Although not every crime or civil violation creates an outright bar to receiving U.S. citizenship, many do. And many others will raise serious questions about whether you have the necessary good moral character to be approved for U.S. citizenship.
You will need to see an immigration attorney for a full check of your record and what it means in immigration law terms. (See How to Find a Good Immigration Lawyer For Your Case.) To give you an idea of what your attorney will need to analyze, this article offers a brief overview of the most serious crimes that will permanently bar a person from citizenship and the various other crimes or legal violations that will block or delay qualifying for U.S. citizenship.
Just to clarify, we aren't referring only to crimes or legal violations committed in the United States. A criminal record from overseas counts as well. One notable exception would be an instance where a refugee or asylee was a victim of inappropriate government prosecution; in other words, was imprisoned for speaking out in dissent against their government, arrested during a peaceful protest, or something along those lines.
If you have ever been convicted of one of the following, you are permanently denied the possibility of receiving U.S. citizenship:
These bars are automatic. In other words, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officer who interviews you and reviews your citizenship application will have no choice but to deny your application for naturalization. In addition, you will probably be placed into removal (deportation) proceedings once USCIS realizes that one of these crimes is on your record.
What is an aggravated felony? This is an important question, and you can't tell the answer simply by looking at the name of the crime you were convicted of. USCIS's definition of aggravated felony includes many crimes that you would expect; such as rape, sexual abuse of a minor, drug trafficking, firearm trafficking, racketeering, running a prostitution business, child pornography, and fraud of $10,000 or more.
However, the immigration definition of aggravated felony also includes crimes that might surprise you, including some that local and state courts have classified as misdemeanors. For example, any crime of violence, or theft or burglary that resulted in a prison term of one year or more, will be considered an aggravated felony. And resisting arrest has been found to be a crime of violence. Even driving while under the influence of alcohol (DUI or DWI) is sometimes considered a crime of violence, particularly if it involves reckless or intentional behavior.
Helping to smuggle an alien into the United States is also considered an aggravated felony—unless it was a first offense to help a spouse, child, or parent. (Note that this exception doesn't cover smuggling other family members, such as grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, fiancés, or friends.) Even transporting undocumented migrants within the United States could possibly count as smuggling.
Many stories exist of immigrants who innocently or negligently committed criminal acts that are later classified as aggravated felonies—for example, someone who befriends a drug dealer, buys a fake green card, or has sex with an underage girlfriend. In some cases, even an arrest without an official conviction can be problematic. Because this area is so complex, see a lawyer if you believe your criminal record could affect your U.S. citizenship application. Some immigration lawyers specialize in the overlay of immigration and criminal law, and it's worth seeking one out for your case.
Some crimes make a person only temporarily ineligible for naturalized U.S. citizenship. If, after the date you committed the crime, you wait out the same number of years that you must have to meet your permanent residence requirement—typically five years, or three years for applicants married to and living with a U.S. citizen for all that time—you might be able to receive U.S. citizenship.
We say "might" because an applicant for citizenship has the burden of proving “good moral character.” As a result, USCIS can still consider your past actions in reviewing your application—and choose to deny your application. But at least you will have a chance to prove that the good side of your character outweighs your past bad acts.
Here is a summary list of the crimes that make you temporarily ineligible for U.S. citizenship:
The crimes on this list prevent you from establishing the necessary good moral character during the required period (three or five years). For more on the “good moral character” period, see Five Years Passed Since Crime: Can You Apply for Naturalization?
If anything on your record remotely resembles a crime on the list above, see a lawyer. The lawyer can determine whether you will have a problem applying for U.S. citizenship and confirm how many years you should wait after the conviction date before you apply. Here's an example of how this could work:
EXAMPLE: Ronaldi becomes a U.S. permanent resident (gets approved for a green card) on November 1, 2020. In theory, he will be eligible for U.S. citizenship 5 years after that, on November 1, 2025. However, on October 1, 2022, Ronaldi commits a misdemeanor, for which he is arrested, convicted, and spends 180 days in jail. His crime doesn't permanently block him from U.S. citizenship. But he will need to show 5 years of good moral character before he can be approved for U.S. citizenship. After consulting with a lawyer, Ronaldi is advised to wait approximately two more years to apply, because he will not be eligible until October 1, 2027.
A person who, after being convicted of a crime, is placed on probation or parole, or has a suspended sentence, must successfully complete it in order to be approved for naturalized U.S. citizenship. This comes from the USCIS regulations at 8 C.F.R. § 316.10(c)(1).
There are no exceptions to this rule. A U.S. citizenship application will simply not be approved while you are on probation or parole—no matter how minor the crime. USCIS will either postpone a decision on your application until your probation or parole is completed or ask you to reapply (submit another N-400) later.
