In the Houston District Office this is a three step process.

First you will go with an Officer in a little cubicle and be administered the test of English and Social Science. The exam consists of about 10 written questions from the Citizenship and Immigration Service list. After that the Officer will test your English by asking you to read something, or write down a sentence or two. For a copy of the list please go to http://www.visatous.com Go to Links and click on New Naturalization test.

Provided you pass the test, you will then proceed to the next step. This is the actual interview with an Officer. The officer will go over the factual elements of the case. These include whether you had continuous residence, physical presence and whether you have good moral character (ie not convicted of a crime). They might also ask you whether you affirm the Oath Requirements of Section H on Page 9 of the N-400 Form. They are:

Do you support the Constitution and form of government of the United States?
Do you understand the full Oath of Allegiance to the United States?
Are you willing to take the full Oath of Allegiance to the United States?
If the law requires it, are you willing to bear arms on behalf of the United States?
If the law requires it, are you willing to perform noncombatant services in the U.S. Armed Forces?
If the law requires it, are you willing to perform work of national importance under civilian direction?

Provided you pass the Second Step, you proceed to the third step. The Citizenship and Immigration Service will schedule you for the oath ceremony and hand you the necessary papers for the oath ceremony.

After you take the oath, you become an US Citizen.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Record number of new naturalized citizens will vote this year. The democratic congress made sure that as many people as possible got through the immigration process as possible before the voter registration deadline. Since IKE struck Houston the scheduled Naturalized ceremony was postponed. The Houston District Office rescheduled the oath ceremony just before the registration deadline, and called every applicant personally to make sure they came to the ceremony.

Generally Naturalized Citizens are more interested in American politics and vote in record numbers. These are people who chose to become American and was not simply born in America. Thus they are more interested and more aware. Most of them will probably vote democrat. The republican party seemed to do better in rural white conservative areas.

Realizing that though the Republican run USCIS promulgated a new test that makes it harder for citizens to pass. I think they hope that people who pass the test are more educated, and therefore richer and vote Republican.

I doubt whether candidates like Sarah Palin would pass this hard test. Please check it out at:

www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q.pdf

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

The New Naturalization test is here. If you have your interview before October 01, 2008, you will be administered the OLD test.

If you file your case before October 01, 2008, you can choose between the old test and the new test. (That is if your interview is before October 01, 2009)

If you file after October 01, 2008, you will take the new test.

There is a rumor that the new test is harder. What I like about the new test is that it is organized into sections, and is therefore easier to remember. The old test was a jumble of questions with no logic or organization.

What I don’t like is that many of the questions are fuzzy. Remember this is the government that gave us “fuzzy math.” It has open ended questions like “what does the constitution do?” The constitution does so much, and there are only three right answers. (Of course this government does not even understand that the Constitution protects rights).

In general the new questions are more detailed and require a more thorough understanding of US Civics and History.

Why don’t you decide for yourself.

Take a look at the new test here:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q.pdf

Take a look at the old test: http://www.visatous.com, go to links, and click on naturalization Questions (fourth from the bottom)

If you find the new test harder, apply BEFORE October 01, 2008. (ie ASAP). If you want us to file, call us at 281-242-9139 or e mail me annie@visatous.com

For more general information on the New Test go to:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=2de5bece

How to ACE a marriage based Interview at CIS

DO-Dress professionally. As in any interview, the interviewer forms an initial impression, which if negative is hard to shake. The clothes do not have to be expensive But have proper respect by wearing clothes that cover. This is a serious interview, not a dance club

DO- Tell the truth. There are no right or wrong thing in a marriage and making up lies really complicate matter. Apart from the fact that the officer places you under oath to “tell the truth” and lying to a federal officer is a felony, it does actually hurts your case. The officers are supposed to judge whether you are married or not under state law. Most state law defines marriage as:
1. Intent to be married
2. Having a ceremony of some sort for the marriage
3. Holdingout to others as man and wife

Marriage is ultimately a social declaraion of the intent of one man and one woman to be together and no other societal rules govern marriage.

