Well today was a bit different to what I expected.

I went up to Tukwila (Seattle) and had my final interview for US citizenship. The officer (Pukwilatz?) was really great. He apologized for the 20 minute delay on my interview time of 9:55am.

He asked whether I wanted to do the paperwork or test first. I said the test as if I failed that there was little point continuing. I aced the first six questions on the test, negating the need to ask the full ten. I then passed my oral and written parts in about 30 seconds.

So at that point he said can you agree to stay of good morale character until around 12:30pm. I said sure, signed a document and he told me that was it, the ceremony would be at 12:30pm. Well that was news to me! I would have loved to have Casey and the kids there, but given the option to wait a day and make another trip to Seattle I passed and decided I could make it my own special private ceremony. Np press, no cameras, just me the President and the USCIS officers.

So after playing all the apps on my iPod Touch for two hours, I went back through security and awaited the ceremony. Just after 12:30pm we all lined up, handed in our green cards, and took our allotted seats. I was after a Canadian lady. We stood to the national anthem (I better learn all the words properly), watched a video on the “faces of america” showing the diversity and designed to make you cry. Standing again I took the oath and officially became an American, along with 59 other applicants from 31 countries.

We queued for our certificates, and one by one our names were called and we were congratulated by the acting director of the Seattle office. Then as a bit of a treat, the President, Barack Obama, took a break from his birthday celebrations to congratulate us on becoming his fellow countrymen.

So what now? Well, first I am going to register to vote, then update Social Security. In seven years I can run for congress, in nine the senate. I cannot be President, I will leave that for the kids.