The Practice Interview: Part 2 Interview Videos

Interview Videos
There are several must see mock interview videos on the web. Watching the videos will give you a sense of the tone to take in the practice interview. In general, the feeling is businesslike but not too formal: more like traffic court, less like a cross-examination

SaberHacer.com
SaberHacer.com has a realistic one featuring a short interview with an USCIS adjudicator, as well as other related videos that you can find in their site by using the links at right.




JFVS of Middlesex County
There is a very good one from Debby Alter of JFVS of Middlesex County. Use the link in the right nav list to find the three others by this group.



CCSFCitizenship
Below is the first in a series from the City College of San Francisco. There are many others that can be found by using the link at right.

The Practice Interview: Part 1 Overview and N-400

Interview overview

The citizenship interview is the final part of the naturalization process, which began with the written application, the 10-page N-400 form. Only after the applicant has demonstrated legal eligibility and passed a background check is she invited to the interview. It’s the last step before granting the applicant full, unrestricted citizenship with all of its benefits. Because it is such a critical, and often nuanced, part of the process, it is done in a one-on-one basis with a trained interviewer (officially known as an adjudicator).

The adjudicator’s job, as a representative of the federal government, is to grant, deny or delay citizenship. He uses his skills to confirm the applicant’s identity. He reviews residency and work histories, marital status and family connections, character and affiliations. He determines that the applicant is telling the truth and that there is evidence to back up all significant claims and events. In today’s immigration and security environment there is a lot of pressure to get it right, every time.

The typical interview takes 15-30 minutes. It is conducted in English, rarely with a translator. Although much of the study material for the citizenship interview concentrates on American history and government, there is an “English language proficiency” requirement, which is, if anything, more important. The adjudicator judges the applicant’s verbal skills by her ability to answer questions based on the application. Many, if not most, of the otherwise eligible applicants who fail do so because they can’t respond appropriately. Only after the adjudicator is satisfied with the applicant’s legal eligibility and English skills does the interview proceed to the civics test and finally to the written dictated sentences.

The practice interview

The purpose of the practice interview is to get ready for the stress and surprises of the real thing. Like any other test prep, knowing what’s coming gives the “test taker” three advantages: reducing fear of the unknown, developing confidence in the ability to answer the simpler questions, and preparing responses for the more difficult ones.

A little training and planning can enhance effectiveness. We suggest this sequence:

1. Familiarize yourself with the N-400 form by filling one out completely
2. Watch several mock interviews on YouTube
3. Read the adjudicator’s guidelines regarding English verbal and written skills.
4. Download scripts to use in the interview
5. Get a copy of the civics/history questions
6. Formulate dictation sentences to test for English writing ability

N-400

A current version of the N-400 (approved through 12/31/09) can be downloaded here. There are several versions with minor edits. Get the latest, if you can, but if you have one that is no more than few years old it should be fine for practice. Look at the form date to identify.

The instructions for filling out the N-400 can be accessed here. While most of the questions are self-explanatory to a native English speaker, many require an intermediate knowledge of English, which is often exactly what the learner lacks. There are also some questions whose answers are not so obvious. And the applicant might fear that failure to fill out the N-400 correctly might jeopardize the application, so she feels a lot of pressure to get it right.

Another reason for you to be familiar with the form is to be able to spot errors in the applicant's actual application. Just as we encourage our learners: do it to learn it. Filling out the form forces you to make the same decisions about the same ambiguities as an applicant.

Finally, the feds recommend for all applicants the M-476, USCIS A Guide to Naturalization, which "provides information on the benefits and responsibilities of citizenship, an overview of the naturalization process, and eligibility requirements." You may not needto read all of it, but it's useful for reference.

Class One: defining citizen; name; to be

Second meeting: Class 1            04/11/09

For the second meeting we have two new students:

R2: 30-55, female, South America, no application yet

N: 30-55, female, SA, plans to apply soon

I distributed the reworked Class 1 handout, which came from the longish one I had created for the last several class cycles. Other than some aesthetics I didn’t change much, but hope to improve the content, functionality and style of future lessons.

Here’s why I decided to use PowerPoint to create the class handouts. First, if the content is ever presented to a larger audience, the materials will be ready. Not pretty and pseudo-professional ready, but 80%-of-the-content-is-done ready. Second, just about anybody owns, or has access to PP, so it’s adaptable as a collaborative medium for other tutors. Third, whether used as stand alone handouts or as a set of printed duplicate slides, the print options are great, and easy to handle.

Class 1 focused on the first part of the N-400 - Name; the portion of the old-test dictation sentences that feature the use of the verb am ~ is; and Chapters 23 and 20 (in that order) of PECA.

Part 1 of the N-400 is the first section of the application. Because it’s crucial that the applicant make a good first impression on the adjudicator (interviewer), we need to make sure that all of the students have a clear understanding of the content.

There is a tremendous amount of material to be covered in Part 1 in terms of pure vocabulary: at least 14 different variations of “name”; 15 verbs or verb phrases; 4 conceptual nouns; and a dozen or so articles, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and adverbs. Not all need to be learned perfectly the first week, of course, but the applicants do need to be able to hear, understand and react properly to the vocabulary in order to feel confident going into the interview.

In the handouts, the presentation of a specific N-400 section and the related vocabulary is followed by a series of questions that are designed to simulate the variety of ways that officers can ask the same question. A similar section is in PECA, page 197. We had the time to go over these in class, but they could also be used as an assignment. The students could either have an English-speaking partner ask the questions and respond orally, or they could read the questions and respond in writing. There is also a page where the students can write their own questions with similar beginnings, such as, “What is …?”, or “What is the name of…?”

Handouts for future classes will also have a synopsis of the assigned lessons from the text to reinforce the material. Vocabulary not stressed in the book will be explained and corresponding questions from the USCIS 100 will follow.

The dictation sentences and vocabulary took a little more than a full hour of the class. The sentences were grouped by the verbs am ~ is. This is the largest natural (to me) division of the sentences, and can easily be spread out over two meetings. Much of the reading and writing vocabulary for the redesigned test can be found in the “old” sentences. I have yet to try to correlate the old vocab with the new, but will do so by the end of the classes. I will probably rewrite some of the sentences to accommodate the newly prescribed words.

Note that some of the vocab has multiple and thus potentially confusing meanings, for example, the three words pronounced /tu/, the four common meanings of “right”, “work” as both a verb and a location noun, and the distinction between “free” and “freedom”. My favorite sentence is, “I am too busy to go to your house with my two kids today.”

As far as the civics and history part of this class, I taught the two chapters directly from the book, which is a sin of the lazy. Sigh. I was, however, clever enough to end the class by using flash cards from the set published by the USCIS that were appropriate to the material. You can buy them, and lots of other naturalization study materials, directly from the feds at a very reasonable price. There were a few cards that covered concepts in lessons 20 and 23 that I thought hadn’t been given enough exposition, so I decided to open the next class with them. These were related to the rights and responsibilities of United States citizens.

Things I need to do for next class:

Get a lesson plan already!

Things I should have done in this class:

Paired the stronger with the less facile students yet

Finally, I made a special appointment with A to conduct a mock interview two days before his actual interview. He will call to finalize the time once his work schedule is clear. I’ll discuss the process in another post.