Norwich — One thought kept coming to Marie Sanon as she stood at the podium in the Council Chambers at City Hall to address an audience of fellow U.S. citizens for the first time. She repeated it several times.

“I thank God America opens the door and lets immigrants in,” said Sanon, one of 18 newly made U.S. citizens from nine different countries honored during an hourlong ceremony Wednesday. “... God, continue to bless America.”

Sanon, a native of Haiti, also thanked her teachers at Norwich Adult Education for their persistence in helping her through the difficult task of learning English. Sanon said she first came to Adult Ed when it was housed at the rear of Kelly Middle School. She quickly dropped out. “I don't understand anything,” she said. She came back several years later and made it through this time.

“God, continue to open the door to America,” she said again.

Lucianna Brifil, also from Haiti, said she knew where City Hall was before she took a vacation day from her job as a cleaning person at Foxwoods Resort Casino to attend Wednesday's ceremony — several newly made citizens missed the ceremony because they had to work — but she had never been in the stately, historic third-floor Council Chambers.

“I just came here to pay my taxes,” she said. The tax office is on the first floor. “Every year, I came here to pay my taxes.”

Brifil said she might come back to Council Chambers to attend a City Council meeting in the near future.

Mayor Deberey Hinchey invited all the new citizens not only to attend meetings, but to seek positions on city boards and commissions, to vote and to become involved. All new citizens on the stage Wednesday already are registered voters, Adult Education English for Speakers of Other Languages coordinator Cheryl Egan told the audience.

Fausto Flores, who immigrated from Ecuador in 2000, said he found a “big difference” when he arrived in the United States. For Flores, the promise of new opportunity for himself and his family rang true after a lot of hard work.

“I want to say thank you, United States, for the opportunity,” Flores said. “All these years of working, working. I'm feeling very good. ... I wish to be a true person of the United States. Also, I'm looking forward to voting in the next election.”

Egan and Norwich Superintendent Abby Dolliver praised the new citizens for their courage along with their hard work to learn English and face the challenge of the “100 questions” they had to answer to pass the citizenship test — many of which would have stumped lifelong U.S. citizens. Adult education teachers use a set of flash cards provided by the U.S Citizenship & Immigration Services office in Hartford for practice.

She invited members of the audience to try a few questions: “What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?” Answers: Serve on a jury or vote in a federal election. “What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives right now?” Or how about: "If both the president and the vice president can no longer serve, who becomes president?”

Before departing to the music of Neil Diamond's “Coming to America,” the new citizens received certificates from U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney's office, from the four Norwich legislators in the Connecticut General Assembly and from the secretary of the state's office.

Several speakers Wednesday touted the country's foundation as a nation of immigrants and said both the country and Norwich are better for their rich contributions to culture and society.

“We would be a much poorer place if people stopped wanting to become Americans,” state Rep. Doug Dubitsky, R-Chaplin, said.

c.bessette@theday.com