Even after you have completed your probation, your troubles might not be over. You will need to look into whether the crime you committed could result in the U.S. government taking away your green card, as covered in Immigration Risks of Pleading Guilty or No Contest and Crimes That Will Make an Immigrant Deportable.
And even if you dodge that bullet, you will need to find out whether the crime bars you from receiving U.S. citizenship, or might cause the USCIS examiner to deny you based on lack of good moral character. In some cases, the problem can be dealt with by waiting a bit longer to apply for naturalized citizenship.
If you have broken any sort of law, but not committed an actual crime of the sort mentioned on any of the lists above, USCIS can still use its discretion to claim that you haven't shown good moral character.
In fact, there's a section of the immigration regulations stating that an application for U.S. citizenship can be denied if the person committed "unlawful acts" that reflect badly upon moral character, or were convicted or imprisoned for such acts, even if they're not separately listed in the immigration law, and even if they're civil, not criminal violations. (See 8 C.F.R. § 316.10(b)(3)(iii).)
The term "unlawful acts" was left largely undefined for years. In 2019, however, the Trump Administration issued a memo stating that while it must be decided on a case-by-case basis, examples of unlawful acts include bail jumping, bank fraud, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, failure to file or pay taxes, falsification of records, false claims to U.S. citizenship, forgery, insurance fraud, obstruction of justice, sexual assault, Social Security fraud, unlawful harassment, unlawfully registering to vote or voting, and violating a U.S. embargo.
(See USCIS Policy Manual at Chapter 5 - Conditional Bars for Acts in Statutory Period.)
In making its judgment on someone's character, USCIS considers such factors as whether anyone was injured, whether the applicant cooperated with the police and the courts, whether they were drinking or carrying an illegal weapon, and whether there were other "extenuating circumstances" (in other words, whether some forces outside the person's control were involved).
As with all crimes, you should see an experienced immigration attorney to evaluate the consequences.
]]>For a complete description of these eligibility requirements, see Who Can Apply for U.S. Citizenship.
Applicants often worry that the fact that they have received public benefits (financial or other assistance from a government agency) will hurt their application for naturalization. In particular, they worry that needing government aid or support will cast doubt on their showing of good moral character.
The short answer is that, as long as you received public benefits lawfully (without using fraud, for example), it will not hurt or affect your eligibility for naturalization in any way. The main reason is that you do not have to show that you are legally “admissible” to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.
As you might remember from the green card process, any past, present, or likely future receipt of certain public benefits can be a problem for would-be immigrants. The U.S. government can decide that someone is “inadmissible” (Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act or I.N.A.) and therefore ineligible for LPR status if the person currently is—or is likely in the future to become—a “public charge.”
Being a public charge means being dependent on government assistance in order to pay for the costs of living. This is why, if you immigrated through family, you had to have a financial sponsor.
There is, however, no "public charge" bar to receiving naturalization in the United States.
Another issue to consider as an LPR in the United States is whether your use of public benefits could make you "deportable." This is a different legal concept from inadmissibility, in that it assumes you're already inside the U.S. (legally or not). An overreliance on public benefits could, in rare situations, put an LPR at risk of being declared a "public charge" by U.S. immigration authorities.
U.S. immigration law states that anyone who becomes a public charge within five years after their date of entry to the U.S., for reasons that aren't demonstrated to have arisen since that entry, are deportable. (See I.N.A. § 237(a)(5).). But this is only enforced against people who were asked to repay public benefits they received, didn't, and were ordered by a court to pay.
For more information, see What Public Benefits Can a Green Card Holder Receive?.
And if you have been in any such dispute with a government agency over receiving benefits, definitely see an immigration lawyer before applying to naturalize. This could not only bar you from receiving citizenship on good moral character grounds, but result in your removal from the United States.
If you have ever illegally received public benefits, or even owed but not paid back debts resulting from an overpayment of public benefits, this could cause USCIS to decide that you do not have “good moral character.” And this, in turn, will result in a denial of your application for naturalization.
It is possible that you received public benefits when you should not have, but do not even realize it. For example, many U.S. government agencies that provide public assistance require that you let them know if you are going to be outside of the country for 30 days or more at a time. Under these circumstances, they will stop paying benefits. Since some people do not know about this requirement, they often receive benefits they are ineligible to receive because they are not in the United States. One example would be food stamps.
When you fill out your N-400 naturalization application, you will have to list your work history for the past five years. You will also have to list all of your international trips since receiving LPR status. Although it does not happen at every naturalization interview, it is possible that the immigration officer will review your travel and work history closely and see that you received public benefits at or around the same time that you were outside of the U.S. for 30 days or more. Then, the officer could ask you whether you stopped your public benefit payments during your long trip.
