My appointment was at 9am but I got there at 8:40am. Security took a while, mainly because somebody just ahead of me arrived with 20 something boxes of supplies that had to go through the x-ray machine. Security was airport style: all metal on a tray and shoes off. The metal detector is very sensitive, so people ahead of me had to be scanned a couple of times. I took everything off (including belt) and just walked through. From there, you are told to go straight to the second floor. At the bottom of the stairs there was a security guard that checked my green card against the appointment letter and let me go up. People are asked to turn off all electronic devices and keep them off all the time, however, a guy in the waiting room was glued to his Blackberry and nobody seemed to care. On the second floor, you put the appointment letter on a tray by Window #1 and wait. It was 8:55am when I sat down. People around me were very nervous, some of them re-reading the question book. Others, like me, just staring to the ceiling. As I was waiting, a very bossy young female Asian lawyer arrived with a big group of senior Asians.
There were 25 or so people in the waiting room when I arrived so I was expecting a long wait. However, to my surprise I was called at 9:10am. My interviewer led me to interview room and she asked me to rise my right hand. The oath surprised me by its simplicity. She just asked: "Are you going to tell me the truth?" I answered "yes". After that she asked me how long I've been a permanent resident. I said just under 5 years to which she made a face and asked, when I was going to meet the 5 year requirement. I answered (incorrectly) "November 27th", she corrected me "it's actually November 29th" and she removed a post-it from my file that said "11/29" :-)
After that, she asked for my green card, driver license, and all my former passports. She was intrigued by my very old passport (it's a different color than the current ones), but she just took the two most recent ones and returned the rest to me. Then, she verified my name, address, where I worked, and asked me again all the questions on the form (from if I was a terrorist or a communist, to if I was ever in jail, to if I was willing to bear arms for the USA). She then went through the list of organizations and asked me about one from my home country (I explained that it was a professional organization). Then she asked if I belonged to any church or political party.
Then she took the passports and started checking the entry stamp of each trip that I listed in the form (as well as the foreign country entry stamp when available). I've traveled quite a bit, so checking my trips took a while; after all stamps were accounted for, she asked if I took any trips since I filed the n-400 (which I didn't). After all that, she printed a form with biographical info and asked me to check it and initial it. Then she took the n-400 form and asked me to print my name and sign in two places. Then she handed me the pictures I sent with my n-400 form, and asked me to sign them in the front side (weird...).
Finally, time for the test. She took a pre-printed page from my file and asked me to read the first sentence: "Who can vote?" Then, she asked me to turned the paper around and asked me to write: "Citizens can vote." That was what it took to pass the English test. Then she took another pre-printed form (with 10 questions) and asked the first six questions:
What's the highest court in the country?
How many amendments are there in the constitution?
What is the name of the Vice President of the USA?
What group of people were taken to American and sold as slaves?
Why did the colonists fight the British?
Who makes federal laws?
She wrote the answers I gave with a red pen in full (so keep it short).
After that, she did stuff in the computer and gave me a form that says that I passed the English and Civics test but that they couldn't reach a determination and that I would be notified in the mail of the final decision. She explained to me that the reason was that I didn't meet the 5 year residency requirement, but not to worry because everything looked good. Then after an awkward moment (is this really over?), she pointed at the door and I found my way out back to the waiting room. It was 9:25am when I reached the waiting room.
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