For a few weeks now, the number one search words people have used to come to this blog have to do with citizenship interview. I feel sorry for people who ended up on my blog for useful information, but instead, got an essay on how mine went. So I decided I’d help some of them out by answering some questions as I understand.
The documents you need for the interview are listed in the letter you received with your appointment letter. As of the time I had my interview, these included the appointment letter itself, all the passports issued by your home country including the expired ones, any expired work permit(s) and your green card. You are supposed to bring the originals and a photocopy of each document.
If you can’t find your expired passports, just tell the interviewer that you have lost them. I couldn’t find expired passports at first (I did find them afterward), so I called my lawyer about it, and that’s what he told me. He also said that it all depends on the interviewer if it will be a problem or not. If he or she wants to give you a hard time, it will become a problem.
My lawyer also made me bring copies of my tax returns for the last 5 years as well even though it wasn’t listed. The reason given to me again was that if the interviewer wants to give me a hard time, they will ask for it.
The location I had the interview was in Garden City, NY and there IS a parking lot and yes, you have to go through a metal detector.
I don’t know if you can bring anybody with you other than your lawyer. Sorry.
My experience and advice? I brought everything mentioned above AND every letter and document I had, which are remotely related to immigration, and a photocopy of each because what my lawyer told me frightened me. But the person who interviewed me was very nice, and the only document she really needed to see was my current passport (to verify my home country or something, I don’t remember). Bring a book or newspaper or anything to occupy yourself with while waiting. As most of you who are about to go to the citizenship interview probably already know from the other previous appointments, the fact that the appointment is at, say 11:00am does not mean you would be ushered in to see somebody at 11:00am because there are probably 100 others who also have the appointment at 11:00am.
If you lost your letter of appointment for the interview, I THINK you are screwed because you have to get it verified by somebody first upon arrival, and then you have to show it to the guard to go up to the waiting area for the interviewees. Then you hand in that letter to be allowed to wait to be called in for the interview. But I honestly don’t know if there is any other way. The number one reason I got a lawyer to file the application for me instead of doing it myself was that when the INS or Department of Justice send out these letters, they send another copy to the lawyer. If I or the post office had lost one of the letters, I would have been covered.
If you have passed the interview, you have to hold on to your green card with your dear life until the oath ceremony. If you lose it or forget to bring it with you to the oath ceremony, you have to go through the whole process of applying for citizenship all over again. This tidbit was given by the nice person who interviewed me.
I hope it answers some of your questions.
Good luck!
Another big surprise came last night leaving me absolutely tongue tied. Since I was not expecting a package, I had not scoured the area around my house to see if there was a package delivered –for some strange reason, the postman (or some postman) sometimes leaves my packages somewhere other than next to the door under the porch, as if he wants me to go on a treasure hunt and I can’t figure out why he thinks leaving the package next to the gate to the backyard on the side of the house is a splendid idea. If topsurf hadn’t called me to tell me I had a package delivered today, I might have never known, but I digress.
I hunted down the package and found out several friends from plurk got me an absolutely beautiful watch perfect for the occasion – Citizen watch. Not only that, it’s engraved with the date 01-14-09, the date I am to take the oath of US citizenship. What a bunch of thoughtful and caring people!!!!!! I am truly astonished and humbled by this and seriously at a loss for words other than THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU GUYS, citizenjaney, topsurf, NewYorkJew, cajunvegan, MissRiss, NotAMeanGirl, CHiC, JustJen, MissAttitude, and perpstu!!!!!
Ain’t it a thing of beauty???
Oh, and I have to give a shout out to ALL the wonderful people on plurk who changed their screen names in support of my becoming a US citizen, so many of them in fact, I can’t list them all. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Now that I’m rereading this, this post reads a tad like a thank you speech after winning an Oscar for Best Actress or something… Feels pretty damn good, too.
Three days from today, January 14 2009, I will leave my house at the butt crack of the dawn and drive to Alfonse M. D’Amato U. S. Courthouse in Central Islip, NY to take the oath of U.S. Citizenship. When I got the letter of appointment for it, I announced it on Plurk and many people congratulated me and were proud. What happened afterwards completely floored me.
