“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Emma Lazarus
November 2, 1883
Why Become a U.S. Citizen?
Citizenship is the holy grail for many immigrants. It allows a person to vote in federal elections, to travel internationally with a U.S. passport, to convey citizenship to one’s child, to be eligible for federal jobs requiring U.S. citizenship and it protects a person from deportation. Under the 14th Amendment, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States…are citizens of the United States.”
Constitutional amendments are very hard to change. It requires two thirds vote of the House and two thirds vote of the Senate and 38 of the 50 states to agree to change any amendment. An executive order alone cannot amend the Constitution.
How Do You Qualify for U.S. Citizenship?
Naturalization is a status that requires strict criteria to be met before being granted. First, an applicant for naturalization must be a lawful permanent resident, 18 years or older who has been married to a U.S. citizen for three years and has resided in the U.S. for three years. Alternatively, an applicant must be a lawful permanent resident, 18 years or older, who has continuously resided in the U.S. for five years prior to filing the naturalization application. In either scenario, the applicant must have resided in the state where he/she filed the application for at least three months before filing it.
Section 316 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act clarifies that a person must be physically present for at least 18 months if the person is a spouse of a U.S. citizen. If a person receives a green card based on work, the person must be living in the US for at least 30 months of the five-year requirement. A person must reside continuously in the U.S. from the date of filing until admission to being granted citizenship.
The applicant must be a person of good moral character for five years if lawful permanent residence was grated due to work or three years for the spouse of a U.S. citizen. Some bars to good moral character include giving false testimony or intending to deceive in order to obtain an immigration benefit.
Possible Bars to Naturalization
Certain crimes are permanent bars to proving good moral character, unless the applicant received a full and unconditional executive pardon prior to the beginning of the statutory period.
Men who knowingly and willfully, fail to register with the Selective Service between 18 and 26 years of age during the statutory good moral character period cannot show good moral character. Failure to pay taxes can be a basis to deny citizenship for lack of good moral character.
Naturalization applicants must reveal ALL organizations of which he/she has been a member as well as being willing to bear arms, perform noncombatant service or work of national importance. Each applicant must demonstrate knowledge of the English language, History and Government through the English and civics test.
Reasonable Accommodations are Permitted
The English language requirement does not apply to persons who are over 50 years of age and have lived in the U.S. in lawful permanent residence status. INA 312 (b)(2). Persons who are physically or developmentally disabled or have a mental impairment are exempt from the English language and history and government requirements. If a person’s physical disability does not enable him/her to take the test in a written format, that person can take the exam orally. Reasonable accommodations were implemented in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The ultimate step to naturalization requires the applicant to take an oath of allegiance to the U.S. and renounce allegiance to other sovereign countries. INA 337. Until the oath is taken, a person is not a citizen and may be placed in removal proceedings. Posthumous citizenship through death while on active-duty service may be granted if the family petitions within two years of the person’s death.
The application is twenty-one pages and any false answers to a question can derail a person’s eligibility. Over the years, the questions have become more stringent. It is essential to meet with an immigration attorney to thoroughly discuss the intent behind the questions, especially ones about acts one may have committed for which one was not arrested, charged or convicted.
Benefits of U.S. Citizenship
Upon receiving U.S. citizenship, a person may apply for a U.S. passport through the Department of State. Dual citizenship has been seen as problematic, but Congress has recognized that dual nationality is a status long recognized in the law and that a person who asserts the rights of one citizenship does not, without more evidence, mean that he/she renounces the other country. Dual nationals need not choose one nationality upon becoming an adult, but they should use their U.S. passport to enter and leave the U.S. Gaining the right to vote in the U.S. is the motivation many have when applying for U.S. citizenship.
Grounds for loss of citizenship include criminal proceedings under 18 U.S. 1425 or through civil proceedings to revoke naturalization, referred to as “denaturalization”. If the government finds a naturalized citizen concealed material evidence or made a willful misrepresentation or illegally procured the citizenship, the person may be denaturalized. Denaturalization may occur through court proceedings, through administrative proceedings or as a result of a criminal conviction for knowingly procuring naturalization by fraud.
A native born or naturalized citizen may relinquish their U.S. citizenship by voluntarily obtaining naturalization to a foreign state after age 18, serving in the armed forces of a foreign state engaged in hostilities against the U.S., serving in or performing duties of any office of a foreign government, formally renouncing U.S. citizenship before a diplomatic or consular officer or making a formal written renunciation in the U.S. when the U.S. is in a state of war.
The recent events in the U.S. have demonstrated why every lawful permanent resident of the U.S. should become a U.S. citizen due to the protections and benefits it provides.
Kate Sinkins, Esq.
April 23, 2025