If you have ever received public benefits in the U.S., and think you might have done so when you shouldn't have, talk to an attorney. The attorney can check your records and see whether you received the benefits legally, then analyze whether you still qualify for U.S. citizenship.
If you did not receive public benefits illegally or improperly, however, your receipt of public benefits will not affect your chances of becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen. Again, financial need alone does not reflect on your moral character.
]]>Registering for Selective Service does not mean that you have to actually become a member of the U.S. armed forces. However, you are expected to be ready to join if a large-scale war or similar emergency arises.
If you knew about the registration requirement and refused to put your name in, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can deny your application for naturalized citizenship. It's a matter of not only meeting the good moral character requirement, but proving that you are attached to the principles of the U.S. Constitution.
But not all cases are so clear-cut. This article will discuss:
In case it isn't obvious, women need not register for the Selective Service. For these purposes, your gender is the one assigned to you at birth, so a transgender person whose birth record shows them as female would not need to register.
As for men (per the gender stated on your records at birth), the main exceptions likely to help you, if you are sure you haven't registered, include:
Notice that no exception is made for undocumented or illegal aliens, conscientious objectors, or disabled persons. They are expected to register, though whether they'll actually be called to serve is another matter. The Selective Service office states that it does not share address or other information about undocumented persons with U.S. immigration authorities.
For more information on these exceptions and more, see the Selective Service website, in particular its FAQs.
Many young men find out when they fill out Form I-485 in order to adjust status and get a green card, because the form authorizes USCIS to provide your registration information to the Selective Service System. No one can assume, however, that USCIS actually took care of registering you.
To check, go to the Selective Service website's Verify Registration page and enter your information. The system will confirm whether or not you are registered (and you can print out proof, if you like).
If you are getting ready to apply for U.S. citizenship and you did not register for the Selective Service and are not yet age 26, it’s not too late. You can still register online or by mail or pick up the registration form at a U.S. post office, fill it out, and mail it in.
But if you're already 26 years old, this won't work.
If you’ve passed age 26, it’s too late for you to register for the Selective Service. Your chances of qualifying for U.S. citizenship depend on how many years have passed since you were supposed to register and how many years of good moral character you need to show in order to meet the naturalization eligibility requirements. If you need to show five years of good moral character, then the easiest thing might be to wait until you are age 31 to apply for citizenship.
Or, if you need to show only three years of good moral character (because you can apply early, having been married to and living with a U.S. citizen all that time), you should wait until you are 29 years of age to submit your N-400 citizenship application.
If you are eager to apply for citizenship before you turn 29 or 31 (as applicable), you might be able to show USCIS that you had no idea that registering was expected of you, and that you therefore didn’t “willfully” fail to register, by submitting these along with your naturalization application:
A Status Information Letter from the Selective Service simply states that you are over-age and therefore no longer required to register. However, you need to get one, because USCIS will refuse to look at the rest of your materials without it.
You can request the Status Information Letter from the Selective Service System website or by calling 847-688-6888.
Your sworn statement should offer reasons why you failed to learn about the Selective Service registration requirement.
If you attended high school in the U.S., you were probably sent a letter about this requirement, and will need to additionally explain why the information did not cause you to register. (For example, perhaps you heard about the requirement but believed it applied only to U.S. citizens.)
You will also have trouble claiming ignorance of the registration requirement if you got your green card either through the amnesty program in the 1980s or more recently, during or after the year 2001. In both cases, people were alerted to their registration obligations.
If possible, get letters from other people who knew you, particularly people in positions of authority, such as a high school teacher. The letters should support your explanation of what happened to result in your not knowing you were supposed to register.
For in-depth discussion of the process of applying for U.S. citizenship, see Becoming a U.S. Citizen: A Guide to the Law, Exam & Interview, by Ilona Bray (Nolo). Or, consider hiring an attorney to help with the application process and strategy.
]]>Will failure to pay U.S. taxes bar you from applying for naturalized U.S. citizenship? That's what this article will discuss, namely:
One of the important requirements for U.S. citizenship is that the applicant show "good moral character." This doesn't mean showing that you're better than the average person, but it does involve showing that you have behaved well, including paying your taxes.
The naturalization application Form N-400 issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) specifically asks about whether you have paid the taxes that you owe, including any federal, state, and local obligations. (See When Visa or Green Card Holders Must Pay Taxes if in doubt about your obligation.)
However, missing a tax payment doesn't mean you are forever barred from U.S. citizenship. Nonpayment is a discretionary concern, which the officer will weigh into the decision of whether you have shown good moral character. The important thing now is that you do everything possible to evaluate and fix the situation, as described next.
If your household income was low enough, it's possible that you didn't owe taxes at all for some years. With regard to federal taxes, this IRS page can help: Do I Need to File a Tax Return?. The range is usually between $14,000 and $25,000 depending on your age, whether you are filing singly or jointly, and so on.