One of my friends on Plurk, topsurf, wanted to come with me to the courthouse to be there and share the joyful moment with me if she could manage her schedule at work and at home. And then two other friends also expressed their wish to be there with me, germaine and NewYorkJew. I wouldn’t have been THAT surprised by these kind and generous offers if they lived in Long Island, even in NYC. But topsurf lives in Pennsylvania about 4 hour drive away, germaine lives in New Hampshire about 5 hour drive away, and NewYorkJew lives in upstate New York about 3 hours drive away, according to google map, which means during the rush hour you add a coupe of more hours. I was humbled by these amazing people and their offer of great friendship.
But germaine has to go to court that day and so she is not able to come. NewYorkJew could stay with his fiancee in NYC the night before. topsurf was still trying to make it happen trying to arrange her schedule. She made me absolutely speechless. But the other day, she called me on the phone, apologizing profusely that it turned out she couldn’t make it after all because of her obligations at work and at home. I told her that I was relieved. Even though I really do want to meet topsurf in person, I had been worried she would have to drive so much fighting NYC traffic during rush hour, attend the ceremony, and drive right back without having time to sit down and talk. All on account of me. She is one of the most caring, kind and loving people I’ve met online AND in real life, and I look forward to meeting her in July, when she comes to NYC on vacation.
Another reason I’m thankful is that I was able to torture my friends around me with Some people I met only online want to come and congratulate me and share the moment, what’s YOUR excuse? what have YOU ever done for me? and so on. It gives me endless unspeakable pleasure to do that to my friends, you know.
Then yesterday, a bunch of beautiful flowers were delivered. Even before I read the card, I had a feeling it was from topsurf, and I was right. I cannot express with words how thankful I am to have made such a caring and loving friend online. She makes me want to try to be kinder and to love more and to love better. Thank you, topsurf. You make me want to be a better friend. I will strive to be worthy of your friendship.
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.
Life has been throwing punches at me left and right and I have been quite overwhelmed by life this year. Looking back, I’ve been whining quite a lot, and my dear little group of readers, I apologize. I don’t even feel like myself any more and I feel I’m even losing the ability to crack jokes about it as a result of every single cell in my body being occupied with dealing with life. I apologize ever more profusely because as you might have guessed, here comes another whiny entry. Please bear with me. I AM trying and trying hard to be positive and to not feel sorry for myself. But some days it gets to be a little too much.
As a matter of fact, I should have been ecstatic today. I should have been walking around with a stupid grin on my face. Because I came home last night to find the letter from INS waiting in the mailbox, with my citizenship interview appointment in December. How long have I been waiting to be a citizen? For about 20 years. For 20 years, I’ve been dutifully paying taxes without representation. Now I’m this close. But do you know what I did upon opening the letter and skimming through its contents? I cried. And my tears were most definitely not the tears of joy or happiness but of frustration. Oh shit! Not now! ANOTHER thing I have to prepare for! Why does it have to be now? I can’t even think straight. Where did I put all these documents that I need to bring there and when am I going to look for them?
It’s funny how the smallest thing could throw you off. I was exhausted yesterday, so I forgot about it pretty soon by sleeping. But I woke up with a heavy heart, found out Brandy had emptied her bladder on one of the dog beds, spewed plentiful variations of the word fuck about 478,399,643,715 times, feeling as if that letter was staring at me while I busied myself to get ready to go to work.
Just yesterday morning, I found myself happier than usual because I received the New York State STAR rebate check that I didn’t know I was getting and told people that it would cover most of Brooklyn’s hospital stay and joked that I needed another three checks like this to cover Brandy’s and my medical expenses. Come to find out today, I was lucky and saved by the check, since without it, I would have been short when making this month’s mortgage payment.
At work, when I finally opened my mouth to talk to a coworker, my tear gates opened and I couldn’t stop crying. And all I could say was, It’s just too much. Too much at the same time. I’m too overwhelmed. The coworker couldn’t say anything for a while, and when he finally replied, the only thing he could say was, I wish you were a millionaire. I stared at him and replied, Yeah… who doesn’t?
Yes, I know. I’ve been trying hard to see it as what it really is — happy and joyful events, as in I would have been short on my mortgage payment but hey look! This rebate check materialized and I’m good now! And I finally get to be a U. S. Citizen and exercise my rights as such! Yippeeeee! and so on… Yes, I’m trying very hard and will be trying hard. But I need to get this out. And again, I apologize.
Serious Stuff. Seriously
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