Pollo Citizen!

August was a momentous month for us!

Pollo was eligible to apply for US citizenship since June of 2015, but due to mostly financial reasons he didn´t apply until spring of this year.  Again, given the horror stories that one hears about people trying to become citizens and a friend´s recent long battle for citizenship, we were a little worried about the whole process.  Luckily for us, the most trying thing was killing lots of trees as we printed out document after document to make sure we had enough proof that Pollo and I are actually married and have been since he moved here.

The entire timeline is a little bit of a blur for me, but basically Pollo applied for citizenship in the spring and the first step is to get called in so USCIS or whomever, can do a biometrics scan.  This was strange because he had jsut gotten one the year before when he had to apply for permanent permanent residency.  I guess there is a lot of fraud? Pollo probably got called for biometrics a month after he sent in his application (with a huge payment to USCIS). 

After you get called for biometrics, you get called for your citizenship interview with an officer at USCIS.  This waiting step can take up to 9 months in some cases, or more.  Pollo got his interview paperwork in June or July, just a month or so after he completed his biometrics!  We were worried that it would coincide with a family reunion in Hawaii, but we were lucky and they scheduled him for his interview the week we got back.

Pollo was very nervous for his interview and endlessly studied all the resources that USCIS and Homeland Security provides for potential citizens to study and he reviewed all the questions that the officer might ask him.  We killed a couple more trees so we could print out all our documents again and he prepared photo albums and lined up original birth and marriage certificates and he had it all ready to go with him for his grand citizenship interview on Friday.

His interview lasted 10 minutes. And they didn't look at any papers.

Pollo said that he was called into the officer's office and they asked him to verify some information and they gave him the US history test that consisted of 6 questions that he passed with flying colors and then he had the English test.  The English test consisted of having to read a sentence from the Constitution out loud and then write down a sentence that the officer read to him.  Once that was through the officer said that he passed and asked Pollo if he could go to an oath ceremony on Monday.  Pollo said, sure! And he waited another 5 minutes while the officer got the correct paperwork with the date and time of the ceremony and then Pollo was out the door in a grand total of 15 minutes, flat.

On Monday we drove together to the USCIS offices in Philadelphia and we got there very early and they just tell you to sit and wait until they call your group.  Every once in a while we would hear clapping from the ceremony room and while we were waiting we watched the people gather.  There was a couple who looked like they were in their 80s with the husband moving like a tortoise and the wife who was more agile, but never impatient with him.  There was a woman there by herself who came with her adorable 1 year old son, people dressed in their best clothes and people who look like they rolled just out of bed, and a babble of languages.  People watching at its best.

When the ceremony started, the new citizens are seated in the middle of the room and whoever came to support their new citizens were seated on the side.  It was all very patriotic with everyone getting a little American flag, hearing the national anthem, reciting the pledge of allegiance, and listening to audio clips about what it means to be an American and about being an immigrant, but what I thought would be a rather canned ceremony full of clichés was actually very inspiring and made me feel the most patriotic I've probably ever felt.  Watching the new citizens from the 23 different countries and different age groups and backgrounds together in one place and joining in the ceremony of US citizenship was very moving. When I looked around and saw not only their diversity, but also all the people who were there supporting their new citizen with their presence or helping them move through the ceremony, I was filled with a sense of pride that my country is what brought all these different people together.

Pollo's citizenship ceremony marked a major milestone in our lives and I'm so grateful that we were able to make it to this place and that little by little everything is  coming together.  And with that nice blue passport, travel has become a little less fraught with paperwork.  And no more visa paperwork!  For us, at least.  YAY POLLO CITIZEN!