Kathy Moncrief was deeply concerned when her husband, Marvin Moncrief, exited the interview room with red eyes.

Had the United States immigration officer rejected him? Would that have brought the Bayfield man to tears? Kathy looked at Marvin for confirmation, one way or the other.

The Rev. Marvin Moncrief is known in these parts for peeking into people’s souls, as both the pastor at All Saints Anglican Church and the chaplain at the La Plata County Jail. Kathy, meanwhile, peeks into mouths as a dental hygienist in Durango.

Kathy, 51, grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the northern shore of Lake Superior. Marvin, 54, came from Kenora, in far southwestern Ontario about 50 miles north of Minnesota.

When the Moncriefs crossed the border into the United States from Canada on March 1, 1997, it was with the intent of making this country home. They lived for several years in Phoenix, and moved to La Plata County in 2004 when the position opened at All Saints.

Meanwhile, they’d gotten their Alien Registration (Green) cards, started losing their Canadian accents and begun thinking of themselves as Americans.

With their 10-year green cards set to expire in November of this year, they had to act. In April, they applied for citizenship.

You’ve probably heard: The process is not quick and painless. There is paperwork, interviews and more paperwork.

You fill out Form N-400, the Application for Certificate of Citizenship, send it to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and then wait.

In the interim, you study from “Quick Civics Lessons,” a booklet from Immigration Services with 100 sample questions. For example:

Name two rights of everyone living in the United States. (Answers: Freedom of expression, of speech, of assembly, to petition the government, of worship and the right to bear arms.)

Name one of the writers of the Federalist Papers. (Alexander Hamilton , James Madison and John Jay.)

In April, the Moncriefs sent in their N-400s and $680 each, waited, and then a few months later got the invite to go to Denver on Aug. 24 for interviews.

Their expectation was to be grilled by their interviewer, similar to a border crossing.

“I was very nervous,” Kathy recalled last week. “I was just a total wreck.”

“And I wasn’t,” Marvin said. “That’s because she had grilled me over and over for a month” on the questions.

The interviewer confirmed facts from Kathy’s N-400, then gave her a civics quiz from the booklet. The interviewee gets 10 chances to get six right answers. Kathy went six for six. She easily passed reading and writing tests, and she was in.

“It was a pleasant surprise,” Kathy said. “It was a really wonderful experience.”

Then she waited for Marvin. It was a long wait. He was sharing his moving story of attending a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game in Minnesota in 1979.

During the seventh-inning stretch the audience stood, took off their hats, put their hands on their hearts and sang “God Bless America.” The patriotic act moved him.

“That’s when I fell in love with this country,” he said.

The interviewer, a 20-year Air Force veteran, learned Marvin was a pastor, and felt comfortable enough to share his recent cancer diagnosis. This chance meeting between a military vet and former Harley club member-turned-reverend became an emotional experience, bringing both to tears.

“It took 32 years to get here and make it all work,” Marvin said. During the interview, “The patriotism got me.”

When she saw him leaving the interview area, Kathy couldn’t understand why her husband was crying. What had gone wrong? She looked at him for an explanation, and finally got a thumbs-up.

“I’ll tell you later,” he explained.

“Yeah, tell me later, but it’s good, right?”

And they hadn’t really planned on it, but both were invited to stay for the final step of the journey to citizenship – the Oath of Allegiance.

Sixty-four people representing 20-plus countries took the 140-word oath that day in Denver. Mexico and Canada had the largest representation, but Africans, Asians, Australians and Europeans all became U.S. citizens, too.

It’s been a long road for the Moncriefs, and they’re more than ready to be U.S. citizens. It means they can vote, serve on a jury and ...

“Who knows, I might run for office,” Marvin said, and Kathy responded by rolling her eyes and putting her head in her hands.

Nothing like being a proud American ...

johnp@durangoherald.com John Peel writes a weekly human-interest column.