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GREENSBORO - Some fled from chaos. Some came for work. And some came for love. Each of the 765 people sworn in as new citizens Friday in a mass ceremony at War Memorial Auditorium had a story to tell, and no two were exactly alike.

Monica Walker of Peru met her husband on a vacation here. Mensan Kinvi of Togo, along with his family, moved here for better opportunities. Helen Hobbs of England, who along with her husband moved here decades ago for work, never wanted to leave.

Country by country, they stood up, ready to swear allegiance to a new homeland.

Afghanistan. Denmark. Guatemala. Italy. Nepal. Saudi Arabia. Trinidad and Tobago. Venezuela. Yugoslavia. Zimbabwe.

Former residents of those and 81 other countries raised their right arms and, as one, spoke the words that made them United States citizens.

"Congratulations to all of you," said Richard Gottlieb, a Department of Homeland Security official.

The mass ceremony came about after a large number of applications came in last year, said Ana Santiago, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It also comes just in time for the new citizens to cast ballots in the November election.

After they were sworn in, they streamed out of the auditorium, waving tiny flags, embracing family and friends and posing for photos while holding up their certificates of citizenship.

Kinvi, posing for a photo in front of the auditorium, said his family, which has settled in Charlotte, had come here for a number of reasons. Better health care. Better education. And simply a better chance to make something of their lives - to be out from under a system in which, he said, corruption rules and political affiliations are how you advance and prosper.

"It's hard to do anything and succeed," he said. "It depends on who you know."

Walker's story was simpler.

"I fell in love," she said.

She had met Stacey Walker while on vacation several years ago. The Charlotte couple now have an 18-month-old daughter. The decision to stay was easy.

"I'm so happy being here, I have my family here. I was so excited," she said.

For each of the immigrants, accepting citizenship here meant giving up something as well.

But none expressed any doubts about their choices.

"We've been here so long we just feel so American," Hobbs, a Mooresville resident, said. "We'll still always have our English roots, but after all this time, we feel more American."

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jason.hardin@news-record.com