LoveAndLight2045

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. 
 
🤗

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. 
 
🤗

Nice!
 
Yeah, about the introspection, I had to let folks now what it means. Unless you’ve lived for a while in a country that’s not your native one, you can’t really understand what it means
 
I got it yep, travel coming very soon. It’s actually faster than I was expecting. 

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. 
 
🤗

With my passport in hand, I just took some hours of introspection and started wondering about the possibilities now offered to me, as well as pausing a bit to think and reflect about the ride. Then I got a huge piece of carrot cake lol. 
 
how are you celebrating?

With my passport in hand, I just took some hours of introspection and started wondering about the possibilities now offered to me, as well as pausing a bit to think and reflect about the ride. Then I got a huge piece of carrot cake lol. 
 
how are you celebrating?

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?

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. 
 
🤗

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. 
 
🤗

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. 
 

Not really. Some people wait in their cars in the parking lot. There's also some benches outside the USCIS building where you can sit. It's not a particularly walkable area/nothing much around, but if the spouse goes away somewhere they probably won't make it back in time to enter for the ceremony (if the ceremony officer allows people to come in). I would just plan to sit outside and enjoy an hour or two of introspection, hah.

I think her passport will be fine, I wouldn't worry about it. I also think it's likely they won't ask for it at all, like with me. It seems like they typically just want to see the applicant's green card, ID, and passport (aside from any additional evidence stuff if it comes up). 
 

Passport should suffice.  The thing that is that if you are coming in under the 3 year rule or the 319b rule is that your spouse is a USC.  There passport is sufficient to prove this.  

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.

Thank you!! Yeah, I'll send you a message. But remember you only need to get 6 right from 10. You would have to fail half of the questions to not pass. 

@arnab221 you never know who's going to run your interview. Just go through all addresses and make sure you remember them. As well as other facts.

So glad to hear this, it seems we’ve been on the same schedule for a while now. Congrats my friend!!!
 
do you remember the civics questions you were asked? I’m not sure why but it’s the only part that makes me worry slightly

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.
 
 

Had my interview yesterday. Showed up 30 mins early and they waved me right in. Went through security, then a checkin with fingerprint and photo, sent upstairs to a waiting room and waited for 10 minutes before I was called in. I had an in person interview. Took about 20 minutes. In sequence we covered 6 civics questions, reading, writing, recent travels in reverse chronological order (since filing the N-400), what I am doing now, what I was working on for the last 5 years, and then went over many of the questions in the N-400 (like organizations I am a part of, whether I have been arrested etc, been to a police station). The in person interview was great to have since I was concerned about audio quality. The officer was professional, courteous and pleasant to chat with.
 
After that I went downstairs and lined up to enter the naturalization room. There were about 6 of us. The officer provided information about what would happen in the ceremony, what we should expect to do next (social security update, voter registration) and to not laminate our certificates. There was a quick oath and then they handed out the certificates. Please check your certificate for errors since its a $550 charge to get a new certificate. 
 
Wish all of you best of luck and hopefully a pleasant experience like the one I had. Thank you for the support and camaraderie on my journey. 
 

Congratulations, and thanks for coming back and telling us about it! 

Let's keep it here so it can potentially help others. The number she called is 1-877-487-2778; the hours for that number are 8am to 10pm Eastern time. It is a national scheduling line, not a direct line to the local office. If you call and don't get the phone tree, then something is wrong. 

- Ocean west of US
- Name of US Rep
- Name of the Prez
- When do we celebrate independence
- What lead to civil war
 
not sure if there was anything else. Agent asked me about my military service from other country which was not much of an issue. 

Had interview and same day oath today. 10:45 appointment, parked at overly expensive parking lot for $8+ tax. Had to scan bags and photo + finger prints (not biometric).
Waited for 10 minutes or so and got called right on time. was in-person interview. No additional documents asked, just updated travel history based on my flight records they have.
Got same day oath which took another 10 minutes waits + 10 minutes. 
In and out of the building in an hour and half. It was fast.