Of course, you'll need to make sure to follow the exact applicable minimum for any years you failed to file. The numbers can change year by year, based on inflation.
In order to deal with this situation, you will most likely need to file your tax returns and including payments for the basic amount and any applicable penalties. Or, if you still can't afford the full tax bill, you might be able to work out a payment plan with the IRS and state or local taxing authorities.
Evidence that the applicant is complying with such a payment plan has, in some cases, been accepted by USCIS as sufficient proof of good moral character.
Once you've taken care of things, be sure to get copies of your IRS tax transcripts for the relevant years, and provide these to USCIS with your N-400 or at the interview. Beyond the basic transcript, you might want to get a "tax account transcript," which helps show that you actually paid any outstanding debts shown on the "tax return transcript."
Though not hopeless, this is a tricky situation. Your best bet is to get expert help from both a tax professional and an immigration attorney.
The immigration attorney, for example, can help you by writing a persuasive letter to accompany your N-400 application, explaining why your failure to pay taxes does not indicate a lack of good moral character. The attorney can also help you collect and present other evidence of your good moral character, for example by presenting letters and documents showing your community involvement, dedication to family, participation in religious worship activities, and so forth.
]]>When you apply for U.S. citizenship, you give U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) an opportunity to reopen your file—your entire immigration file, years into the past—and to double check whether you actually deserved all the immigration benefits you have received thus far. USCIS will also run a fingerprint check on you, and might even look into your records with your home country.
If something new and troublesome is revealed, you could not only find that USCIS denies your naturalization application, but that the U.S. government places you in removal (deportation) proceedings and perhaps strips you of your status as a U.S. permanent resident.
This article will highlight some of the most common and dangerous “red flags” that raise questions about a person’s citizenship eligibility.
The requirements for naturalized U.S. citizenship include that the applicant have good moral character, which a crime on one’s record makes it much, much harder to show. What’s more, certain crimes create an absolute bar to U.S. citizenship (or at least a bar within a certain period of years). For more on this, see Crimes That Will Prevent You From Receiving U.S. Citizenship.
USCIS sometimes makes mistakes, approving people for green cards or other immigration benefits (such as asylum) who were not eligible for them in the first place. But the agency is getting more efficient at tracking down information from the past, including from foreign governments, and in reevaluating the green card approval at the time the person applies for U.S. citizenship.
Some people commit outright fraud on their green card application, for example by faking a marriage, hiding a criminal conviction in the home country, lying in court (perhaps falsely claiming to have been persecuted in their home country in order to gain asylum), accepting a job with a U.S. employer that they secretly planned to leave as soon as they got the green card, or creating false documents to show a sponsor who didn’t exist or that they spent less time in the U.S. unlawfully then they really did.
Another common source of fraud issues arises when green cards are granted based on a second (or third or fourth!) marriage. USCIS might have accepted a divorce certificate as valid in the earlier decision, but now decide to take another look. If USCIS finds the divorce certificate to be invalid after all, the agency can decide that your current marriage—the one you received your green card based on—is also invalid, and that you therefore no longer have a right to your green card, much less to U.S. citizenship.
Some people unintentionally commit fraud in obtaining their U.S. lawful permanent residence. If, for example, you received your green card through a relative whose own green card had already been revoked (canceled or taken away), or you turned 21 before you got a green card, not realizing that the category for “children” of permanent residents applied only while you remained younger than age 21, your green card could be invalid. Although this wasn't your fault, it would mean you won't qualify for naturalized U.S. citizenship, and could be deported.
One of the toughest situations for naturalization applicants arises when an employer used fraud in helping them obtain a green card. You might not even know if, for example, your employer shredded the resumes of competing U.S. job applicants during the hiring process. Or, you might not have realized the legal significance of your employer failing to pay you the prevailing wage after you showed up to start work.
Again, such problems can come to light during the naturalization application process, casting doubt on your very eligibility for the green card.
Taking short trips outside the United States is one of your rights as a permanent resident. However, if during the required years of permanent residence leading up to your citizenship application, any of your trips lasted six months or more, you’ve got an eligibility problem. USCIS presumes that a six-month trip (or longer) means that you made your main home in another country and that your period of U.S. permanent residence is no longer “continuous.”
Worse yet, USCIS could decide that you not only broke the continuity of your U.S. residence, but “abandoned” your U.S. residence altogether. If USCIS believes you planned to make your primary home elsewhere (regardless of how short or long a time you stayed abroad), it can deny your citizenship and send you to immigration court for a decision on whether you should be removed.
The agency can take this action for any trips you took during your years of permanent residence. For example, if you’ve been a permanent resident for 25 years, USCIS could review a trip you took 20 years ago and determine you took that trip with the intention of abandoning your life in the United States.
