Yes! I already have my appointment date for my citizenship interview. This will be on May 19. I have been trying to study the 100 interview questions so let’s see if I pass this one. Hopefully I will .

Yipee!  I finally got my appointment letter for my citizenship interview and it will be on May 19. I still got a month to study the interview questions and hopefully I’ll pass this and be sworn in.

The next process after this will be petitioning my Mom and I am so done when she gets here. All these immigration filings are expensive and I no longer want part of it.  Ooops , I nearly forgot, I still have to petition my older sister, Ate Ching ! Guess I am not done yet huh? But sibling petition takes a really long time , like 12 to 15 years they say, so I don’t know yet…

Anyway, wow, I am nearing my interview. I am ecstatically nervous hehehe… Hopefully I will pass this one.

Please pray for me, Ma!

Yay, I’m done with my fingerprinting at the Oakland USCIS Center for my citizenship and  I am now awaiting their next notice for my interview/test. If I pass the test and interview, if I get approved, then next step will be my oath-taking!!! I will finally be a US Citizen, yehey!

How time flew by so quickly, I came here last May 2005 and now I am applying for citizenship.

For more of my immigration stories , visit my Charina.net.

One of my friends, my kumare, asked me when I will be going back to the Philippines for a vacation. Well, I really want to take a month’s vacation but there are a lot of things I have to consider first before I can go like the job I would be leaving for a month , the expenses going back to the Philippines  , the bills that would pile up while we’re gone, all those things.

I do miss the Philippines too by the way, I miss everything about my beloved Philippines –  the familiar places, the pollution hehehe, the weather, the “init” and the “ulan”, my family and friends, the nosy neighbors, everything!

I am definitely going back when I’m done with my mission here… Mission of what? I don’t know yet but I think God has sent me here in America for a reason…

I had my biometrics at Oakland USCIS office last Wednesday, March 25 . I took a day off from work just for this important thing to do for my citizenship.

Anyway, we got there around 8 am, parked beside the USCIS building, and paid the parking ticket machine $3.00 for the three-hour parking. My appointment was for 9 am but I saw the guard letting the line of applicants come in by 8:10 so with my appointment notice and a photo ID, I fell in line and got inside . The guard handed me a form to fill out, a number and a newly-sharpened pencil ( the guard actually had this electric pencil sharpener beside him and he plugs the pencil on it before giving it to the applicant hence “newly-sharpened pencil). Armed with my deadly pencil, I sat down to fill out my form. I don’t know what was up with me because I kept making mistakes in writing the information needed so I kept erasing and erasing whatever I wrote.

Just some minutes went by and my number got called, the guy checked my full-of-erasures-paper, told me to show my hands palms up ( for what reason I don’t know) and told me to go up the second floor.

Five minutes later, I was called and my fingerprints were taken. I was expecting to have my picture taken as what happened to all my other biometrics so I kept trying to tidy up my unruly hair. But thanks God no picture taking happened. The pretty girl who did my fingerprints, signed my appointment notice and gave it back to me with a survey to fill out. Survey finished, I went out right after.

I was done and out of the USCIS office before 8:30 am.

Yesterday was a Friday but we don’t have work during Fridays now.   It started last March 6 and I don’t know how long it will last.

To be honest I don’t know how I really feel about this furlough Fridays,  I have mixed feelings. Yes, it’s good that I don’t have to wake up so early during Fridays but then not working on Fridays means that I am being paid less.

But as our boss had said, everybody is doing it now such as government offices and this is better than laying off some workers. With this “furlough” in effect, we all hope that it will make our company stay afloat in this economic crisis.

Are you on furlough too ? I hope not but if you are, we can ride this thing together and pray that it will be over soon.

I’ve been changing my Friendster blog theme I know, and I am fully aware of that especially when I am now feeling a little ache in my wrist from the constant clicking I do to my good friend here, you know, my friend – my pc.

Well anyway, I’ve been browsing the available themes they have here for use to my Friendster blog but I just can’t find seem to find a good one. Am I being too picky or my standards are just too high? I know beggars aren’t supposed to be choosy considering that I am just on a free blog in Friendster but I sure hope that the Friendster team will also update and make available more themes for us to use ‘cuz the ones we’ve got now, they just suck bro ! If you’re a Friendster blogger, you know what I am talking about, there just isn’t a lot of options for us here. I wish Friendster chose Blogger over Wordpress coz with Blogger, there are lots of available BLOGGER themes available that we can simply copy and paste. But  Wordpress doesn’t have this option open for us, so I just wish they will put more themes that we can choose from.

Well anyway, I will stick with this blue bird theme for now , or whatever this  one’s called.

Ciao, I hope everyone had a good day today!

Say, doesn’t this bird theme look like the one in TWITTER ?

Below was my hasty cover letter for my N-400, my Application for Naturalization. It also shows the kinds of documents and requirements I submitted.  My eligibility for citizenship was based on my three- year marriage to my US citizen husband.

USCIS
1820 E Skyharbor Circle S., Floor 1
Phoenix, AZ 85034

February 21, 2009

Dear Sir or Madam:

Enclosed please find my N-400, application for naturalization. I am filing on the basis of my marriage to my US citizen husband.

Attached are the following:

· two pieces of my 2 x 2 color photographs
· a photocopy of both sides of my Permanent Resident Card
· a check for $675 for the filing fee and biometrics fee
· form N-400
· photocopy of my husband’s US passport
· photocopy of our marriage certificate
· photocopy of our son’s birth certificate
· original copy of our joint checking account detail information
· original copy of our joint savings account detail information
· photocopy of our joint tax return for year 2006
· photocopy of our joint tax return for year 2007
· photocopy of our joint tax return for year 2008

I hope you find everything in order.

Thank you very much.

Respecfully yours,

CHARINA N. XXXXXX