In a separate interview once, for my clients, the husband was asked where he took his wife on the last date. The wife had already answered Mc Donalds. The husband did not want to say that he was that “cheap.” So he hesitated, and ultimately said “a nice restaurant.” We had trouble with that case, although the couple was happily married.

In another case, the male client had gone back to his village in Tanzania, while his pregnant wife stayed in the US. The question was whether when he was in Tanzania, did he call his wife. The man answered no. His village had no phones. His wife thought it would “look bad” that he never called his pregnant wife, so she answered yes. The nest question was how many time, and she answered three ties a day. One lie leads to another. We had to wait for the birth of the child for the officer to actually believe that the couple was in fact living together.

Do -Take all the documents with you. For instance:

Proof of Cohabitation – As many of these as you can get:

A. Copy of birth certificate of child together
B. Copy of joint mortgage documents
C. Copy of joint rental agreement
D. Copy of life insurance where the spouse is the beneficiary
E. Copy of joint health insurance
F. Copy of joint car insurance
G. Copy of joint bank account
H. Copy of joint stock certificate
I. Copy of joint credit card bills
J. Copy of joint purchases, example car or furniture or appliances
K. Marriage album and pictures

ORIGINALS OF
a. Marriage certificate
b. Birth certificates of both spouses
c. Naturalization certificate for petitioner
d. Divorce decrees for both spouses, if applicable
e. All other documents submitted to the INS, like EAD card, or travel document like advance parole
f. Passport, driver’s license and SS Card for both spouses

Do- Be short and sweet. Just answer the specific question asked, nothing more. The officer has many interviews to do a day, and does not have time to hear your life story. Besides going off on tangents derails the officer, and make their job harder. If they forget something, they can ask you to come back later, delaying the time you have to get your green card.

DON’T -Prepare for the interview other than collecting the documents. Very often clients ask me what type of questions are asked, with the intent of starting to memorize the answers. When one of my clients asked me that, I had told him that they may ask him questions about his wife, like her birth date, etc. At the interview, he told me he had memorized everything about his wife. I dont know whether that endeared him more to his wife, but for the interview purpose it was a complete waste of time. Again, since there are no rules in a marriage there is no rule as to what you should now. If you dont know, say “I dont know.” Dont make up an answer. A client was once asked what perume the other spouse wears. This couple knew the answer. But dear readers, I have been married for 22 years, and have raised two kids with my husband aged 21 and 20. And frankly I dont think my husband wears a perfume. My husband certainly does not know what perfume I wear. I dont know what perfume I wear, since they come from little bottles on my dresser that I get as presents. So, if you dont know, say “I dont know.”

DON’T-Act overly amorous or lovey-dovey. The officers are trained to recognize frauds and being overly amorous raises the suspicion as to whether you are really married. Act normal. You are always liked best when you are your natural self.

And above all DON’T file false petitions! That is a crime and will get you deported. If you are actually not living together as man and wife, immigration officers do find out. These officers are trained and do nothing but marriage cases about 7-8 a day for years!

Naturalization (ie making permanent residents citizens, and thereby voters) is always a big issue with politicians in an election year. Last July USCIS received about 1.4 million applications for naturalization, because starting August 01, 2007 the fee went up from about $400/- to $695/- Obviously the processing of all these applications would take time, and Mr. Gonzales had to answer to the Congress (particularly the democrats, who somehow think that most naturalized citizens will vote for them) explaining the delay.

The CIS has provided an estimate of the time it takes for their district office to complete the process. For instance, it will take 7.2 months in Albany, NY, and 10.1 month in New York, NY. It takes anywhere between 14.5 months to 5 months. However the time listed for Houston is 14 months, but we are getting all ours (ones with no problems) in 8 months . In any case, it is well before the November general election deadline, which should make our politicians happy. If only they could use the same resources for other cases as well.