Illegal use or abuse of drugs is a huge issue for any green card holder. Instead of being approved for U.S. citizenship, you could be deported for having, at any time after being admitted to the U.S., been convicted of violating (or conspiring to or attempting to violate) any law or regulation relating to drugs (which the law calls controlled substances).
An exception is made for people convicted of a single marijuana offense that involved possessing 30 grams or less for personal use.
Even more dangerous for your case, the immigration laws say that any noncitizen who, at any time after admission to the U.S. has been a drug abuser or addict is deportable. This part of the law doesn’t require an actual conviction; if you so much as admit to drug use (perhaps during your naturalization interview—and lying about it could get you into deep trouble, too), or USCIS turns up evidence on a medical report, this could be used as a basis to place you into removal proceedings.
It won't help that marijuana use might be legal in the state where you lived or imbibed it; USCIS still considers this a federal crime. What's more, under the Trump Administration, USCIS updated its Policy Manual (Chapter 5) to assert that employment in the marijuana industry may constitute conduct that violates federal controlled substance laws.
See Can You Be Deported for a Drug Crime? for more on this topic.
If you have been a member of or advocate for the Communist Party or any similar totalitarian party, USCIS might refuse to grant your application for U.S. citizenship. U.S. immigration law requires citizenship applicants to show that they are attached to the principles of the U.S. Constitution and well-disposed to the nation’s good order and happiness. (See I.N.A. § 316(a)). This includes the applicant's belief in representative democracy and the basic premise that any political change should be effected in an orderly way.
See Can Communist or Other Totalitarian Party Members Become Naturalized U.S. Citizens? for more on this.
Above, we discussed the most common situations causing trouble for would-be naturalization applicants, but they’re not the only ones. Nolo’s book, Becoming a U.S. Citizen, contains more information on this issue. However, there’s no substitute for a consultation with an experienced immigration attorney to examine whether it’s safe for you to apply, or to develop a strategy if you’ll be taking a risk by applying.
]]>The question is whether you have the “good moral character” required to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Financial problems alone are not a bar to this finding of good moral character.
What is “good moral character?” U.S. immigration law actually says more about what is isn’t than what it is. The law sets out some automatic bars to a finding of good moral character, such as commission of certain crimes. But neither debt, unemployment, nor bankruptcy is on that list.
There's also guidance to be found in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Policy Manual (Part F), which describes good moral character as that which "measures up to the standards of average citizens of the community in which the applicant resides."
In addition, USCIS has set forth various automatic bars, such as failure to pay taxes. The Form N-400 Application for Naturalization specifically asks about taxes, but it doesn’t ask about debt, foreclosure, bankruptcy, or related financial issues.
If tax debt was an issue in your case, that's more problematic. Expect to have to pay any federal, state, or local taxes that you owe, plus penalties, before you are approved for U.S. citizenship. In the alternative, USCIS may accept proof that you are cooperating with an IRS payment agreement.
Beyond the automatic bars to a finding of good moral character, this determination is largely up to the subjective outlook of the USCIS officer deciding your case. Applicants need not be more upstanding than average citizens in the community where they live, but as mentioned above, they must at least meet the same standard.
The officer’s discretion must nevertheless be exercised reasonably. For example, at one time, some USCIS officers routinely denied citizenship to people who were receiving public assistance, until attorneys and immigration advocates protested. They leaned on USCIS to acknowledge that lawful receipt of benefits (with no fraud involved) says nothing negative about a person’s morality.
Of course, if you have engaged in unlawful behavior stemming from your financial trouble, such as committing fraud in order to claim public assistance, or failed to pay child support, this will definitely be factored into the decision of whether you have sufficiently good moral character to become a U.S. citizen.
You could improved your chances of obtaining U.S. citizenship by hiring an experienced immigration attorney to handle it. The attorney can analyze the facts of your case, identify any potential problems, prepare the N-400 and other paperwork, and monitor the progress toward approval. And if you're arrested or accused of any sort of fraud, definitely get an attorney's help.
In such a case, you would want to consult an attorney before applying. Illegal behavior can result not only in a denial of citizenship, but in deportation (removal) from the United States.
]]>Below, we'll discuss:
USCIS will ask you to provide "biometrics," including fingerprint records, as part of its background check process on all applicants for naturalization. That's true even if you're over the age of 75 and didn't have to pay an added fee for biometrics. (Currently, the only other biometric information that USCIS gathers are photographs of you, plus your signature.)
A few weeks after getting your application for naturalization, USCIS will send you a notice in the mail asking you to appear for fingerprinting at one of its application support centers (ASCs); most likely the one closest to where you live.
