Conditions and procedures for American immigrants to apply for naturalization

US naturalization application requirements:

1, residence requirements

Before submitting an application for naturalization, foreigners must live in the United States continuously for a period of time. If a foreigner is not married to an American citizen, then to apply for naturalization, he must live in the United States continuously after obtaining legal permanent resident status and hold a green card for more than five years (including five years). Foreigners who marry American citizens must live in the United States for three consecutive years after obtaining legal permanent resident status. Before a foreigner takes the citizenship test, he/she must continue to marry his/her spouse who is an American citizen, and his/her spouse must be able to maintain citizenship all the time. Immigration regulations define "maritalunion" as "cohabitation".

Leaving the United States for a certain period of time will destroy the continuity of foreigners' stay in the United States, although this will not affect the ability of foreigners to return to the United States as permanent residents. Leaving the United States for no more than six months will not destroy the continuity of life in the United States. However, if foreigners leave the United States for six months or more, the continuity of their stay in the United States will be destroyed. If the time to leave the United States is between six months and one year, and foreigners have reasonable reasons to explain it (such as overseas work needs), this period can be waived when applying for naturalization. If you have been away from the United States for more than a year, start calculating the residence time again.

After submitting an application for naturalization, the applicant should live in the state where the application is submitted for 3 months. This requirement and the requirement of continuous residence must be met at the same time. After submitting the application for naturalization, the applicant still needs to live in the United States continuously until he obtains citizenship.

2. Basic requirements

Generally speaking, the prerequisite for naturalization is that foreigners must first have permanent residency in the United States; You must be at least 18 years old when submitting your naturalization application. These two items apply to applicants who submit their applications separately. If the child is under the age of 16, he can be naturalized automatically with his parents; Under some special circumstances, 18 years old or older can only apply separately.

3. Language requirements

If you want to become an American citizen, you must have the ability to read, write and speak English. Whether the applicant has this ability is determined by the test of the immigration officer. The ability to understand and speak English is judged by the answers given by the applicant when the immigration officer asks questions in the interview. The applicant's English reading and writing ability will be judged by a special written test. The following situations are not limited by language requirements:

When submitting the application, he is at least 50 years old and has lived in the United States as a permanent resident for at least 20 years;

When submitting the application, he was 55 years old or above and had lived in the United States as a permanent resident for at least 15 years.

American immigration naturalization process:

1. Form filling

Under normal circumstances, foreigners applying for naturalization should fill in the N-400 form and submit their own green card copy (in a few cases, it is not necessary to submit a green card copy). Applicants also need to submit all possible supporting documents, two identical passport photos, application fee and fingerprint printing fee. After the fingerprint of the applicant is printed, the Immigration Bureau will send the fingerprint to the FBI to conduct a background check on the applicant. If the applicant successfully passes the background check, he will receive an appointment notice and an interview from the Immigration Bureau. English proficiency test and American history knowledge test will be conducted in this interview. The immigration officer who supervises the examination can judge whether the applicant meets the naturalization requirements, and usually can make a final decision on the day of the interview. If the applicant is approved for naturalization, the Immigration Bureau will arrange the swearing-in time. After taking the oath, the applicant will get a certificate of naturalization.

2. Supplementary forms

Form N-648: Applicants who apply for exemption from English proficiency test and/or American history government knowledge test due to disability need to fill in this form and submit it together with N-400.

Form N-470: If the naturalization applicant needs to live outside the United States for a long time and wants to maintain the continuity of residence in the United States, he must fill in Form N-470.

Special category of naturalization applicants

1. Accelerated naturalization: technical requirements

A. Spouses of American citizens sent overseas

Spouses of American citizens sent overseas by American employers can be exempted from the restriction of continuous residence time. The condition is that the foreign spouse of an American citizen must be a permanent resident, must be in the United States when submitting an application for naturalization, must confirm that he is willing to live in the United States after completing his mission abroad, and in most cases, must also indicate that he will still live with his spouse who is an American citizen after naturalization. If these conditions are met, foreigners can apply for naturalization immediately after obtaining a green card. There is no restriction that it takes three to five years to apply for naturalization after obtaining a green card.

B. Children of American citizens

Under the following conditions, American citizens can apply for accelerated naturalization for their non-citizen children (that is, there is no need to be limited by residence time):

? At least one parent is an American citizen;

? The child legally entered the United States and was in the United States at that time (permanent resident status is not required);

? Children under the age of 18 and under the legal guardianship of their parents;

? Parents with American citizenship must have lived in the United States for at least five years, and at least two of them are after his/her 14 birthday;

? If the parents with American citizenship cannot meet the requirements of the previous article, then the children with non-citizenship must be permanent residents in the United States, or their grandparents are American citizens and have lived in the United States for at least five years, at least two of which are after his/her 14 birthday.

2. Served in the American Team for 3 years or more;

Foreigners who have served in the US * Corps for more than three years, are permanent residents, and are still serving in the military when submitting their naturalization applications, or have been discharged from the army for less than six months, can be exempted from the residence time limit by naturalization.

To obtain the residence time exemption, the applicant must:

? Being praised during his service, or having made remarkable achievements after his discharge from the army;

? Serving in the army for at least three years;

? Having legal permanent resident status when taking the naturalization test;

? If you no longer serve in the army or retire with honor, you must prove that you have good moral conduct.

If the applicant applies for naturalization after 6 months of retirement and has served in the military for at least 3 years, his time in the military can be regarded as the time of continuous residence in the United States.

3. Because one or both parents have been naturalized, the child is naturalized as an affiliated applicant:

If a foreign child is born outside the United States, one parent is an American citizen and the other parent is a foreigner, then his/her foreign parents who are unmarried and under 18 when applying for naturalization can be naturalized as affiliated applicants. However, before 18 years old, foreign children must have permanent resident status and be in the United States. In this case, it is not limited by the stay time.

If the parents of foreign children did not have American citizenship when they were born, and the foreign children were under the age of 18 and had lived in the United States for a long time before they were married, their parents can be naturalized before their 18 birthday, and foreign children can also obtain American citizenship accordingly. This situation is not limited by the length of residence.

If both parents of a foreign child are foreigners, one of them has died, or both parents are separating, and if the surviving parent or the parent with legal custody has been naturalized, the foreign child can also obtain citizenship. However, the condition is that the foreign children are under the age of 18, unmarried and have lived in the United States for a long time. This situation is not limited by the length of residence.

Foreigners destroy the continuity of residence for more than one year. If foreigners can meet the following conditions, they can be exempted from the one-year period that undermines the continuity of residence at the time of naturalization without affecting their application for naturalization:

? The foreigner had lived in the United States continuously for at least one year before leaving the United States. This uninterrupted year is strict and there is no interval, no matter how short the time is;

? Foreigners who are American citizens or their spouses are employed by the following overseas institutions: the US government, American research institutions, American companies or branches of American companies that develop foreign trade or business, or international organizations of which the United States is a member, and the foreigner was not employed before becoming a permanent resident;

? One year before he left the United States, he had applied to maintain the continuity of his stay in the United States;

? The time when it destroys the continuity of residence is caused by the need of its overseas work (generally, the employer can issue a certificate).

Although foreigners may live outside the United States for a long time, they can still maintain the continuity of their stay in the United States through certain channels. When submitting an application for naturalization, other naturalization requirements must be met. U.S. government workers are not subject to residence time restrictions.