- Nov 21, 2009
- 3,002
- Category........
- FSW
- Visa Office......
- London
- LANDED..........
- May-2010
My Citizenship Interview Process Today
- Thread starter qorax
- Start date
- Nov 21, 2009
- 3,002
- Category........
- FSW
- Visa Office......
- London
- LANDED..........
- May-2010
- Nov 21, 2009
- 3,002
- Category........
- FSW
- Visa Office......
- London
- LANDED..........
- May-2010
- Nov 21, 2009
- 3,002
- Category........
- FSW
- Visa Office......
- London
- LANDED..........
- May-2010
Just had my citizenship test/interview and figured I'd talk about it hoping that others might find some useful/helpful tidbits...here it goes
- I arrived late (a couple of minutes). It was totally my fault, I only planned to allow 15 minutes early, ended up catching the wrong connecting subway and spent arguably some of the most stressful 30 minutes of this year so far.
Lesson: do yourself a favour and don't be like me. Plan to arrive at least 30 minutes or more earlier, you don't need any extra anxiety leading up to your test/interview.
- I was met by a security guard wh0 gave me a green sheet (prohibition) nd told me to rush t the test room. As an anecdote before the security guard stopped to check my invitation letter, he was in the process of sending a woman away (my heart broke because I though it was because she was late too). It turns out, she just decided to show up to see what is going on since her application took more than a year to process. The security guard wasn't having any of it (truth be told the thought of randomly crashing the processing office never crossed my mind, so props to the lady but I am almost certain that will not be of any help...anyways)
- I walked into the room as the test rules were being explained. The lady doing the explanation was pretty cool. She filled in my last name in the test sheet and asked me to take a seat (biggest sigh of relief of my life. On the subway I quickly googled 'late to citizenship test' and the first thing that comes up is a forum from 2010 where the person was turned away and was being blamed by everyone on the forum so I was expecting the worst tbh)
- The test was given after a few minutes (another person came in later, AFTER we began the test....reminder: please don't be like that guy or me if you can help it).
- I finished the test within a minute and a half. This sounds like I'm bragging but it's not my intention (deal with it
), just the truth. I studied super hard and for super long, my application has been processing for 'only' 15 months so I had time to kill (....err study).
- I proceeded to the interview room, I was bummed that the order of the interview wasn't the same as the finishing time ( I read about this somewhere but was hoping that I'd be an exception. It turns out, I'm not special at all (you live and you learn...please know that I'm joking).
- About half a dozen people who finished after me were called first. In that time I suppose I had time to make some observations since everything was 'open concept'. Each interviewer has a 'style' (or routine). It is very apparent that they will try to gauge your basic conversational skills (not sure what that's for but the more succinct/shy you are, the more they will probe. Random things like, so tell me about yourself, how long have you lived in the city, follow any sports? stuff about kids, there was absolutely no logic to it lol).
One of the interviewers was very particular about people having their documents ready and in order (these were listed on a whiteboard in a room so everyone had time to get their stuff out). One lady didn't, and the interviewer asked her if she needed a moment to go back to the waiting area seats to get her act together...hilarious! of course, the lady said no. One interviewer was the eager type, he wasn't particularly expressive but he made sure to say congratulations and gave tons of well wishes. The officer who liked stuff in order was chatty but wasn't letting much on about expectations (she was the 'high sprung' type but seemed really nice behind the very solemn demeanour. My interviewer was the other one...read on at your own perils.
- My interviewer was the most laid back of all. Mild-mannered. He spoke in almost a whisper and there didn't seem to be a method-to-the-madness in his approach. He was visibly the oldest person in the room and probably got this stuff down to a science. To my surprise, my interview was much like my test: lightning fast. He asked me to put my IDs and documents on the table after we said hello but did not touch a single one. Told me that I got 20/20 followed with, I guess that's kinda good (I nearly died of laughter inside...and just whispered...I guess so).
He opened a large doc which I guess is my file, looked at the first page (which has a bunch of check marks in blue ink on it) and said out loud "I don't care about that" and just closed it nonchalently. At this point I'm thinking, this guy is my hero!...but I might be screwed.
