Monday, May 19, 2008

I Pledge Allegiance

It came quite suddenly. I woke up this morning like I do every day. Little did I know that by the time I would get back into bed my citizenship status would be completely different.

As you may know I have been in the middle of my application for U.S. Citizenship. I had submitted my application last summer and earlier this year had my finger prints taken. Today was to be my interview and test(s), which would eventually be followed by my ceremony to be sworn in as a U.S. Citizen. My interview and test(s) went well today, I was mostly worried about the English proficiency test where I had to write a sentence in English on a piece of paper, but I did make it through. At the end of the interview the USCIS Officer told me that I had passed and asked if I needed to go back to work still today. I told him not really because I had gone into work early today. He then asked me if I wanted to get sworn in today and I said "That would be great!".



Sure enough, he gave me an appointment for later on in the afternoon for the ceremony that would make me a citizen. So, as true as I sit here typing this post, I am now a citizen of the United States of America. In fact, I am the first in my family to become a U.S. Citizen. It feels strange that I am no longer an immigrant (because that is what I have been for the past 6 years). As well, because it happened so suddenly I wasn't able to let people know about my ceremony in case they wanted to be there to watch. It is, however, nice to have this process over with and finally have my new citizenship.

(Disclaimer: I still love Canada and always will so do not get the wrong impression here)

It was an overall great day, even though I was startled by a lady bug crawling out of the salad I was eating for lunch, and I almost wrecked my new scooter with the bike lock I forgot was still attached to my back tire when I started driving away.

2 comments:

maddie said...

yaay welcome my friend!

Anonymous said...

Yay! My favorite Canadian is now my favorite Canadian-American! I guess William Shatner can be the no. 1 Canadian again...