A citizenship student invented a simple trick to help you pass your interview

It’s a great idea that can prevent you from making a mistake in your sentence writing.

Omer from South Sudan was in class with Tom Greenleigh recently, practicing the writing portion of his citizenship interview. Tom dictated the sentences, but Omer kept having trouble keeping all the words in the correct order. Finally Omer asked, “could I repeat the sentence back to the officer to see if I heard him right?” Bingo! A great idea was born!!

Every applicant for U.S. Citizenship has to write one English sentence correctly. And the USCIS has always encouraged applicants to ask the officer to repeat whenever they’re not sure of the wording. But Omer figured out a way to be certain he got the sentence right before he begins writing it. Even if you’re sure you know what the officer said, just ask, “Excuse me, did you say….?” and say the sentence back to the officer. You’ll instantly know if you missed, or misplaced a word or two.

“We’ve been teaching all our students to do it Omer’s way ever since he came up with that,” said Tom. “And it prevents the applicants from writing it incorrectly. Brilliant!”

It’s just one of many techniques the USCF uses in our free Zoom citizenship classes to make sure our students are completely prepared for their naturalization interviews. And many of those techniques come from our students’ feedback. Or as Tom puts it, “It’s just another arrow in our quiver, but a truly great one.”

Thanks, Omer!