Hi there folks, as promised here is what happened today at my citizenship interview in St.Albans, Vermont.
Well as you can tell from the title of this post, I passed!!!!!!

It seems that my interview was completely different to Sphyrapicus's a few weeks earlier at the same office. To my complete shock, the interview was a walk in the park.

Anyway, I arrived 15 mins early with my wife and kids and was greeted by a female guard, one whom I hadn't seen before on my many previous visits. She asked for my interview letter which I didn't have because of the short notice I was given for the interview(last friday). At precisely 3pm I was called into a interview room next to the front desk / window. My immigration officer was a black lady who seemed to have a foreign accent, so perhaps she was a naturalized citizen as well. She was very pleasant and made me feel at ease. She started by methodically going through my application. I borrowed a trick from Sphy and printed off some of the pages of my N-400 which I knew had changed since I originally submitted the application. She seemed to appreciate the fact that she didn't have to physically write all the changes.
She didn't make much if any conversation outside of going through my N-400. My biggest worry were my traffic violations but all she asked me about them was if I had paid the fines!!!!
After reaching the end of my application she asked the civics questions:
What is the constitution? - The supreme law of the land
When was the declaration of independence signed? - July 4th 1776
Who was the chief Justice of the US Supreme Court? - Renquist

Next she asked me to write out the following sentence: "I have two children"
After that I had to sign some documents and my photos. She then gave me my oath ceremony letter which is on March 11th and said congratulations and that was it. I would say that about 70% of the interview, there was silence as she filled out information on her computer and other paperwork.

My advice to fellow N-400 applicants is this:
1)Move to a state where the process is typically short such as Vermont if you want to get through the process quickly! Upto this stage, it has taken 3 months so by the time the oath ceremony comes around, it will be a total of 4 months from start to finish.
2) However, I have to say that my persistance paid off because had I not asked for a cancellation date, I would still be waiting for my interview as I was originally told that they were booked up until mid april. I was lucky in one respect, in that I only live 30 mins away from the St.Albans office and so I was able to go in often and ask about my case.

So there you have it folks. After March 11th, I will be applying for the USCIS for jobs when they come up and then once I hopefully get in, I start hunting down Maria!!!!!!!!LOL
Thanks everyone for their kind support
cheers,
Patrick

Congrats Paddy, glad it went well.

Congrats Paddy

Take that Europe, one more that join ole USA

Federal jobs are hard to get from what I heard. The pay is quite decent though, and job security probably the best in the country. I'll offer my toast to the idea that you'll get an USCIS job and catch Maria

Congratulations Paddy... you are almost done with USCIS... I m still waiting for my I 751 ... wish you all the best for getting into USCIS ... u will make an excellent officer....Pasha

Hey folks, thanks for your kind words. Lani with regards to your comments, I hope you didn't think I was being racist when I said Black lady. It is true that Vermont has only around 1% african american population but I couldn't use the phrase african american because her accent sounded foreign. Anyway the reason why I mentioned it, is so that if anyone else goes for an interview at that office, whether it be for a green card or citizenship, then they should know that this officer will give everyone a fair shake.

As for working for the USCIS, I think that I would make a great immigration officer because I know what it is like to be an immigrant, I love meeting new people from every corner of the world and I treat people with the utmost respect. I don't know what it is, but I honestly believe that every immigration officer has a heart and a personality but is trained to be cold and empty!!!!
As for getting a federal job, I'll find out how difficult it is when I am finally able to apply for them. What I do know from talking to the customs guys on the Canadian border, is that they are desperately undermanned. Also there was an article in my local newspaper last week stating that the federal government will be facing a huge shortage in manpower when the baby boomers start retiring. Yes I want a federal job because there seems to be a more interesting array of careers you can pursue but also job security.
Finally, whether it does any good or not, I don't know but my father-in-law worked very closely with a colleague at his last job before he retired. Her aunt and uncle work in the HR department of the USCIS in Vermont. Now that I am going to be a citizen, I am going to see if I could perhaps get a heads up when vacancies come up.

Finally I just want to say that I am sorry that your case seems stuck in limbo Pasha. I wish I could do something to help you.

Congratulation, just continue to enjoy your life. I will have my own interview in the next one month USC any advice.

When I give citizenship exams I require the following:

State Pythagorians Theorem: A2 + B2 = C2

Describe the Erie Doctrine: Federal courts required to apply local substantive law in the absence of congressional statute

Name the greatest three US Presidents: Reagan, Nixon, Lincoln

Finally, they must run the mile in under 4 minutes and kill a Moslem

Hi Lani, No i wasn't asked anything about being a homemaker Dad and as I stated before, I think my interview may have been a little easier than normal which was a shock to me.
With regards to moving to Vermont, it was always a dream to move here as we had spent most of our vacations here. When I found out about the Vermont processing times and compared them to Pennsylvania, I knew that I had to take the risk of quitting my job and moving here. With regards to jobs in this state, I don't know yet because I have been waiting for my Father-in-law to move back here so that he can watch the kids while I go out searching for a job. One thing I do know is the scope of jobs I can apply for now has greatly increased because of soon becoming a citizen.
As for renting a PO box, I don't know how the USCIS would view that because you still need to have a permanent address somewhere. Before my wife found a job in St.Albans, we were considering moving to Bennington, Vermont which is on the VT-NY border and close to MA as well. The idea was to live in Bennington and work in Albany, NY where there were obviously more jobs and is only an hour's drive.

