimate ceremony and generally very pleasant. I am sharing this time here because I did not expect the ceremony to begin at 11:30 so I cleared out my morning but had a meeting scheduled at 1pm and had to be back to work before then. I did not anticipate that I'd need to be there that long. I was able to make it fine but I had to rush out of the courtroom after I received the certificate without enjoying the time afterwards to take pictures etc.

Anyways, now to get the passport and social security updates

Good luck to you all!

On 12/12/2018 at 11:39 AM, marcusa said:

if your courthouse is located at  316 Robert St N, St Paul, MN 55101.  the nearest parking ramp is located at Kellogg Square Parking Ramp. 111 E Kellogg Blvd, St Paul, MN 55101.. the parking hour rate is acceptable and it's right across the Robert Street. The courthouse is right in front of you when you are out of parking ramp building. google map will give you the best images.  the ramp inside is old and narrow. Dont drive a big car over that ramp. otherwise, you will have a lot of trouble getting in and out.

 

regarding to the oath,

1,documents to bring: green card and oath letter (you can fill the letter and sign at home,or they provide pens for you on site). i did bring my passport but never being asked.

2, line up outside in the hallway and wait. when the time is up, you will check in first with the table outside of the courtroom, turn in your green card (the staff will toss it in a container under the table) and oath letter. the staff will stamp on the oath letter.

3,follow the line to enter the courtroom,turn in the oath letter and find seats dedicated for new citizens. you will receive an USCIS envelope . your family will be in the separate visitor seats behind.

4, when Judge comes, the following will be very straightforward. 20-25 minutes total.

5, at the end of oath, you will receive the certificate. and have the opportunity to take photos with the Judge in the courtroom following the line. Lots of people chose to do that. 

 

when you are out of the courtroom, you are officially the US citizen and celebrating.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the information. It will be very helpful.

Just a couple more days - paying extra attention to my driving to avoid any unfortunate traffic tickets

I have the oath scheduled next week in St. Paul courthouse and wanted to know if anyone has some suggestions as to what to expect in terms of traffic/parking. I also will have a family member to attend the ceremony and wonder if anyone has any tip to make the experience smooth and stress-free. We will have to drive separately to the site, so logistics is something of a concern for the day for me. Any suggestions or piece of advise is welcome!

After a long week of no response after my interview, finally received a message that my case was updated and now I am in line for oath ceremony scheduling.

Hopefully I can finish up this long process in 2018.

7 minutes ago, BruceW said:

thanks Coralee, good summary. Any trick civics questions?

They were straight from the 100 questions, so not so much to be able to call any trick.

these are the questions I got:

- why did the colonists come to America

- when the president can't serve, who will be the president

- name one right from the first amendment

- describe one amendment to right to vote

- who is in charge of the executive branch

- during the cold war, what was the main concern of the US

Hello all. I just had the interview this morning and wanted to update you with my experience.

My appointment time was 9:45am, so I debated between leaving right at the end tail of the rush hour vs. leaving very early to get to the downtown before the rush hour.

I found that the office is right around the block from the central library, so I decided to go in early and have coffee at the Dunn Bros until my appointment time.

I parked at the library parking - which is far cheaper than other parking and very nice, in my opinion - but it may mean a bit more walk (2-3 min?) than the parking lot right across the office building.  I had my breakfast and coffee as planned, and left the library building at 9am. It was 9:06 when I arrived at the office building. 

I am applying for citizenship with 5+ years of being a permanent resident, so I prepared for 5 years' worth of tax transcripts, marriage certificate (I am married to a US citizen), employment verification documents (appointment letter, paystubs, W2), some evidence of asset (home mortgage document, property tax statement), and a copy of the green card, just in case.

The building is nice. I went up to the 7th floor, and there is a security check similar to what we see at an airport. The reception desk was right behind the security.

The receptionist checked me in and took my picture and index fingerprints for both hands. I received a number to be called after checking in.

As soon as I sat down to wait (for up to 1hr or more I thought), my number was called. So my interview began at least 30 minutes before the scheduled time.

The officer was very nice and the interview went very fast and smoothly.

