by Anura Guruge
on April 28, 2023

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Click images to ENLARGE.
With Judge Landya B. McCafferty
(who was incredibly nice & awfully impressive).

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I put my old uniform on, bar the cufflinks & the cowboy boots.

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I am still in SHOCK!

Wow. I never thought this would come to be. Family is equally amused & bemused. They are so, so used to me being an alien.

I applied over Thanksgiving weekend, last year, i.e., November 27, 2022, without asking or telling anyone. 5 months later I am a CITIZEN! I have already registered to vote, by a stroke of luck was able to apply for a new Social Security card (today itself, in person & the local SSA office) & have 2 sets of passport pictures. {I don’t hang around.}

Wow. I an U.S. citizen. Who would have thought!

In 2008, while campaigning non-stop like a black for ‘Obama‘ I said I will apply for citizenship IF he is elected. Well, that was 15 years ago. So, why didn’t I apply? Because in April 2009, with ‘Barack’ in the White House for just 3 months I had to STOP a racially-incited KNIFE FIGHT in the D.C. ‘metro’! Yes, I, in my 50s, having to jump into action, in a subway train to stop a white guy trying to knife a black kid BECAUSE the black kid had the audacity to sit next to him! There went the DREAM.

15 years later RACE is even more of an issue than it was pre-Obama. Obama did not heal race issues, he made it worse. That is THE REASON I finally decided to become a CITIZEN. I have to get MORE INVOLVED. Since getting Barack reelected in 2012 I have not been politically active. Part of that reason, deep down, was because I was NOT a citizen. That is going to change as of today. So, I became a citizen to play my part in U.S. democracy — now as a citizen. I owe it to Barack & my kids. SMILE. I could no longer just stand on the sideline & say it was NOT my problem. I won’t be able to do much, BUT at least I can now take part.

It now costs $700 to apply for naturalization.

Process is pretty slick. Lot of it is online.

My citizenship interview on March 15, 2023, in Bedford, NH was epic. The lady officer who conducted it, an ex-MP veteran who was injured badly in Iraq, was exceptional. Her personality, experience & training made her awesome. It was one of the best interactions I have had across a desk — & I have had thousands. She was amazing. She, even more than today’s Oath Ceremony, will always be the HIGHLIGHT, in my mind/heart, as to the 5 month process I underwent to get my citizenship. Yes, I know her name. It is on my ‘You Passed Your Citizenship Test’ form BUT I am not going to bandy it around. I was hoping I might see her today. Alas she was not there — from what I can see.

I encountered two 2-week delays during the process. The interview got delayed 2-weeks because of a storm. Then the oath ceremony also got delayed 2 weeks though I am not sure why. So, I lost a month. But, it is DONE.

I am NOW a U.S. Citizen!

Pretty AMAZING. I am still in shock.