N-400 Timeline and Interview | Seattle Field office

I got naturalized today and wanted to share my experience at the Seattle Field Office.

Timeline:

  • Notice of N-400 received: 10/29/2024 (used the 90 day rule to apply before I was eligible)
  • Notice of N-400 Interview scheduled: 1/3/2025 (interview scheduled for 1/29/2025)
  • Notice of N-400 Interview scheduled: 1/7/2025 (scheduled for 2/5/2025)* see note below
  • Certificate of Naturalization was issued: 2/5/2025

*Note: The first interview was scheduled when I had planned to be out of the country on vacation. I consulted a friend who was an immigration attorney and she said that it was no problem to reschedule once and that it was not worth canceling a vacation to make my original appointment. So I called the phone number for USCIS on the interview form and was able to easily reschedule the interview for a week after the originally scheduled date (they just sent me another notice with another date, I didn't choose the specific day).

Interview:

Random Asides: I wasn't sure if my spouse was able to get into the building with me, but he was able to accompany me through the check-in process and wait in the waiting room when I was in the interview. He also was able to accompany me to the oath ceremony. Also, on the day of the interview we woke up to a bunch of snow and were worried the USCIS wouldn't be open or would open late that day. This website was really useful in confirming that the USCIS office was open on the day of the interview: https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/uscis-office-closings .

Arrived at the field office around 6:40 am for a 7:10 am interview and was able to enter the building and go through security right away. To check in, showed my interview notice and green card, and got a photo and fingerprints taken. I was finished checking in by 6:55 am, and got sent to the waiting room on the 2nd floor.

My number was called at 7:11 am. The interview was really straightforward and I was first put under oath and had to show the officer my green card, driver's license, and passport. Then, I took the reading and writing tests, which were straight forward. I had to read "who can vote" and write out "citizens can vote." Then the officer moved on to the civics test:

  • Who is the vice president?
  • How old do you have to be to vote?
  • What month are federal elections?
  • Why did the colonists come to America?
  • What keeps one branch of government from having too much power?
  • What did the emancipation proclamation do?

I got the 6 questions correct and the officer moved on to the N-400.

The officer asked me to confirm my name, DOB, SSN and current address. She also asked me how I became a permanent resident (and a few follow up questions like when I moved to Seattle), what I do for work, if I had kids, and if any of my trips outside the US in the last few years were more than 6 months (they weren't). Then the officer went through all of the NO/YES questions, asked me to sign a couple of forms on a tablet. After that, the officer told me that there were no changes to my application and she was approving it! She also let me know that there were same-day oath ceremonies. She gave me a piece of paper with my interview results and told me to go to the auditorium on the first floor to wait for the oath ceremony. I was out of the interview by 7:26.

Ceremony:

To enter the auditorium, I had to give another officer the piece of paper from the interview and turn in my green card. I waited in the auditorium until the officer closed the doors exactly at 8:30 am. The ceremony started around 8:35 and was done by 8:50 am, after which I got my Certificate of Naturalization and was able to take photos. The ceremony consisted of a few opening remarks from the officer, standing for the national anthem, remaining standing to repeat the oath of allegiance. There was also a lady in the back of the auditorium giving out and collecting voter registration forms.