Citizenship Interview

I had my citizenship interview on Thursday. The appointment was at 11am in Garden City, NY, which is about an hour drive from my house. Naturally, I left home 3 hours and 10 minutes before the appointment, having woken up early from a very fitful sleep.

For several days, the interview had been on my mind because the official letter listing the documents I should bring with me to the interview listed all travel documents issued by the government of my home country including the expired passports, and of course as a matter of principle, I had no idea where my 20 year old expired passport was. I had my most current one and the one right before. If you know me, you know that I’m not only terribly unorganized, but also a major slob, so looking for this old passport was a tantamount task, you see.

A couple of days before the appointment, resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to find it, I called my lawyer’s office to see what I should do. They informed me that I should just tell them I lost it since I moved around no less than a dozen times and that it’s not really important, BUT it all depends on the interviewer – If the interviewer wants to give me a hard time, he or she will deny me the citizenship. They also told me that I should bring 3 years worth of my tax returns with me even though it’s not on the list of documents I should bring because, again, if the interviewer wants to give me a hard time, they’d ask for it. As you could imagine, the call to the lawyer made me even more agitated and nervous about the interview.

That night, with a stroke of luck, I happened to look inside an old bag I used to carry, and found an old passport, which turned out to be 15 year old expired passport that I didn’t even remember I had. Then a few minutes later I found the 20 year old one as well, on top of my desk in plain sight….

The next day, I made the photocopies since the official letter instructed that I bring the original AND a photocopy of each document. I felt all ready for the interview since I have already jammed 100 sample questions and answers into my brain. But then later in the day, I learned that they have a new set of 100 questions and since I applied before the date they changed the questions, I would have the option of choosing the old test or the new test. Remembering what the lawyer’s office told me about everything depending on the interviewer who might want to give me a hard time, I jammed the new set of questions into my brain as well.

So leaving the house more than 3 hours before the appointment was more than natural, given that it was rush hour and raining. Arriving an hour and 20 minutes early, tired but full of nervous energy, I sat in the waiting room and waited for my name to be called for about 2 hours. Finally my name was called. After 15 minutes of surprisingly pleasant interview, she congratulated me and informed me that I would get a letter in a month or two specifying when and where I should go to take the oath.

I walked out feeling 50 lb lighter but with immense happiness and pride of finally getting over the last hurdle to being a US citizen. Now the only thing left for me to do is to NOT lose my green card because that’s the only thing I need in order to take the oath and get my citizenship. Now REJOICE WITH ME!!!!

As for all those documents and their photocopies? she never asked to see even one of them.