If you don't show up for your biometrics appointment without good cause and without notifying USCIS, your application for naturalization is considered abandoned and you will have to reapply and pay a new fee.
All USCIS application support center facilities are accessible to applicants with disabilities. If you are unable to attend any biometrics appointment because of a disability, or if you're in the hospital or unable to leave your house, USCIS will make special arrangements to take your biometrics.
You have to let USCIS know about your situation and request that someone from USCIS come to you. Call the USCIS customer service line at 800-375-5283 (TDD: 800-767-1833). (You will have to make your way through a lot of automated voice prompts, however; it's best to start in the morning in case USCIS wants to schedule a call-back with you.) Be ready: USCIS might ask for a copy of the appointment notice and medical documentation verifying the need for an in-home or in-hospital appointment.
USCIS won't need to fingerprint you if you are unable to provide fingerprints because of a medical condition, birth defect, physical deformity, skin condition, or psychiatric condition. A USCIS officer responsible for overseeing applicant fingerprinting will decide whether you can be fingerprinted or not.
That officer will have to meet with you in person and try to take your fingerprints first. The officer won't give up just because, for instance, you have fewer than ten fingers, or if the officer thinks your fingerprints will be "unclassifiable" (unable to be read clearly), or if your condition is temporary.
If you truly can't be fingerprinted, you'll have to provide local police clearance letters from everywhere you've lived during the period of good moral character that applies to you. Usually this is the five years before you applied, or three years if you're applying for citizenship on the basis of marriage to a U.S. citizen. You will also need to give a statement under oath about any criminal background you have in the period of good moral character.
Once it has your biometric information on file, USCIS will submit this to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for a full criminal background check. The FBI has a National Name Check Program (NNCP) that does a search for names to see whether they appear in any personnel, administrative, applicant, or criminal files compiled for law enforcement purposes.
You can't have your naturalization interview with USCIS until the FBI name check is complete and you've been cleared.
The FBI will determine either that you have no administrative or criminal record, that you do have such a record, or that it doesn't know because it can't read your fingerprints.
The results of the name check are considered good for 15 months. If USCIS hasn't given you citizenship by that time, you will have to wait for the FBI to do another name check.
Rather than waiting for USCIS to check your record and then follow up (in the worst case, by placing you into deportation proceedings), it's wise to do your own advance research if you have ever had any run-ins with law enforcement officials. Even if you think a case was dismissed, expunged, or otherwise doesn't "count" on your record, it's worth having an attorney research the matter thoroughly.
The most serious crimes will permanently bar you from U.S. citizenship and various other crimes or legal violations will block or delay your qualifying for citizenship. An experienced attorney can help you figure out whether it's safe to apply at this time. Fortunately, in some cases, it's safer to apply if you wait a few years first.
For tips on getting the professional assistance you need, see How to Find a Good Immigration Lawyer For Your Case.
]]>A DUI (driving under the influence) or DWI (driving while intoxicated) is not among the crimes that automatically bars a person from naturalized U.S. citizenship. (Those are described at Crimes That Will Prevent You From Receiving U.S. Citizenship.) With a simple DUI or DWI on your police record (that is, not one that's mixed in with other crimes or aggravating factors such as it being a "crime of violence"), it is theoretically possible to apply for and receive U.S. citizenship.
However, your chances of success are iffy. You'll be facing an environment of little tolerance for DUI/DWI offenses—or indeed any other alcohol-related offenses, such as public intoxication or disorderly conduct. Even without an absolute bar, the naturalization examiner can find that you lack the "good moral character" required for U.S. citizenship. In fact, being a "habitual drunkard" is a bar to showing good moral character. (See 8 U.S.C. 1101(f).)
In 2019, the U.S. Attorney General decided (via a B.I.A. case called Matter of Castillo-Perez) that two or more DUI convictions during the statutory period creates a presumption that the applicant lacks good moral character. This doesn't mean you will automatically be denied, but you will have to work hard to balance out the picture with a showing of your good moral character.
If no property was damaged and no people were injured in your case, and this was your first offense, these are all positive factors. When considering whether to grant U.S. citizenship to someone who has a crime on record, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will consider factors like these, as well as things like:
All of these are relevant to the issue of your good moral character.
Every U.S. state defines DUI or DWI slightly differently, or has different types of levels of DUI/DWI that a person can be convicted of. USCIS will want you to provide paperwork showing the exact nature of your DUI conviction.
In the best scenario for you, the exact portion of the state statute under which you were convicted will have been written so that it doesn’t really tell USCIS much more than that you were driving while intoxicated. In the worst scenario, the law will say that, to be convicted, you must have shown recklessness or malicious or evil intent.
Even if the court didn't order it, someone with a DUI or DWI on record would do well to enter a treatment program, and obtain a certificate or letter showing satisfactory completion. Any other evidence that you have turned your life around is worth pulling together and submitting to USCIS, as well.