You could always rent a place here, find a temporary job and then as soon as you pass your citizenship ionterview then move back to where you are living right now

hey Paddy congratz
may I ask you question
how long after your fingerprints
you got your intervieuw
I got fingerprinted november 2th 2004
and filled July 9th 2004
I hope we reach the end to pretty soon to
thanks
agapi

didn't know paddy had pet sheep

I would have had my interview on March 8th if I hadn't had my interview moved up to January.

With all of this talk of moving to new areas. Don't forget that one requirement of the N-400 is that you have lived in the district in which you are applying for 3 months prior to filing. I was eligible to apply for citizenship in April/04 (3 years - 90 days from when I got my green card) but I couldn't apply until June/04 because I moved to VT in March. So, the move cost me two months. If I had moved in January then I could have applied on time in April.

Hi Sphy

Just wanted to know which website you used to learn and apply for citizenship. I want to do the same this weekend.
Also i moved from California to Oregon and was just wondering do i still have to submit change of address before applying for N-400 since i got my green card in CA.
I will appreciate your answer.

Thanks

The USCIS web site is the best source of naturalization information.

http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/natz/index.htm

By law, you are required to file an AR-11 every time you move. The requirement ends when you naturalize And, of course, the sponsor (often the spouse in the case of LPRs married to USCs) needs to file the I-865 whenever they move.

The AR-11 is mailed to Kentucky no matter where you live in the US and no matter where you received your green card from.

Good luck.

I was told that VT is typically 5 months. Recently, people are being held up by the name checks. It has nothing to do with the state - is the FBI end of things that is slowing things down (at least in VT).

You'll have to explain to me how people that don't live in VT get driver's licenses?

Lying on an N-400 could result in naturalization being revoked if the people are caught. I have a friend that naturalized in NH but moved to VT. He took his interview in NH but they are making him take the oath in VT (since he moved). He has been waiting for 5 months now for his file to be transferred from NH to VT.

It would hardly be worth it in my mind to commit fraud by pretending to be a resident of a state that you are not, just to save a few months. Certainly not worth the hassle, nor the potential revokation of citizenship, in my mind.

Basically folks, from my experience if you know a little on how to work the system then you will get through the N-400 process quicker.
Firstly, I got round the 3-month residence rule by applying in the state where I qualified and then moving. At the time I honestly thought that my application would be severely delayed because of having to get my file transferred between jurisdictions. However I found out that the file stays at the Service Center until all the FBI and name checks are done so there was no delay for me.
Secondly, had I just sat on my a-s-s then the process would have taken 5 or 6 months in vermont. I have no idea how accomodating other offices are but I just felt that the St.Albans office bent over backwards to help if you asked them.Had I not got cancellation date then I would have waited until April but when I asked for a cancellation date, they had more than enough choices available.

Agaphi, It took 2 weeks for my fingerprints to clear the FBI and 2 months for my name check. My advice to you Agaphi is go down to your local office, find out what the status of your fingerprints and name check are and then ask them when they expect to set up an interview and ask them if they have a cancellation date.

I used to live in Maryland, hated everyday there Lani.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the reason to speed up N400 application by 4-5 months? I don't think there's much difference between LPR and USC, unless you're applying for federal job or job with security clearance? Travelling shouldn't be a problem too with that little pink card. Am I missing something important here?

My motivations for getting citizenship Marmaduk is as follows: I want to apply for a federal job asap, I want to vote and to honest I am sick of dealing with the ball and chain called immigration.

Also don't forget you are also restricted by remaining a permanent resident........you have to keep a reasonable continuous residence, you have to inform USCIS every time you move and if you get yourself into trouble with the law, they will deport you.......................I think that are enough reasons to want to become a citizen

I used to live in Baltimore before moving to PA and then onto VT. Baltimore is the biggest s-h-i-t-h-o-l-e I have ever lived in with the exception of detroit. Maryland is an expensive place to live and I seriously doubt that it takes only 4 months from start to finish for the N-400 in MD.......I would like to hear from these people who have been thru Baltimore. I just looked at the processing dates for the N-400 for all the states of New England and Vermont came first but all of them including Boston came ahead of Baltimore. Basically, it doesn't take a lot of research to find out an immigrant(legal) percentage of any particular state and as you can imagine Vermont(whose population is close to the population of Baltimore) has a tiny percentage of immigrants compared to Baltimore. Whichever state you choose Lani, one thing is for sure, you need to get out of New York state if you want to get a faster N-400

Oh yeah, depending on which agency within Homeland security I join, I would love to go after Maria..nothing would give me more pleasure than to deport her a-s-s. Other illegal immigrants need to help Immigration find her because her arrogance gives illegals a bad name!!!!!!

Hey Paddy looking at ur name there are you irish by any chance