He asked me whether I was working, which he asked everyone, but instead of moving on immediately, it surprisingly ended up being pretty much the entirety of my interview. He got super interested (honestly most people just tune me out when I attempt to explain but this guy seemed genuinely curious at first and wanted to dig deeper in some finer details (his laid back demeanour legit turned into what I could have mistaken as a spark or interest). He told me again that I had gotten 20/20 followed with 'I guess that's kinda good' (I honestly don't think he remembered telling me in the first place). He then said something that actually shocked me: You applied in Ocober so I guess you should expect the oath in the next few months. He told everyone the stuff about the expected oath timeline part but he could see that I applied in OCTOBER. This shocked me because I did, in fact, apply in October (of 2017 in case anyone is wondering) but my application was returned because I missed a signature in the section that says I haven't lived anywhere in the last 5 years....yeah I know, I'm not the smartest cookie, thanks. My application was sent again and officially received in November which is what is on ECAS...so even though I keep saying I am a Nov applicant, they KNOW that I am really an October applicant...sigh.
He wished me a good day, literally 3 different times (and ways), and off, I went. The whole thing was under two minutes and quite frankly closer to 1 minute since he looked at absolutely nothing after I put my stuff on the table.
- Some afterthoughts: I felt a great deal of relief...probably due to the stress/anxiety of the agonizing wait. I realize it might still be a long way until the finish line but the perspective of the whole things make you appreciate the small steps.
- I've talked to other people beforehand about what the experience is like and have witnessed the variability myself. The biggest lesson is: better be overprepared than underprepared (and don't be late...have I beaten that one to death yet?). Some officers might insist on seeing everything and cross-check everything (one officer told a person that she was going to request her entry records from the border agency - personally I think this is redundant if so many resources are already spent into background checks but I digress again). Other officers will probably just go off of the impression that they have of you and might not check a single thing.
- Good luck everyone, there are great days ahead for all of us
- I arrived late (a couple of minutes). It was totally my fault, I only planned to allow 15 minutes early, ended up catching the wrong connecting subway and spent arguably some of the most stressful 30 minutes of this year so far.
Lesson: do yourself a favour and don't be like me. Plan to arrive at least 30 minutes or more earlier, you don't need any extra anxiety leading up to your test/interview.
- I was met by a security guard wh0 gave me a green sheet (prohibition) nd told me to rush t the test room. As an anecdote before the security guard stopped to check my invitation letter, he was in the process of sending a woman away (my heart broke because I though it was because she was late too). It turns out, she just decided to show up to see what is going on since her application took more than a year to process. The security guard wasn't having any of it (truth be told the thought of randomly crashing the processing office never crossed my mind, so props to the lady but I am almost certain that will not be of any help...anyways)
- I walked into the room as the test rules were being explained. The lady doing the explanation was pretty cool. She filled in my last name in the test sheet and asked me to take a seat (biggest sigh of relief of my life. On the subway I quickly googled 'late to citizenship test' and the first thing that comes up is a forum from 2010 where the person was turned away and was being blamed by everyone on the forum so I was expecting the worst tbh)
- The test was given after a few minutes (another person came in later, AFTER we began the test....reminder: please don't be like that guy or me if you can help it).
- I finished the test within a minute and a half. This sounds like I'm bragging but it's not my intention (deal with it
), just the truth. I studied super hard and for super long, my application has been processing for 'only' 15 months so I had time to kill (....err study).- I proceeded to the interview room, I was bummed that the order of the interview wasn't the same as the finishing time ( I read about this somewhere but was hoping that I'd be an exception. It turns out, I'm not special at all (you live and you learn...please know that I'm joking).
- About half a dozen people who finished after me were called first. In that time I suppose I had time to make some observations since everything was 'open concept'. Each interviewer has a 'style' (or routine). It is very apparent that they will try to gauge your basic conversational skills (not sure what that's for but the more succinct/shy you are, the more they will probe. Random things like, so tell me about yourself, how long have you lived in the city, follow any sports? stuff about kids, there was absolutely no logic to it lol).
One of the interviewers was very particular about people having their documents ready and in order (these were listed on a whiteboard in a room so everyone had time to get their stuff out). One lady didn't, and the interviewer asked her if she needed a moment to go back to the waiting area seats to get her act together...hilarious! of course, the lady said no. One interviewer was the eager type, he wasn't particularly expressive but he made sure to say congratulations and gave tons of well wishes. The officer who liked stuff in order was chatty but wasn't letting much on about expectations (she was the 'high sprung' type but seemed really nice behind the very solemn demeanour. My interviewer was the other one...read on at your own perils.
- My interviewer was the most laid back of all. Mild-mannered. He spoke in almost a whisper and there didn't seem to be a method-to-the-madness in his approach. He was visibly the oldest person in the room and probably got this stuff down to a science. To my surprise, my interview was much like my test: lightning fast. He asked me to put my IDs and documents on the table after we said hello but did not touch a single one. Told me that I got 20/20 followed with, I guess that's kinda good (I nearly died of laughter inside...and just whispered...I guess so).
