BennyJax

Hello all!
This forum has been AMAZING these last 5 years from applying for a K-1 visa for my now wife to having her oath ceremony today. It helped us fill out all the forms and know exactly what to do. Thank you!!
I was doing research about what it was like last night and now wanted to be able to contribute so those in the future have an idea of what to expect.
I read that some had short ceremonies (45 mins) while others had long ones. Ours was 3 hours from start to finish.
This was in Jacksonville, Florida at the courthouse downtown. The form said 8:30am. No cell phones allowed inside. So leave in the car. Cameras are okay. Wish I knew that beforehand.
We got there at 8:25am to go through security, but heard that the ceremony wouldn't actually start till 10:30am.
We went up to the 13th floor. Entered the courtroom. There were seating on the right and left. The right was where my wife, who was being naturalized went. All family members sat on the left.
Each person getting naturalized went up one by one to a desk where there were two USCIS officers. They went over the application. They took my wife's green card. Made sure everything on the certificate was correct. There were 48 people in today's ceremony so that took about 1 hour. Those who checked in before 9:30am could step outside, use the bathroom, but had to be back inside the courtroom by 9:30am.
Each was given a number and at 9:30am they were seated by those numbers. That's the order they would be in to go and get their certificates later.
The woman in charge explained how the ceremony would go. She said after the judge came in he wanted everyone to stand up and say their name, which country they were from and where they live now. She practiced this with two rows of people. Then she quickly went over the oath and some other info I can't remember.
People from the voting office were there to explain how to register to vote, passed out forms, and said to fill it out but don't sign it until after they said the oath.
So this was from 9:30-10am. So now just needed to wait till 10:30am for it to finally start.
Had different speakers, someone sang the national anthem, the judge spoke for awhile, everyone introduced themselves, said the oath, then one by one each person when they were called went up to get their certificate and a small gift.
During the ceremony, two people were given a special American flags (everyone got a small one but they got a big one). One for being the oldest person today being naturalized and one being the youngest.
It ended right about 11:30am.
finally done! Now just have to apply for a US passport!
Again thanks to this great forum!

Hello all!
This forum has been AMAZING these last 5 years from applying for a K-1 visa for my now wife to having her oath ceremony today. It helped us fill out all the forms and know exactly what to do. Thank you!!
I was doing research about what it was like last night and now wanted to be able to contribute so those in the future have an idea of what to expect.
I read that some had short ceremonies (45 mins) while others had long ones. Ours was 3 hours from start to finish.
This was in Jacksonville, Florida at the courthouse downtown. The form said 8:30am. No cell phones allowed inside. So leave in the car. Cameras are okay. Wish I knew that beforehand.
We got there at 8:25am to go through security, but heard that the ceremony wouldn't actually start till 10:30am.
We went up to the 13th floor. Entered the courtroom. There were seating on the right and left. The right was where my wife, who was being naturalized went. All family members sat on the left.
Each person getting naturalized went up one by one to a desk where there were two USCIS officers. They went over the application. They took my wife's green card. Made sure everything on the certificate was correct. There were 48 people in today's ceremony so that took about 1 hour. Those who checked in before 9:30am could step outside, use the bathroom, but had to be back inside the courtroom by 9:30am.
Each was given a number and at 9:30am they were seated by those numbers. That's the order they would be in to go and get their certificates later.
The woman in charge explained how the ceremony would go. She said after the judge came in he wanted everyone to stand up and say their name, which country they were from and where they live now. She practiced this with two rows of people. Then she quickly went over the oath and some other info I can't remember.
People from the voting office were there to explain how to register to vote, passed out forms, and said to fill it out but don't sign it until after they said the oath.
So this was from 9:30-10am. So now just needed to wait till 10:30am for it to finally start.
Had different speakers, someone sang the national anthem, the judge spoke for awhile, everyone introduced themselves, said the oath, then one by one each person when they were called went up to get their certificate and a small gift.
During the ceremony, two people were given a special American flags (everyone got a small one but they got a big one). One for being the oldest person today being naturalized and one being the youngest.
It ended right about 11:30am.
finally done! Now just have to apply for a US passport!
Again thanks to this great forum!

Hello all!
This forum has been AMAZING these last 5 years from applying for a K-1 visa for my now wife to having her oath ceremony today. It helped us fill out all the forms and know exactly what to do. Thank you!!
I was doing research about what it was like last night and now wanted to be able to contribute so those in the future have an idea of what to expect.
I read that some had short ceremonies (45 mins) while others had long ones. Ours was 3 hours from start to finish.
This was in Jacksonville, Florida at the courthouse downtown. The form said 8:30am. No cell phones allowed inside. So leave in the car. Cameras are okay. Wish I knew that beforehand.
We got there at 8:25am to go through security, but heard that the ceremony wouldn't actually start till 10:30am.
We went up to the 13th floor. Entered the courtroom. There were seating on the right and left. The right was where my wife, who was being naturalized went. All family members sat on the left.
Each person getting naturalized went up one by one to a desk where there were two USCIS officers. They went over the application. They took my wife's green card. Made sure everything on the certificate was correct. There were 48 people in today's ceremony so that took about 1 hour. Those who checked in before 9:30am could step outside, use the bathroom, but had to be back inside the courtroom by 9:30am.
Each was given a number and at 9:30am they were seated by those numbers. That's the order they would be in to go and get their certificates later.
The woman in charge explained how the ceremony would go. She said after the judge came in he wanted everyone to stand up and say their name, which country they were from and where they live now. She practiced this with two rows of people. Then she quickly went over the oath and some other info I can't remember.
People from the voting office were there to explain how to register to vote, passed out forms, and said to fill it out but don't sign it until after they said the oath.
So this was from 9:30-10am. So now just needed to wait till 10:30am for it to finally start.
Had different speakers, someone sang the national anthem, the judge spoke for awhile, everyone introduced themselves, said the oath, then one by one each person when they were called went up to get their certificate and a small gift.
During the ceremony, two people were given a special American flags (everyone got a small one but they got a big one). One for being the oldest person today being naturalized and one being the youngest.
It ended right about 11:30am.
finally done! Now just have to apply for a US passport!
Again thanks to this great forum!

FINALLY!!!!!
Since I hadn't heard anything in three weeks after I sent my RFE, I contacted my Congressman again. They got a reply from USCIS saying they got the RFE and to just wait. My Congressman told me to contact them if I didn't hear anything by mid-Sept. Well the next day I got the notification that the card was in production!! Got that on Aug 3 and on Aug 11 got the card.
So if anyone is waiting, contact your Congressman for sure!
Thanks to everyone for their support.

This thread has been extremely helpful to me. My head is full of forms and numbers! Thanks so much for your info.