Citizenship

My appointment was scheduled for 2:15PM. I arrived at 30 North 41st Street USCIS office in Philadelphia around 1:20PM. After scrutinizing my appointment letter/ID and going through security, I was directed to go to the second floor. There, the receptionist asked for my appointment letter, scanned it and asked me to wait near door number 3 (there are 3 "doors" or sections on this floor).

After about 10 minutes, a USICS officer came out, called my name and asked me to follow him. I followed him back to his office. He stopped me as soon as I stepped in, turned to face me, asked me to raise my right hand and verbally made me take an oath that I would only tell the truth. I acknowledged that I would.

He gestured me to take a seat and asked for my appointment letter, passport, green card and drivers license. I placed all of these on the table. He took the appointment letter and put it in his file. He flipped through the passport and gave it back, glanced at the green card and license and said I could put them away.

He said he was going to start with the history test and started reading questions off of a sheet of paper.

1. What is an amendment?
2. What do we show loyalty to when we say the pledge of allegiance?
3. What is the supreme law of the land?
4. Who vetoes bills?
5. Who did the United States fight against in World War II?
6. What is the capital of Pennsylvania?

As I answered each question (correctly), he wrote down my answers on that paper (on a side note....it looks like USCIS officers have pre-formatted questionnaires with a set of random questions on them, but I could be wrong). He then said he was going to test my English reading and writing skills. He handed me a sheet of paper and asked me to read the first question (there were about 4 or 5 questions) on the sheet. I read aloud "Where is the White House?" "...and where is it?" he queried. "Washington DC", I replied. He asked me to write "The White House is in Washington D.C." in the space below the question. I did as instructed and handed the sheet back to him. He glanced at it, made some notes and said I had passed the civics and English tests (Yay! I guess).

He then said he was going to review my application and started with "please state your full legal name". He went on to confirm all the other information on my application like address, employer, marital status, name of spouse, number of children, etc. etc. was correct and current. I confirmed that it was. He moved on to a series of "rapid-fire" questions like "have you ever been arrested", "are you a member of the communist party", "have you sold illegal drugs", "are you a terrorist", etc etc. I answered each with a curt "no". He then asked if I would be willing to bear arms if the law required it. I said "yes". "Are you willing to take the oath of allegiance?" Me: "Yes". "Do you understand the oath?" ..."yes".

He made some notes in his file, handed my N-400 to me and asked me to sign on the last page (he had already counter-signed it). He gave me another sheet of paper (can't remember what it was) and asked me to sign in the spaces indicated. I did. He said "Congratulations, I am going to recommend that your application be approved" and handed a sheet of paper that pretty much said the same thing. He asked me to wait outside for a few minutes and that someone would give me an appointment letter for the oath ceremony. With that , he walked me back to the waiting area and parted with another "Congratulations". The entire interview from start to finish lasted no more than 10 minutes.

Once in the waiting area, I sat for about 5 minutes. A lady came out, called my name, and handed me an appointment letter for an oath ceremony due in 2 weeks!

On the whole, a pretty painless and smooth experience. Although my appointment was scheduled for 2:15PM, I was done and out of there by 2PM!

Just submitted my application to the Dallas TX office 12/26/2014

I've had one conviction of DWI.

I'll post once I hear word from immigration.

Hi...im hoping for help here.
My sister had a US citizenship interviewed in September and got approved. They said to wait for the letter on when to have her oath taking. Its already December and about 3 months now, but didnt receive any letter from them yet until now. Any advice what she can do? Very worried for her. Thanks

Hey Guys!!! Some help

I had my interview on the 12th of September, I didn't have a complete breakdown of my trips in and out of the states. I gave the generic breakdown. My IO told me once I handed this in to him it shouldn't be a problem. Three days after my interview I gave him the most upto date trip schedule, only to get a text message two hours later stating that i was back in line waiting for a interview. Just want to know how long this will take. P.S. i WORK ON A CRUISE SHIP. Longest out of the country 6 months 2 week because of work.

trips as follow.
1. 3/9/14- 3/23/14 14 days away, returning on the 7th day

2. 8/15/2010- 1/30/2010. 120 days out of u.s returning every 7th back to states

3. 8/24/11- 12/11/11 104 days away

12/11/11- 3/18/12. returning every 1, 2, 7 days. stopping in us virgin islands

4. 3/24/12- 8/11/12 returning every 2, 3, and 6 days

5. 10/9/12- 04/24/13 197 days
4/30/13- 5/7/13 6 days

6. 8/10/13- 11/12/13 112 days

11/12/13- 3/7/14 returning to the us every 10 days

This is the short list. I listed everything in detail, do you guys think i need a lawyer

