Citizenship

posted on May 23, 2022

Citizenship interview location:
PETER W. RODINO FEDERAL BUILDING - 15th Floor
970 BROAD WAY, NEWARK, NJ.

N-400 Interview Date : May 18, 2022
Weather : Bright sunny day.
Parking Difficulty level : Medium +. (too many events in the Newark downtown this time of the year, the parking places around the RODINO building are FULL). So, get there early ! - I parked at the parking lot right behind the interview location about 0.2 miles away. Paid $40.00 :(

Entrance: Depending on when you come in for the N-400 interview (or any , there are many services at RODINO) the wait time (at the side entrance door) to get in could be long.

Getting into the building : After airport style screening, you can get into the building, take the elevator to the floor your interview is at.

Interview Experience : My N-400 interview itself was under 10 minutes, lucky to have opportunity to take the Oath and Certificate of Naturlization on the same day afternoon. Heads-up, the actual interview is ~10 minutes, but the waiting time to be called for interview and waiting to be called for Oath will consume you and your day ! - I was in at around 10:15 AM and left the building at around 3:00 PM

Please pay attention to the announcements when they call your name. Sometimes, the officers have difficulty in saying your name ‘properly’.
Funny incident happened : interview officer could not say the First name of the applicant (xx. Patel) well, so he tried with last name and 4-5 people stood up !

The Mask : My interview officer was wearing a face-mask during the whole interview and his speech was coming out muffled. Because of that in the civics questions (6 questions) I could not understand the 1st question he asked me. I politely asked him to repeat the question. He did. I still could not understand and asked to repeat again. He did again. I still could not and asked him to repeat the second time - at which point he got a bit restless and moved on to the next question !. Of course, I was able to answer the remaining questions all correctly (imagine, what if I could not understand them at all —OMG !)

Civics Questions I was asked:
Q1: xxx….muffled voice (read Mask para above).
Q2: Who is the governor of your state ?
Q3: How many senators are there ?
Q4: How many representatives are in the house of representatives ?
Q5: Where is the capital of the United States ?
Q6: The preamble to the constitution begins with which three words ?
Q7: What is the name of the First US president ?

Reading sentence : Who can vote ?
Writing sentence : The people can vote.

During the interview:
1. Officer (he) called my full name and asked to report to Door 3
2. He is already at the door waiting for me enter thru
3. We both walk into his room
4. Officer asked me to put my belongings and raise my Right hand to place me under oath….( you can say ‘I do’).
5. Asked me sit on the chair facing the digital tablet.
6. Asked for my Green card and latest passport (he did not want to see the old passports, driver’s license)
7. He examined the passport and returned it back to me. He did NOT return me my Green-card though.
8. Quickly asked if my cell phone number, home address are same as in the application (I was going to say the phone number and complete address, but se seemed un-interested). ‘
    1. Yes’,I answered shortly.
9. At this point in time - he wasn’t even looking at me. All along he were examining the paperwork and forms on the table and computer screen. I was a bit surprised at the pile of paperwork and hard-copies of my previous I-485, GC renewal, etc. (probably tracing all the way back to H1 visa !).
10. He then, went straight into asking me civics questions followed up with reading and writing tests.
11. He asked me (he was literally racing thru these questions !, mind you …he was wearing a face-mask. And, there was a 3-feet glass sheet (for covid precaution ) between us. So, I had to be extremely attentive all my ears !
    1. ‘Were you arrested anytime?’
    2. ‘Do you support the US constitution ?’
    3. ‘Where do you work ?’
    4. ‘How many kids do you have?’
    5. ‘Did you register to vote?’
    6. ‘Did you claim to be a U.S citizen anytime ?’
    7. ‘Do you pay taxes ?’
12. He asked me if wanted to change my name. I said that I wanted to to split my long first name into First and Middle names. But, we both decided to leave it without changing due the additional time taking process.
13. He asked me to verify my information on the tablet (about 4” X 3” size) and sign on it (be advised, this signature is what comes up on the N-400 naturalization certificate later. He did not tell me that though!)
14. I was hoping he will ask me to show taxes, etc. (I carried a heavy bag of about 6-7 lbs with a lot of paperwork weighing from 2007 since I had my GC). But, I did not have to open the bag for at all doing the interview ! , he did not ask to see ANY of the paperwork.
    1. TIP: To save time, I uploaded my previous 4 years of tax transcripts from IRS.gov and returns for one year on the USCIS.gov application under ‘additional documentation’ ahead of interview even though it is not mandatory.
15. He then printed a paper with yes/ no questions and my name, address on it and asked me to answer them and sign again ( this time a manual physical signature).
16. He started walking to the door…I realized to follow him and before opening the door - he handed over the interview test results sheet of paper and said ‘Congratulations !’
17. I asked him if there is any chance I could get to do the Oath same day. He briefly, answered ‘absolutely’ !
18. I leave the room back to the waiting area brimming with joy !

That afternoon, after about 2 hours of waiting ( and snack and coffee at the cafeteria on the 2nd floor) my name was called for Oath and I was presented my Naturalization certificate !

Happy to be a U.S national !