He basically asked all the N-400 form questions verbally and verified the information. And then gave me one sentence to read and write. And the anticipated civic test. He did not even ask for the tax transcripts but made a copy of my marriage certificate.

One hiccup I had was the passport photos. I did not think I'd need the photos because I can't apply for the passport today anyways.

It turned out, because I wanted to change my official name, they need two passport photos.

So with all that, I got another form that basically says to supply two photos with signature. 

The officer suggested to go to nearby CVS to get the photos and drop them off today instead of mailing them in. I wanted to be done with it so I decided to do that.

I was out the door by 9:40am.. and it was the beginning of a long adventure of taking passport photos from that point. 

Long story short, I was able to finally take the photos at a Fedex office (as nearest CVS was in Target and they did not do photos, and Walgreen did not have anyone to take the photo until this afternoon) and drop the photos off back at the office. Hopefully, the officer will update the file with this soon.

While I did not receive the final approval because of the photos today, the officer said the oath will be in about 1-2 months on the way out. So I will have to wait for the letter again.

So those who will have the interview soon and also asked for name change, bring 2 passport photos with you so that you can save the trouble.

Good luck all! 

Just received the letter and the interview date is 11/8. I updated the google sheet as well.

In the letter, there is a list of documents that they asked me to bring to the interview including 5 years of tax returns. I don't think I got rid of them but I also don't seem to have them. I found that I could request tax transcripts of 4 years from IRS website. Does anyone know whether that is an issue? So I am missing the 2013 tax return document. I am not filing as a spouse of a citizen so I think they want 5 years.

Good morning.

Just received an email from USCIS that they scheduled my interview (finally!) and sent me an interview notice. In the email, there was no date so will have to wait for the mail.

I suppose it is usually in about a month. 

Guess it is time to study for the civic test

FYI

I filed N400 on september 11 2017, and have been in line for interview since 10/5/2017.

UserName......|GC-Date.|..Sent..|..Cashd.|NOA.....|Fprints.|In Line.|Int ltr.|Intrvw..|Oath....|Field Office...........|NBC/IOE|ECD

tijuana_brass.|03/xx/09|12/16/16|12/xx/16|12/30/16|01/25/17|12/21/17|01/12/18|02/06/18|02/28/18|Minneapolis, MN........|NBC....|N/A

mcheruth......|09/xx/08|03/05/17|03/xx/17|03/14/17|03/20/17|04/07/17|04/05/18|05/14/18|--/--/--|Minneapolis, MN........|NBC....|???

KGONE.........|11/09/12|03/10/17|03/17/17|03/15/17|04/13/17|04/17/17|02/13/18|03/20/18|04/30/18|Minneapolis, MN........|NBC....|???

Bsze..........|10/26/10|07/09/17|07/10/17|07/10/17|08/03/17|08/04/17|01/11/18|02/20/18|02/20/18|Minneapolis, MN........|IOE....|

coralee...........|12/xx/08|09/xx/17|09/11/17|09/14/17|10/03/17|10/05/17|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|Minneapolis, MN.........|NBC|

GoBig.........|02/12/13|11/16/17|11/16/17|11/17/17|12/04/17|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|Minneapolis, MN........|IOE....|15months

Marcusa ......|02/10/13|11/19/17|11/19/17|11/21/17|12/08/17|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|Minneapolis, MN........|IOE....|17months

GetIT.........|09/XX/12|11/18/17|11/21/17|11/22/17|12/05/17|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|Minneapolis, MN........|IOE....|16months

Morris Marina.|06/06/06|12/06/17|12/06/17|12/08/17|12/29/17|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|Minneapolis, MN........|IOE....|16months

PositiveThinker.....| 03/ 12/ 15 | 02/ 07/18  | 02 /08/ 18| 02 / 08/18 | 02/ 28 /18 | -- /-- /-- |

N-O-L-A.......|04/17/13|03/02/18|03/02/18|03/02/18|03/26/18|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|Minneapolis, MN........|IOE....|21months

travelfairy...|02/12/13|04/29/18|04/29/18|04/29/18|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|Minneapolis, MN........|IOE....