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N400 Interview - San Diego
Posting my N400 experience for benefit of everyone. Here is my time line:
Date applied - Oct 13, 2019
Biometrics appointment completed - Oct 23, 2019
Interview scheduled - April 9, 2020 (de-scheduled due to COVID)
Interview rescheduled - Sept 28, 2020
Interview & Oath - Sept 28, 2020
One thing I noticed at San Diego USCIS office is that if you have interview in the morning, and if you get approved, they will most likely administer oath the same day. My wife's interview took place a week earlier than mine but it was in the afternoon. Even though she was approved, she had to wait for her oath ceremony to be scheduled. In contrast my interview and oath took place the same day. A friend of mine also had interview in the morning and his case was approved and he took oath the same day.
I was scheduled for 8:00 am in the morning. I reached the place a good 30 to 35 mins before. Even though they suggest to stand 15 mins before interview, I noticed that there were people before me in the queue. I was probably 8th person. At about 8 am they opened the office and took folks in one by one. The queue after me was already big by this time. After security check, I went to the floor where interviews take place. There I had to show the interview notice and was asked to sit and wait in the lobby for name to be called. My name was called out at 8.30 or so. The IO officer was a female. She took me to her office. After initial greetings, I was asked me to swear. Then she asked for my passports, driving license and green card. Then she started with the civic test. These are the questions she asked which I answered correctly:
1) When is selective service?
2) Who is Vice President?
3) Who is speaker of the house?
4) Which party does the President belong to?
5) Why does the flag have 50 stars?
6) What is one right that everyone living in US has?
After this I was asked to read ' When is Flag Day?' and write 'Flag Day is in June'. After this she switched to N400 and started asking basic questions. She did ask me if I rent or own the current residence. She also asked me the monthly mortgage amount. Then she moved to the travel section.
A day before the interview, I had realized that I had forgotten to mention 3 trips in travel section when I had applied online. One was a cruise for 3 days, one was work trip abroad for 5 days and one was India trip for 9 days or so. There were already 7 trips mentioned, so adding these 3 should be 10 trips in last 5 yrs. So when she reached travel section she said that she ran report and she found that I had more trips than what was mentioned in application. At that point I told her that there was oversight on my part and I had forgotten to mention 3 trips. I apologized for missing them. She said no problem since it is hard to keep track of all trips if there are many trips abroad. I gave her the 3 trip dates which she added.
After that she went through Yes/No questions and finally made me sign the changes. By this time, the way interview was going, I had a feeling that she will approve the application which she did. She was having trouble in the system to schedule me for same day oath. She explained the issue to me and said she will still try to get my oath done the same day. I had to wait in her office for 10mins as she tried to seek help to fix the issue and voila, she was able to schedule me for oath. I was asked to wait in the lobby. After 15 mins the same IO officer administered the oath to me. I think the IO officer was super sweet, cool and helpful.
Here are some tips that I would like to offer to fellow applicants:
1) Reach early so that you can relax before the interview. For those in San Diego, you can park in downstairs parking lot of 110 Plaza (same building which has USCIS office)
2) Dress nicely, it creates good 1st impression. I was in business casual and was probably the most dressed among all the other candidates.
3) If you made genuine errors in your application, feel free to let the IO officer correct them. As I mentioned above, I had to add 3 trips which I genuinely forgot to add when I applied online and it did not have any impact on interview results.
4) If you travel for work, please spend time looking at you passport carefully before you fill N400 applications and also before the interview so that you don't miss any travel trips like I did :)
5) Civics, writing and reading test are easy to pass. Spend time studying N400 application, they focus on that these days.
6) IO officers are human beings like us and from our experience, they are super helpful if your case is clear.
Wishing you all the very best folks!
Date applied - Oct 13, 2019
Biometrics appointment completed - Oct 23, 2019
Interview scheduled - April 9, 2020 (de-scheduled due to COVID)
Interview rescheduled - Sept 28, 2020
Interview & Oath - Sept 28, 2020
One thing I noticed at San Diego USCIS office is that if you have interview in the morning, and if you get approved, they will most likely administer oath the same day. My wife's interview took place a week earlier than mine but it was in the afternoon. Even though she was approved, she had to wait for her oath ceremony to be scheduled. In contrast my interview and oath took place the same day. A friend of mine also had interview in the morning and his case was approved and he took oath the same day.
I was scheduled for 8:00 am in the morning. I reached the place a good 30 to 35 mins before. Even though they suggest to stand 15 mins before interview, I noticed that there were people before me in the queue. I was probably 8th person. At about 8 am they opened the office and took folks in one by one. The queue after me was already big by this time. After security check, I went to the floor where interviews take place. There I had to show the interview notice and was asked to sit and wait in the lobby for name to be called. My name was called out at 8.30 or so. The IO officer was a female. She took me to her office. After initial greetings, I was asked me to swear. Then she asked for my passports, driving license and green card. Then she started with the civic test. These are the questions she asked which I answered correctly:
1) When is selective service?
2) Who is Vice President?
3) Who is speaker of the house?
4) Which party does the President belong to?
5) Why does the flag have 50 stars?
6) What is one right that everyone living in US has?
After this I was asked to read ' When is Flag Day?' and write 'Flag Day is in June'. After this she switched to N400 and started asking basic questions. She did ask me if I rent or own the current residence. She also asked me the monthly mortgage amount. Then she moved to the travel section.
A day before the interview, I had realized that I had forgotten to mention 3 trips in travel section when I had applied online. One was a cruise for 3 days, one was work trip abroad for 5 days and one was India trip for 9 days or so. There were already 7 trips mentioned, so adding these 3 should be 10 trips in last 5 yrs. So when she reached travel section she said that she ran report and she found that I had more trips than what was mentioned in application. At that point I told her that there was oversight on my part and I had forgotten to mention 3 trips. I apologized for missing them. She said no problem since it is hard to keep track of all trips if there are many trips abroad. I gave her the 3 trip dates which she added.
After that she went through Yes/No questions and finally made me sign the changes. By this time, the way interview was going, I had a feeling that she will approve the application which she did. She was having trouble in the system to schedule me for same day oath. She explained the issue to me and said she will still try to get my oath done the same day. I had to wait in her office for 10mins as she tried to seek help to fix the issue and voila, she was able to schedule me for oath. I was asked to wait in the lobby. After 15 mins the same IO officer administered the oath to me. I think the IO officer was super sweet, cool and helpful.
Here are some tips that I would like to offer to fellow applicants:
1) Reach early so that you can relax before the interview. For those in San Diego, you can park in downstairs parking lot of 110 Plaza (same building which has USCIS office)
2) Dress nicely, it creates good 1st impression. I was in business casual and was probably the most dressed among all the other candidates.
3) If you made genuine errors in your application, feel free to let the IO officer correct them. As I mentioned above, I had to add 3 trips which I genuinely forgot to add when I applied online and it did not have any impact on interview results.
4) If you travel for work, please spend time looking at you passport carefully before you fill N400 applications and also before the interview so that you don't miss any travel trips like I did :)
5) Civics, writing and reading test are easy to pass. Spend time studying N400 application, they focus on that these days.
6) IO officers are human beings like us and from our experience, they are super helpful if your case is clear.
Wishing you all the very best folks!
All Replies (14)
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