With or without a DUI on your record, in order to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, you will have to show that you are a person of "good moral character," particularly in the last five years before you applied. (That time period lowers to three years for people who can apply early based on an exception, most commonly marriage to and residence with a U.S. citizen.) For most applicants, that’s a simple matter of proving that they haven’t committed any crimes and have been responsible members of the community and paid any required child support.
But someone with a DUI or DWI on record will have to work even harder to prove good moral character, for example by submitting proof of volunteer activities, membership in a church or other house of religious worship, and anything else relevant.
If that seems to difficult, or you don't feel you can overcome the high bar, waiting until five years since the DUI occurred (or three years, if that's your legally required waiting period for citizenship) might be the best approach. Even then, if there were aggravating circumstances, such as someone dying in the car accident caused by the DUI, you could be denied.
An experienced immigration lawyer can help you select and present the most relevant documentary proof. (It’s going to take more than just your word in the USCIS interview—though you will need to be prepared to explain the events surrounding the DUI personally, and persuade the USCIS examiner that it was not typical of the way you live your life or that you have since taken steps to change your life.)
Whatever you do, however, do not fail to mention the DUI on your N-400. That lie could ruin your finding of good moral character right there.
For more information, see articles on becoming a U.S. citizen.
]]>Many people think bigamy and polygamy mean the same thing (which they don’t); others find them confusing. In fact, so many people didn’t understand the word ‘polygamy’ that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stopped using it on the N-400 Application for Naturalization form (N-400) more than ten years ago. Instead, the form now asks whether the applicant has ever been married to more than one person at the same time.
Most people will simply check “no” in answer to the simplified question, and that will be the end of the issue for them. Other people—accidental bigamists, or immigrants from nations where polygamy is legal, for instance—will answer “yes,” and give an explanation.
But a growing number of immigrants may honestly answer “no” to this question, and still find their application denied on the grounds that they are practicing polygamy. For that group of people in particular, it is extremely important to understand both terms and how they are interpreted by USCIS.
Bigamy is the crime of being intentionally married to more than one spouse at a time. To commit bigamy in the U.S., you would have to first legally marry one spouse, and then apply for a second or third license to marry someone else, and follow through with that second (or third) marriage ceremony, all without first obtaining a divorce from the first spouse.
Intentional bigamy is a crime; it virtually always involves lies and deception. Most intentional bigamists have lied to one or both of their spouses, hiding the fact that they are married to two or more people at the same time. Intentional bigamy, even if you have not been convicted of the crime of bigamy, will bar you from having the good moral character required to naturalize.
And even unintentional bigamy can block you from becoming a U.S. citizen, unless you take steps to fix the situation.
USCIS defines polygamy as “the custom of having more than one spouse at the same time.” (This comes from the USCIS Policy Manual.) It describes situations where all the parties to all the legal marriages are fully aware of all the marital relationships and deliberately chose to practice polygamy for cultural or religious reasons.
Under the regulations, polygamy is a problem if have have practiced it in the past or are currently practicing it. (See 8 CFR 316.10(b)(2)(ix))
You cannot be considered a practicing polygamist unless you belong to a culture or religion that recognizes the custom of polygamy; but in that case, if USCIS becomes suspicious, it can look at all your sexual and household relationships. As USCIS defines polygamy, it doesn’t matter whether or not you are legally married to the people who share your polygamous relationships.
Nor does it matter whether you are the spouse with multiple partners, or whether you are merely one of the partners. The non-legal ‘spouses’ of a polygamous man are practicing polygamy just as much as he is.
For example, a refugee who was practicing polygamy before he immigrated will be required by U.S. immigration law to designate one wife as his legal wife to accompany him to the United States. Years later, after becoming a U.S. citizen, he might divorce that wife, and marry the woman who was formerly his second wife, in order to petition for her (on Form I-130) to immigrate to the United States.
If the petition is approved, the new/formerly second wife immigrates, and then USCIS learns that the husband is still continuing to live with the first wife (even if only some of the time), all three could be accused of practicing polygamy. This is the case because all three come from a country where polygamy is practiced. Therefore, if the man lives with both women at the same time, whether the women live separately or apart, their joint behavior meets the USCIS definition of polygamy.
Similarly, if an immigrant from a country where polygamy is practiced culturally but not legally goes through a ceremony of customary ‘marriage’ with someone in her country of origin who has other customary wives, USCIS will see her as a practicing polygamist. This will be the case even though there is no legal marriage between the couple, and even though she is living in the U.S. and he and his wives are living outside the United States.
