I am now an American!!!

Today, on a more personal note – I PASSED MY NATURALIZATION TEST AND AFTER SOME OFFICIAL CEREMONY, I’LL OFFICIALLY BECOME AN AMERICAN HONEY!

This status was given to me upon successful completion of the following:
- I read a sentence: “When is Columbus Day?” Just read it, no answer needed, which was good because this was not in the studying materials I was given, so I had no idea.
- I wrote a sentence: “Columbus Day is in October.”
The officer put check marks by both and we moved on to the “challenging” part of the test – history and civics. I had to answer six out of ten questions correctly. My six questions were:

1) What do the Cabinet members do? They advise the President.
2) What happened at the Declaration of Independence? We declared our Independence from Great Britain.
3) How many supreme justices do we have on the Supreme Court? Nine
4) Who becomes President when the President and the Vice President can no longer serve? The Speaker of the House.
5) How many years do we elect senators for? Six
6) Name one branch of government? Executive.

After that, I had to answer a series of standard “Have you been a terrorist, prostitute, or a member of the communist party” types of questions and that was it! The officer conducting the interview said: “I will recommend your application for approval. Ceremony is in April. There is the exit.”
The whole thing lasted less than 30 minutes and I walked out of there in disbelief (not because I didn’t think I deserved it, but because it was much simpler than I anticipated) and very happy.

So…now I am done with the USCIS. No more applications, no more fingerprints, no more FEES, no more interviews about how long I’ve known my husband and who attended our wedding, no more waiting in sticky waiting rooms (that applies to Boston only, VA offices are a lot less busy and smell better).

And starting the next Presidential election – I get to vote!!!