He opened a large doc which I guess is my file, looked at the first page (which has a bunch of check marks in blue ink on it) and said out loud "I don't care about that" and just closed it nonchalently. At this point I'm thinking, this guy is my hero!...but I might be screwed.
He asked me whether I was working, which he asked everyone, but instead of moving on immediately, it surprisingly ended up being pretty much the entirety of my interview. He got super interested (honestly most people just tune me out when I attempt to explain but this guy seemed genuinely curious at first and wanted to dig deeper in some finer details (his laid back demeanour legit turned into what I could have mistaken as a spark or interest). He told me again that I had gotten 20/20 followed with 'I guess that's kinda good' (I honestly don't think he remembered telling me in the first place). He then said something that actually shocked me: You applied in Ocober so I guess you should expect the oath in the next few months. He told everyone the stuff about the expected oath timeline part but he could see that I applied in OCTOBER. This shocked me because I did, in fact, apply in October (of 2017 in case anyone is wondering) but my application was returned because I missed a signature in the section that says I haven't lived anywhere in the last 5 years....yeah I know, I'm not the smartest cookie, thanks. My application was sent again and officially received in November which is what is on ECAS...so even though I keep saying I am a Nov applicant, they KNOW that I am really an October applicant...sigh.
He wished me a good day, literally 3 different times (and ways), and off, I went. The whole thing was under two minutes and quite frankly closer to 1 minute since he looked at absolutely nothing after I put my stuff on the table.
- Some afterthoughts: I felt a great deal of relief...probably due to the stress/anxiety of the agonizing wait. I realize it might still be a long way until the finish line but the perspective of the whole things make you appreciate the small steps.
- I've talked to other people beforehand about what the experience is like and have witnessed the variability myself. The biggest lesson is: better be overprepared than underprepared (and don't be late...have I beaten that one to death yet?). Some officers might insist on seeing everything and cross-check everything (one officer told a person that she was going to request her entry records from the border agency - personally I think this is redundant if so many resources are already spent into background checks but I digress again). Other officers will probably just go off of the impression that they have of you and might not check a single thing.
- Good luck everyone, there are great days ahead for all of us
Last edited:
- Nov 21, 2009
- 3,002
- Category........
- FSW
- Visa Office......
- London
- LANDED..........
- May-2010
One aspect of the PI interview is to verify the applicant's ability in one of the official languages.
Congrats, feeling happy after reading your postJust had my citizenship test/interview and figured I'd talk about it hoping that others might find some useful/helpful tidbits...here it goes
- I arrived late (a couple of minutes). It was totally my fault, I only planned to allow 15 minutes early, ended up catching the wrong connecting subway and spent arguably some of the most stressful 30 minutes of this year so far.
Lesson: do yourself a favour and don't be like me. Plan to arrive at least 30 minutes or more earlier, you don't need any extra anxiety leading up to your test/interview.
- I was met by a security guard wh0 gave me a green sheet (prohibition) nd told me to rush t the test room. As an anecdote before the security guard stopped to check my invitation letter, he was in the process of sending a woman away (my heart broke because I though it was because she was late too). It turns out, she just decided to show up to see what is going on since her application took more than a year to process. The security guard wasn't having any of it (truth be told the thought of randomly crashing the processing office never crossed my mind, so props to the lady but I am almost certain that will not be of any help...anyways)
- I walked into the room as the est rules were being explained. The lady doing the explanation was pretty cool. She filled in my last name in the test sheet and asked me to take a seat (biggest sigh of relief of my life. On the subway I quickly googled 'late to citizenship test' and the first thing that comes up is a forum from 2010 where the person was turned away and was being blamed by everyone on the forum so I was expecting the worst but was really pleased)
- The test was given after a few minutes (another person came in later, AFTER we began the test....reminder: please don't be like that guy or me if you can help it).
- I finished the test within a minute and a half. This sounds like I'm bragging but it's not my intention (deal with it
- I proceeded to the interview room, I was bummed that the order of the interview wasn't the same as the finishing time ( I read about this somewhere but was hoping that I'd be an exception. It turns out, I'm not special at all (you live and you learn...please know that I'm joking).
- About half a dozen people who finished after me were called first. In that time I suppose I had time to make some observations since everything was 'open concept'. Each interviewer has a 'style' (or routine). It is very apparent that they will try to gauge your basic conversational skills (not sure what that's for but the more succinct/shy you are, the more they will probe. Random things like, so tell me about yourself, how long have you lived in the city, follow any sports? stuff about kids, there was absolutely no logic to it lol).
