Pathway to U.S. citizenship
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Constitution Day and Citizenship Day are on Sept. 17. Everyone who is naturalized as a U.S. citizen must take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Here’s a look at the process that more than 800,000 people went through in 2023.
Naturalization is the process to become a U.S. citizen if you were born outside of the United States. If you meet certain requirements, you may become a U.S. citizen either at birth or after birth. Use this form to apply for U.S. citizenship. You can find the online application for U.S. citizenship here.
For an adult immigrant to became a U.S. citizen, he or she must go through the process of naturalization. General requirements for naturalization call for the immigrant to:
Oath
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, so help me God.”
How long it can take
In general, a noncitizen must spend at least five years as a lawful permanent resident to be eligible for naturalization, while a spouse of a U.S. citizen must spend at least three years as a lawful permanent resident. The median length of lawful permanent residency by citizens naturalized in 2023 was seven years.
The median varied by the citizens’ country of birth. The countries with the largest number of new citizens in 2023 and their median length of lawful permanent residency are shown below. Applicants from Mexico and Canada had the longest median periods,10.4 years, and applicants from Nigeria the shortest, at 5.6 years.
Class of admission
Most people who naturalized came to the United States as immediate relatives of U.S. citizens or through family-sponsored preference categories, followed by refugees and asylum seekers, employment-based preference categories and the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.
Source: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
