As more and more rights are being taken away from lawful permanent residents, the incentives for many to naturalize and become US citizens has increased substantially. The number of applicants for naturalize in the last few years has skyrocketed (as have processing times). This article is intended to outline the basic requirements for naturalization.
The first requirement to naturalize is that the applicant have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence. This means that one must be a permanent resident and have lawfully received such status. If the INS discovers, for example, that permanent residence was acquired fraudulently, then the application for naturalization will be denied (and the applicant will probably find himself or herself in deportation proceedings).
The applicant must be eighteen years of age at the time of fling an application for naturalization. An exception to this rule is made for minors with at least one citizen parent who are naturalizing on the application of the parent.
The Immigration and Nationality Act imposes certain residence requirements:
- residence in the US must be after becoming a permanent residence
- residence must be for a total of at least five years (three years in the case of one who acquires permanent residency through a US citizen spouse and continues to be married to this spouse throughout the three year period). The residence must be for a continuous period. Application for naturalization can actually be made three months in advance of the five or three year anniversary.
- a person must reside for at least three months in the state or within the INS district where the application is being filed. The three months can be prior to the naturalization interview instead of prior to filing the application.
- a naturalization applicant must be physically present in the US for at least half of the required residence time.
- an applicant must reside in the US form the time of filing the application until the time of being sworn in as a citizen.
Persons who are absent for long periods of time may break the period the continuity of their residence and be rendered ineligible for naturalization. Absences of more than a year automatically break the period of continuous residence. Absences of between six months and a year are presumed to break the continuous period of residence, but an applicant can overcome this presumption by proving that he or she did not intend to break their residency. Absences of less than six months are not considered to break the continuity of residency.
Applications for naturalization must be persons of good moral character for the required period of residency for naturalization (actions occurring prior to this period are not considered). “Good moral character” is not defined, though the INS considers it to mean that a person measures up to the standards of average citizens of the community. The Immigration and Nationality Act does, however, list certain persons who would not be considered to have good moral character:
- convicted murderers;
- convicted aggravated felons;
- persons convicted of crimes of moral turpitude;
- persons convicted of two or more offenses and the aggregate sentence imposed was five years or more (and if the crimes occurred outside the US, the crimes are not purely political offences);
- persons who violate any US or foreign narcotics laws (unless there is just a single offence for simple possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana);
- persons admitting any of the above criminal behavior even though the person was not formally charged, arrested, or convicted;
- persons confined in prison or jail for at least 180 days (unless the offence occurred outside the US and the offence was purely a political one);
- persons lying to obtain an immigration benefit;
- persons involved in prostitution or commercialized vice;
- persons involved in alien smuggling;
- polygamists;
- persons with two ore more gambling offences or persons who earn their money principally through illegal gambling;
- habitual drunkards.
Note that this list is not all inclusive and the INS could still deny an application for a reason not listed above. The INS has previously held, for example, that persons who fail to pay child support or failure to register for Selective Service might be found to lack good moral character.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk. The information provided in this article has not been updated since its original posting and you should not rely on it until you consult counsel to determine if the content is still valid. We keep older articles online because it helps in the understanding of the development of immigration law.