One of the interviewers was very particular about people having their documents ready and in order (these were listed on a whiteboard in a room so everyone had time to get their stuff out). One lady didn't, and the interviewer asked her if she needed a moment to go back to the waiting area seats to get her act together...hilarious! of course, the lady said no. One interviewer was the eager type, he wasn't particularly expressive but he made sure to say congratulations and gave tons of well wishes. The officer who liked stuff in order was chatty but wasn't letting much on about expectations (she was the 'high sprung' type but seemed really nice behind the very solemn demeanour. My interviewer was the other one...read on at your own perils.
- My interviewer was the most laid back of all. Mild-mannered. He spoke in almost a whisper and there didn't seem to be a method-to-the-madness in his approach. He was visibly the oldest person in the room and probably got this stuff down to a science. To my surprise, my interview was much like my test: lightning fast. He asked me to put my IDs and documents on the table after we said hello but did not touch a single one. Told me that I got 20/20 followed with, I guess that's kinda good (I nearly died of laughter inside...and just whispered...I guess so).
He opened a large doc which I guess is my file, looked at the first page (which has a bunch of check marks in blue ink on it) and said out loud "I don't care about that" and just closed it nonchalently. At this point I'm thinking, this guy is my hero!...but I might be screwed.
He asked me whether I was working, which he asked everyone, but instead of moving on immediately, it surprisingly ended up being pretty much the entirety of my interview. He got super interested (honestly most people just tune me out when I attempt to explain but this guy seemed genuinely curious at first and wanted to dig deeper in some finer details (his laid back demeanour legit turned into what I could have mistaken as a spark or interest). He told me again that I had gotten 20/20 followed with 'I guess that's kinda good' (I honestly don't think he remembered telling me in the first place). He then said something that actually shocked me: You applied in Ocober so I guess you should expect the oath in the next few months. He told everyone the stuff about the expected oath timeline part but he could see that I applied in OCTOBER. This shocked me because I did, in fact, apply in October (of 2017 in case anyone is wondering) but my application was returned because I missed a signature in the section that says I haven't lived anywhere in the last 5 years....yeah I know, I'm not the smartest cookie, thanks. My application was sent again and officially received in November which is what is on ECAS...so even though I keep saying I am a Nov applicant, they KNOW that I am really an October applicant...sigh.
He wished me a good day, literally 3 different times (and ways), and off I went. The whole thing was under two minutes and quite frankly closer to 1 minute since he looked at absolutely nothing after I put my stuff on the table.
- Some afterthoughts: I felt a great deal of relief...probably due to the stress/anxiety of the agonizing wait. I realize it might still be a long way until the finish line but the perspective of the whole things make you appreciate the small steps.
- I've talked to other people beforehand about what the experience is like and have witnessed the variability myself. The biggest lesson is: better be overprepared than underprepared (and don't be late...have I beaten that one to death yet?). Some officers might insist on seeing everything and cross-check everything (one officer told a person that she was going to request her entry records from the border agency - personally I think this is redundant if so many resources are already spent into background checks but I digress again). Other officers will probably just go off of the impression that they have of you and might not check a single thing.
- Good luck everyone, there are great days ahead for all of us
Thank you, my intention was to make it a bit light-hearted (it was a good experience) but sometimes those little things get lost in the huge amount of despair and agony (which is understandable)...silver linings my friend
Last edited:
Congrats for passing your test, just a thought why don't you post this as a new thread so many people will read your experience.Just had my citizenship test/interview and figured I'd talk about it hoping that others might find some useful/helpful tidbits...here it goes
- I arrived late (a couple of minutes). It was totally my fault, I only planned to allow 15 minutes early, ended up catching the wrong connecting subway and spent arguably some of the most stressful 30 minutes of this year so far.
Lesson: do yourself a favour and don't be like me. Plan to arrive at least 30 minutes or more earlier, you don't need any extra anxiety leading up to your test/interview.
