We became US citizens a few days ago. Here’s the story of our naturalization process…
We Waited 6 Years
The waiting period for Green Card holders to become US citizens is 5 years. Our 5 years were up on September 5, 2001. We could now start the naturalization process that usually takes about 9 months to complete.
Dual Citizenship
When we started talking about naturalization, one of the issues that came up was, “what about our South African citizenship?” The natural answer to that one is, “give it up… you’re becoming Americans now!” But in my mind it wasn’t that simple. For reasons that made sense to us, we decided that dual citizenship was the way to go.
The South African government changed the law in 1995 to where a South African that takes on the nationality of another country would automatically lose their South African citizenship, unless they applied for permission to retain their South African citizenship. So we applied. That delayed the start of our naturalization process by about 3 months.
Applying For Naturalization
The application forms weren’t a big deal to fill out. We sent the completed forms in and paid the application fee.
Two months later, we received a notice to go for fingerprints in San Antonio. We couldn’t go at that time. Heavy rains in the area caused a lot of flooding in San Antonio. So we requested a postponement. Two months later, we were finally able to go. The fingerprints are for a background check conducted by the FBI.
The Interview
The prospect of doing the interview with the INS was by far the most nerve-wracking part in this household… Not because we had anything to hide, but because we had to pass a test on US history and government structure. We went all-out studying for this test, and we learned a lot.
In the end, the interview was nowhere near as intimidating as we expected. The INS officer was very friendly and immediately put us at ease. The test was a breeze. And the interview we expected to be 2 hours long took only 45 minutes. We were thrilled! All that was left was the Oath Ceremony.
The Oath Ceremony
Our Oath Ceremony took place in Austin at UT (University of Texas) on January 17, 2003. There were 432 people from 73 countries taking the oath.
The ceremony is basically a court session, run by a judge. In our case, it was US District Judge Sam Sparks.
Texas Supreme Court Justice Wallace Jefferson, a very impressive man, delivered the main address. He’s the first African-American to become a Texas Supreme Court Justice, and also one of the youngest ever. He spoke about what it meant to be a US citizen. Given that his great-grandfather was a slave, he has a special appreciation for what it means to be a US citizen with all the rights that the Constitution guarantees. In closing, he said that even if his ancestors had never been brought to the US, he thinks he would’ve done all he could to come here.
Judge Sam Sparks read The Oath of Citizenship and swore us in as US citizens at exactly 2:40 p.m. We then received our Certificates of Naturalization and a letter from President George W. Bush.
Special Mention
I also have to mention Carey Dietert, an executive at Dell Computers and a member of a local opera group. He sang “God Bless America“, “The Star Spangled Banner” (the national anthem), and “God Bless the USA” in a way that brought tears to our eyes. Unbelievably good!
After The Ceremony
After the ceremony, we met up with another couple we knew. The husband also became a US citizen. Congratulations Yaquie! A representative from our local newspaper was also there. We spoke with him for a while, and also took some photos. Afterward, we met with them at a local restaurant for a few drinks.
This was a very special day in our lives, and we can truly say, “We are proud to be Americans!“