Oh, Say Can You See?!?

June 5, 2008

As some of you may or may not know, I applied for US Citizenship this year and jumped through most of the hoops and made it to the Citizenship Interview and Exam on Thursday. My interview/exam was at 9:15 in the morning at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) location downtown SF.

I got to USCIS about 20 min before my appointment, and before I could enter the building, I went through a cell phone security check. Apparently, my work blackberry was fine to enter the building, but not my personal Motorola phone, which has a camera. No recording devices are allowed into the building. I had no car to leave it in as I had taken the Muni, so the security guard directed me across the street to a little coffee shop, to "check" my cell phone for $2.50. Nice little side business that this coffee shop has.

For the interview, I was asked several questions that confirmed the validity of the information I submitted in my application. There is also a reading/writing test portion of the interview, where I had to write the phrase "I bought a blue car today.", and I had to write my name several times.

For the history "civics" exam, there are about 100 questions that you could get tested on. When I got my fingerprints taken a couple months ago, they gave me a booklet to study all the sample questions for the civics exam. Apparently, there is a new test that will be rolled out on October 1, 2008, where some questions will have more than one correct answer. According to the USCIS website: "The revised test, with an emphasis on the fundamental concepts of American democracy and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, will help encourage citizenship applicants to learn and identify with the basic values we all share as Americans."

I got asked about 10 questions, which included:
1) Q: What is the most important right that citizens have? A: The right to vote
2) Q: How many senators are there in the Senate? A: 100
3) Q: How many stars are there on the flag? A: 50
4) Q: What is the capitol of the US? A: Washington, DC

All the anxiety of studying the sample questions was alleviated in under 2 minutes, as I answered all the questions correctly. Very anti-climactic.

Anyway, the good news is that I passed both the interview and exam, and will attend a swearing-in ceremony sometime in July.

Thankfully, it is legal in Canada to also hold nationality of another country, and according to the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Services website: Since February 15, 1977, a Canadian citizen who acquires another nationality may retain Canadian citizenship, unless he or she voluntarily applies to renounce it and the application is approved by a citizenship judge. The current act thus makes it possible to have two or more citizenships and allegiances at the same time for an indefinite period.

As such, I will be a dual citizen of Canada and the US. And now I also know the answer to the question "What were the first original 13 colonies?".