Ben's Dad Becomes A Citizen!

Although Ben wasn't involved in the process of his Dad obtaining his citizenship, this is a new milestone for the entire Goldlust family.

Yesterday, James had an interview appointment with the USCIS in Fairfax, VA at 9:30. Around 9:50 his name was called to meet with his interviewer. Although I am telling this information second hand, I wanted to include much of my husband's monumental day as possible. When James entered the interviewer room, was asked a series of interview questions like "What is the color of the flag, how many stars are in the flag, who is the current President, etc.,". James answered the questions flawlessly. At the end of the interview, as James waited nervously, the interviewer cleared him to continue to the Oath Ceremony so he could obtain his naturalization papers.

James called telling the news and we were both overjoyed. I was even more overjoyed that I was able to see him swear in as a citizen. We both thought that perhaps the interviewer (if certified) would swear him in, but I was even more happy I could see this event take place personally. I quickly got the okay from my boss allowing me to leave early and high tailed it to Fairfax.

I reached the location around 11:00 and ate a quick bite at a local deli with James. Afterwards around 11:40 we walked across the street to be at the immigration office for the 11:45 time frame. Even though the Oath Ceremony was not to take place until 12:45, they asked everyone to be there an hour early.

The waiting area inside the immigration office to me resembled the DMV. It had several counters were officials would call up numbers for awaiting immigrants to discuss paperwork or other various details of their status. Around 12:45 a large crowd gathered at one end of the waiting area, and we figured thats where everyone was gathering for the Oath Ceremony. Instead, this was the area where they divided up the citizens per their A# to verify information on their naturalization papers and to sign it before the ceremony, as well as receive a white packet with a number written on it. Using the last three digits of your A# number, you either got in a line that was for 0-300 or 300-600. James's last three digits were 105.

After James reviewed and sign his document, we were then sent to a line where we would go to the second floor for the ceremony. Once we were escorted to the second floor to the ceremony room, the immigrants were assigned seats according the the number on their packet. James was seat #9. Family and friends were sent to the back of the room. We sat there and waited, and waited. Apparently the office was having technical difficulties of some sort. We all guess they had a problem with the printer printing out all the naturalization papers. During our waiting time, James came to the back to talk with me and another Russian we befriended. We both looked inside the packet and inside there was a book containing the history of the US, a booklet with The Bill of Rights, and a signed letter of congratulations from the President with The White House stationary. Then finally at 2:30 the ceremony began.

One by one each of the immigrants receiving their citizenship would stand up and say what country they were from. Mostly there were people immigrating from India, South Korea or El Salvador, but there were a few from Russia. Following that section of the ceremony, the Director put in a video of President George W. Bush congratulating and welcoming all the new citizens to the United States. Then another video was put on that basically resembled a slide show of different photos of the US, with "Proud to Be and American" playing in the background. After the two videos were finished, the Director would call up each individual, hand them their naturalization paper and shake their hand. It was a great memorable event and I was so happy I could be apart of it.

I do have to add while waiting for the ceremony to begin and seeing my husband sitting rows ahead of me, I couldn’t help but reflect during the ceremony everyone in the room is even more so connected with the majority people in the US, because at some time or another each of our family members went through a similar process of becoming an American. It made me reflect on my great grandparents and grandparent's immigration to the US and although some of it has changed through the years, the process is a long and difficult one, but once you are there, you are just there.

On a personal note to my husband:

Congrats baby. I am so proud of you and I am so glad that this stage of our lives is finally complete.