Thanks for the help in advance

N 400 delay after interview
I applied for citizenship on January 21th depends on my marriage and I had my interview on April 14th and I submitted the documents they asked for ( joint bank account ,joint health insurance , joint dental insurance , joint rental leases, joint cars insurance , last three years joint taxes , old cellphone joint plan . The officer gave me a note that I passed my history and language test, but decision cannot make on my application and the officer told me that they will send me if they need more evidences or they will send me for the oath ceremony. 120 days passed and I did not hear from them. I called USCIS costumer service to ask about my application on August 18. Then I had an email says "We researched the status of your case and found that additional review is required. We are actively processing your case however, additional review has caused a longer processing time. We will make every effort to make a decision on your case once the review of your application has been completed”
Please anybody has an idea about what is additional review. Or what can I do???

had a DUI in 1997, paid 300 dollars after count case , got married the same year , filed for permanent resident card in 2003, became permanent resident in 2004 , got a 10 year card , in 2008 my step son had the police serve me with a summons for assault , case never made it , it was dismissed . truth i never did assault him , he was going through some things as a teenager , the question is can this case which was dismissed have an affect on my naturalization , or the DUI , i did state on my form N-400 about theses two cases , they asked me to bring documents to explain the cases , help , does anyone have any thoughts on that

it was received on 1/9/2014,
2/16/2014 i received a letter for document requests and was told i would be notified about interview
did not get anything on my finger prints
its almost april and I've not heard anything yet
wonder was taking so long , thought that i should have received a request for my finger prints 30 days after filing , i did call the customer service center and they told me to wait 30 days , its almost 18 days now , guess i just got to hang in there .

Hello,
I have a question, my husband is a United states citizen through marriage and he just had a baby in October 2012, he would
like to apply for her to come live here in the states with us. He was a citizen when the baby was conceived, so we are
not sure if we should apply for the I130 some are telling us to and some are telling us we don't have to apply here in the states
I was hoping someone could help us here on this forum. I used this forum when I was going through our process in 2007.''

i got a green card in July 2010 through Asylum. I live in CO and has been living with my father of the child for three years. Our daughter is 8 months. We are common Law married as per the state law. I was wondering if I could apply citizenship based on Common Law married. We plan to officially marry in January 2014. I was curious if I have to wait for applying citizenship?

Any answer would help a lot.

Just wanted to add my experience to the forum. Sent in my form N-400 in mid July, got a letter saying they received form a few weeks later. In September I was scheduled for fingerprinting, went in and had no problem, process took about 1.5 hours, mostly waiting.

A few weeks later I received a yellow letter saying they would need more documents: 1 State ID. Easy enough. I have never traveled outside the US since coming to the states when I was 10 in 1988, so never applied for a passport.

Scheduled my interview on 11-19-13 at the Santa Ana Federal building in CA. Was scheduled for 10:50, arrived at 10:20 and had my interview at 11:50. During the whole process I never received any email. Did check the status of my case online a few time and it seemed up to date.

Questions: Who is the speaker of the house?
Name one long river?
When was the declaration of Independence signed?
Name the Ocean to the west?
don't remember the last 2, but they were easy ones, only hard one was the speaker of the house.

Reading was something about Abraham Lincoln.
Writing was the answer to the reading.

Tips: Keep your cell phone in your car for the fingerprint and interview. I used flash cards for the 100 question test and it was very easy, only practiced the weekend before to keep everything fresh. On the N-400 questions about being detained, I did not put anything although I did have 1 speeding ticket. During the interview I mentioned this and my interviewer said that if it's over 5 years they did not need to know(got it in 2004). My Green Card expired in 2006, but there seemed to be no problem what so ever. No mention when I mailed in my N-400, nothing at the fingerprint and no one said anything at the interview. So, if you have an expired green card, just spend another 3-4 hundred and go for naturalization and not have to worry about it anymore. I brought my Social Security card just in case and my interviewer did end up needing to photocopy it. Also brought the 2 passport photos but they never asked for them. I had my proof of Selective Service from the website that provides it, but I guess after age 26 you don't need to show proof of application to Selective Service.

I guess my case was easy in that I spent 25 years in the US, never had any criminal record and never traveled outside the US. Looking forward to my oath ceremony.