The interview!

Had my US citizenship interview yesterday! Went well of course. Heck, I absorbed something from those English language tapes! I nailed all the questions asking where the train station was, or that the Apple is Red.

I was struck though on how much more efficient the US Gov't had gotten over the past 10 years. Back in da day, a trip to INS required that you set your alarm for 3am, and line up at the local office at 4am or so. It was first-come-first-serve back then, and they had a cutoff of how many folks can be processed in a given day. There was no queuing mechanism, so folks with questions on a N400 form would be on the same line as someone looking for the restroom. Very unpleasant. I only line up in the dark for important things. Like at ToysRUs waiting for one of 25 Nintendo Wii units coming in. This time though, the citizenship appointment was done online. I brought the printout with me, scanned at the door, and off I went. Very cool. The Man has embraced IT, and us little people are grateful.