- I was met by a security guard wh0 gave me a green sheet (prohibition) nd told me to rush t the test room. As an anecdote before the security guard stopped to check my invitation letter, he was in the process of sending a woman away (my heart broke because I though it was because she was late too). It turns out, she just decided to show up to see what is going on since her application took more than a year to process. The security guard wasn't having any of it (truth be told the thought of randomly crashing the processing office never crossed my mind, so props to the lady but I am almost certain that will not be of any help...anyways)
- I walked into the room as the est rules were being explained. The lady doing the explanation was pretty cool. She filled in my last name in the test sheet and asked me to take a seat (biggest sigh of relief of my life. On the subway I quickly googled 'late to citizenship test' and the first thing that comes up is a forum from 2010 where the person was turned away and was being blamed by everyone on the forum so I was expecting the worst but was really pleased)
- The test was given after a few minutes (another person came in later, AFTER we began the test....reminder: please don't be like that guy or me if you can help it).
- I finished the test within a minute and a half. This sounds like I'm bragging but it's not my intention (deal with it
- I proceeded to the interview room, I was bummed that the order of the interview wasn't the same as the finishing time ( I read about this somewhere but was hoping that I'd be an exception. It turns out, I'm not special at all (you live and you learn...please know that I'm joking).
- About half a dozen people who finished after me were called first. In that time I suppose I had time to make some observations since everything was 'open concept'. Each interviewer has a 'style' (or routine). It is very apparent that they will try to gauge your basic conversational skills (not sure what that's for but the more succinct/shy you are, the more they will probe. Random things like, so tell me about yourself, how long have you lived in the city, follow any sports? stuff about kids, there was absolutely no logic to it lol).
One of the interviewers was very particular about people having their documents ready and in order (these were listed on a whiteboard in a room so everyone had time to get their stuff out). One lady didn't, and the interviewer asked her if she needed a moment to go back to the waiting area seats to get her act together...hilarious! of course, the lady said no. One interviewer was the eager type, he wasn't particularly expressive but he made sure to say congratulations and gave tons of well wishes. The officer who liked stuff in order was chatty but wasn't letting much on about expectations (she was the 'high sprung' type but seemed really nice behind the very solemn demeanour. My interviewer was the other one...read on at your own perils.
- My interviewer was the most laid back of all. Mild-mannered. He spoke in almost a whisper and there didn't seem to be a method-to-the-madness in his approach. He was visibly the oldest person in the room and probably got this stuff down to a science. To my surprise, my interview was much like my test: lightning fast. He asked me to put my IDs and documents on the table after we said hello but did not touch a single one. Told me that I got 20/20 followed with, I guess that's kinda good (I nearly died of laughter inside...and just whispered...I guess so).
He opened a large doc which I guess is my file, looked at the first page (which has a bunch of check marks in blue ink on it) and said out loud "I don't care about that" and just closed it nonchalently. At this point I'm thinking, this guy is my hero!...but I might be screwed.
He asked me whether I was working, which he asked everyone, but instead of moving on immediately, it surprisingly ended up being pretty much the entirety of my interview. He got super interested (honestly most people just tune me out when I attempt to explain but this guy seemed genuinely curious at first and wanted to dig deeper in some finer details (his laid back demeanour legit turned into what I could have mistaken as a spark or interest). He told me again that I had gotten 20/20 followed with 'I guess that's kinda good' (I honestly don't think he remembered telling me in the first place). He then said something that actually shocked me: You applied in Ocober so I guess you should expect the oath in the next few months. He told everyone the stuff about the expected oath timeline part but he could see that I applied in OCTOBER. This shocked me because I did, in fact, apply in October (of 2017 in case anyone is wondering) but my application was returned because I missed a signature in the section that says I haven't lived anywhere in the last 5 years....yeah I know, I'm not the smartest cookie, thanks. My application was sent again and officially received in November which is what is on ECAS...so even though I keep saying I am a Nov applicant, they KNOW that I am really an October applicant...sigh.
He wished me a good day, literally 3 different times (and ways), and off, I went. The whole thing was under two minutes and quite frankly closer to 1 minute since he looked at absolutely nothing after I put my stuff on the table.
- Some afterthoughts: I felt a great deal of relief...probably due to the stress/anxiety of the agonizing wait. I realize it might still be a long way until the finish line but the perspective of the whole things make you appreciate the small steps.
- I've talked to other people beforehand about what the experience is like and have witnessed the variability myself. The biggest lesson is: better be overprepared than underprepared (and don't be late...have I beaten that one to death yet?). Some officers might insist on seeing everything and cross-check everything (one officer told a person that she was going to request her entry records from the border agency - personally I think this is redundant if so many resources are already spent into background checks but I digress again). Other officers will probably just go off of the impression that they have of you and might not check a single thing.
- Good luck everyone, there are great days ahead for all of us
I was worried it might just be duplicating this thread...if there is a general sense that it's better suited for a separate thread, I'd be happy to oblige.