11/08/2022   English German
  Edition # 145  
San Francisco, 11-08-2022

Application for Citizenship

Angelika Getting an American Green Card can take years or even decades. But once you have the Green Card in your pocket, it is relatively easy to become an American citizen if you have led an unblemished life in the country and always paid your taxes in full. Here are the conditions that must be met before an application for American citizenship can be made:

Ownership of the Greencard for at least 5 years (3 years if married to a US citizen).

The applicant must be 18 years old.

The residence must have been continuously in the US for the five-year period prior to the application. Trips or stays in the last 6 months or longer are particularly problematic.

Having a residence is not enough. The applicant must actually stay in the country for at least 30 months of the 5 years prior to the application.

One must be able to read, write, and speak English, with the requirements in this regard being very relaxed, or even absent, especially for older applicants.

Before applying, one must have lived in the same state for at least 3 months. This may seem strange to you, but where the residence is located determines where the application must be filed and which branch of the immigration office is responsible.

Proof that the applicant has led a morally upstanding life in the country.

The ability to pass the citizenship test.

The willingness to swear an oath and defend the American Constitution.
Figure [1]: The application for US citizenship can be submitted online.

If all conditions are met, the process can begin. The application is to be filed using form N-400. It's great that this can now be done online and only one form needs to be completed. So we both created an account on the USCIS Website (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) and only hours after we received our retention certificate from the German consulate, we submitted the application for US citizenship. Of course, there is still an option to send a paper application with the accompanying documents by regular mail, but we would strongly advise against it.

The application is divided into various parts: First the questions to check the personal data: Name, date of birth and country, address, email address, telephone numbers, nationality, green card number and since when you've had it it, gender, ethnicity / race (typical question in every American form), height and weight, eye color, hair color, employer, marital status, number of children. If the applicant is married, like in our case, further typical questions follow: Date of marriage, date of birth, nationality and immigration status, address and employer of the spouse. Any previous marriages that ended in divorce must also be listed. Whether the applicant's parents are American citizens is also to be answered with yes or no. If the applicant has American parents or an American parent, he or she may already have American citizenship automatically. Further questions are whether the applicant has ever served in the American military, as there are also simplified rules regarding American citizenship. And then we had to list how often and how long we were out of the country in the last 5 years.

One of the questions about personal information sounds suspicious: "Are you a male who lived in the United States at any time between your 18th and 26th birthdays?" Behind this seemingly harmless question lies the fact that every male living in the US and of the specified age is required to register with the "Selective Service System". This applies even to immigrants, and even those who are in the country illegally. The system is intended for the case that a draft is declared in times of war. Interestingly, this only applies to men. Many, even American citizens, have no idea that they are actually required to register. If one had neglected to register as a green card holder, one would have to convince immigration officials that this was done unknowingly.

The next part of the questionnaire deals with the moral character of the applicant. As already mentioned, it is checked whether the potential American citizen is upright and beneficial to American society and won't be a an undue burden going forward. The applicant does not have to prove what good he has done, but evidence is looked for that shows problematic or immoral behavior. This includes, for example, unauthorized voting, tax debts, failure to pay taxes, illegal stays in the country or concealing facts in order to gain immigration advantages, drug offenses and drug dealing, arrests and convictions, fraudulently obtaining social benefits, prostitution, polygamy, illegal gambling, membership in a communist party, totalitarian or terrorist organizations, sexual assault, or the oppression of people based on their religious affiliation.

Some of the questions are quite vague and general. For example: "Have you ever seriously and intentionally tried to hurt or actually hurt a person?" Here, "hurt" can refer to both physical and mental injuries. One funny question is: "Have you ever been a habitual drunkard?" People who have been caught by the police with too much alcohol in their blood and who have therefore received a so-called DUI penalty ("Driving under the Influence") have a harder time getting citizenship. There is also still the question of whether one has ever been in a psychiatric institution. Now, it says that saying "yes" to any of the questions automatically means that citizenship is rejected, but the general advice in these cases is: Get a good lawyer. The last part of the application then deals with whether one is willing to defend the constitution, swear the oath and, if necessary, defend the USA with a weapon. This would be the case, for example, if there were mandatory military service instated in case of war.

We were then able to upload the necessary documents. Depending on the personal circumstances, the number of required documents can vary. For us it was only two documents. We had to scan and upload the front and back of our green cards and our marriage certificate in English. Since we had already gotten an international one in different languages in Munich, this was not a problem at all. Photos are only needed if the application is written up outside the country, which probably doesn't happen very often.

The last step was then to pay the fee with a credit card. The application is relatively expensive, and for many the high fees are a real obstacle to applying for American citizenship. There is the possibility of reducing the fees if the applicant can prove that their income is below the poverty line, but in this case the fees won't be waived entirely, just reduced by half. We paid $725 per person: $640 is the regular fee and then $85 for taking fingerprints.

After payment, it was then a matter of waiting and exercising patience. A few days later, we received official confirmation by mail that our applications had been accepted, the fees had been paid, and the processing of the case had been initiated. We could also view these letters online under our account. Our so-called "Priority Date" was November 9, 2020, the day we had submitted the applications. The immigration system sets the place in the processing queue for the application based on this date.

We were able to check online to see approximately how long it would take for the application to be processed. However, the estimates listed there kept changing. Initially, it was said to be 9 months, but we already knew that this was a very optimistic calculation. Nothing happened for months and then suddenly something happened: At the end of February 2021, the agency informed us that they could reuse our old green card fingerprints (thanks to Corona), so that would save us the fingerprint appointment. The fee of $85 was of course not refunded. In April 2022, a strange message appeared on Michael's account that some evidence would have to be provided and that a letter was on its way. Panic spread! What could this be? Is military service to be proven? Will this prolong and delay the process? But then it turned out that an official had apparently pressed the wrong button, because the message disappeared online shortly afterwards and no postal letter ever arrived. Again there was silence for months until we were notified of our interview appointment in early January 2022. From the application to the swearing in, the application had taken exactly 15 months.

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