The whole process went very smoothly and I had my interview and test at the end of September which based on prior experience was way faster then any other dealings I've had with the immigration service. On the day of the interview they wanted me to come for the swearing in ceremony before the end of September (so they could meet their quota by September fiscal year end close ??) which I couldn't since we had already booked travel to Canada for Thanksgiving. I wouldn't have had time to get a new passport in the couple of days between the swearing in and traveling. I asked if there would be any issues putting it off until I came back and they said no, but the day before leaving I got the notice in the mail that my ceremony was scheduled for the day immediately after our return. Nothing like cutting it close.
It was schedule for 8:30 in the morning and after dropping the kids off at school at 7:20, the earliest we could possibly do, we headed out to the office in Irving. It's normally about a 40 to 50 minute drive so I should have been able to get there on time but I was worried since we were making this trip during morning rush hour. Well, the first highway we hit ended up being closed for bridge construction and everyone was forced onto the service road as a detour. Once we got past that we hit some major rush hour traffic trying to navigate between two major highways. At this point I was really stressed out since I was convinced I was going to be late. I hate being late for things. Being late for things stresses me out and with something this big it stresses me out even more. (I'm horrible to travel with, just ask Jen.)
What do they do if your late for your swearing in ceremony? In my mind I was as good as deported. When I hit the exit for the next highway I was so stressed that I missed the west bound ramp and ended up heading east. More stress. I turned around and the west bound side was stopped dead. I had 10 minutes to get there and about 10 minutes worth of driving on a good day and here I was stopped dead on the highway. I felt like I was going to throw up.
Once we got passed the stalled car holding up the show it was 8:30 I felt a little calmer. At this point I was late and there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't have any hope of getting there on time now so there was no longer any reason to stress. I pulled into the parking lot at 8:40, only 10 minutes late, and as it turned out they were still processing the last couple of people before the ceremony. Once through security they checked over your paperwork, took your green card, and told you where you needed to sit. They still checked in three or four people after me so I wasn't the last one.
The ceremony itself was pretty quick and there were only about 90 of us being sworn in. We got an introduction speech, they read out the names of the countries of everyone being sworn in, (there were three Canadians including myself), we watched a couple of videos, took the oath, and then they handed out the certificates. All in all it took about an hour and we were done.
Here I am looking like a complete dork reciting the Oath of Citizenship.
Watching a video message from President Obama.
As part of the ceremony they played Lee Greenwood's "I'm proud to be an American"
Caroline during the ceremony.
Me posing outside with the citizenship certificate.
Caroline obviously very excited about me becoming a citizen.