Islam is the most common religious tradition recognizing the custom of polygamy today. Nevertheless, as a result of the biblical practice of polygamy, there exist practicing polygamists in both the Hebrew and Christian traditions. In addition, many African and some South-East Asian nations have sociocultural traditions of polygamy.
If you belong to any of these traditions (or certain sects within them), therefore, USCIS will pay close attention to indications that your household situation fits the definition of polygamy.
Because many immigrants and U.S. citizens come from religious traditions that have practiced polygamy, it is not against U.S. law to believe in polygamy, so long as you are not actually practicing it.
A practicing polygamist might not be a bigamist, if that person does not attempt to legally marry more than one spouse at the same time. So, for example, if a man is legally married to only one woman, but has formed a household in which, based on cultural traditions, he takes other women as “wives,” he could be blocked from U.S. citizenship as a polygamist but not as a bigamist.
The opposite situation might be a bigamist who is hiding the bigamy from more than one purported legal spouses. For example, perhaps a woman marries one man in Nevada and another in California, and maintains two households, pretending to often be away on “business.” She is not considered a polygamist under U.S. immigration law, as she is not practicing the custom of having more than one spouse at the same time, but is simply pretending to be monogamous with more than one partner. The person could, however, still be blocked from naturalized U.S. citizenship as a bigamist.
Because USCIS defines polygamy as a religious or cultural tradition, USCIS examiners are taught to pay particular attention to the possibility that an immigrant from a country where polygamy is or has recently been legal could still be practicing polygamy. Although refugees and immigrants are all advised that polygamy is illegal in the United States, some immigrants are continuing this practice. (See, for example: In Secret, Polygamy Follows Africans to N.Y. and Some Muslims in U.S. Quietly Engage in Polygamy.)
USCIS examiners reviewing an application for U.S. naturalization will take an especially close look where an immigrant was practicing polygamy before immigrating or is from a country where polygamy is commonly practiced.
The most common way USCIS officers spot polygamous relationships is by paying attention to when and where children are born. The N-400 form requires that all children be clearly listed and their relationship to the applicant noted.
USCIS officers are also trained to pay attention to requests for legal name changes that appear unusual, particularly when the applicant is a female seeking to change her surname. A change of surname can signal to the USCIS officer that the woman is in a non-legal marital-type relationship.
If you have committed bigamy in the past, but 1) you did not obtain your legal resident status through a bigamous marriage, and 2) it has been more than five years since you since one or both of your bigamous relationships ended, your history of bigamy should not, by itself, be enough to cause USCIS to deny your application for naturalization.
If your bigamy was accidental; for example, you believed your prior spouse was dead or you believed you were divorced; and you never actually lived in relationship with both spouses at the same time, you might not need to wait for five years from the time your divorce is legal.
Nevertheless, you shouldn't lie about your marital history on an immigration application, and your USCIS examiner will take your history of bigamy into consideration in determining whether you have the good moral character required to naturalize. If you were charged and convicted criminally of the bigamy, or if you have any other criminal or good moral character issues in your past, definitely consult an immigration attorney before applying to naturalize.
If you practiced polygamy before immigrating to the United States, but neither you nor your spouse(s) have practiced it since becoming a U.S. lawful permanent resident, your prior history of polygamy should not cause your naturalization application to be denied.
If you have personally practiced polygamy since immigrating to the United States, (even if it was many years ago) you should not apply to naturalize without first consulting with an immigration attorney. Practicing polygamy as a legal resident of the United States will not only likely result in denial of your naturalization application, but grounds for deportation.
If you have not personally had multiple spousal relationships at the same time, but you have had a relationship with someone you considered a spouse (whether that relationship was legally recognized or not) and that person had other spousal type relationships at the same time, USCIS could determine that you are a polygamist. This is true regardless of whether your partner was living in the U.S. or abroad. It is especially true if you or your partner come from a country where polygamy is practiced, whether legally or culturally. You should definitely not apply for naturalization without first terminating that relationship (or making certain that your partner has terminated all other relationships). You should also wait to apply for naturalization until five years (or other applicable good moral character period) after the end of the relationship, unless you have a good explanation for why you got involved in the relationship; an explanation that makes it clear you did not intend to practice polygamy.
If you knew your partner was a practicing polygamist, or if you want to apply without waiting, you should definitely consult with an immigration attorney first.
Remember, USCIS examining officers are trained to spot polygamous behavior in applicants for naturalization who come from countries where polygamy is part of the culture. If you were knowingly involved with polygamy or polygamists, your application for naturalization is at risk of denial no matter who you were in the web of relationships.
]]>We'll discuss each of these below. This article does not, however, discuss any of the ways you might be exempt from some or all of these rules.
One cannot apply to become a U.S. citizen without first being a lawful permanent resident of the United States (an LPR). When you apply, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will check to make sure you didn’t abandon your permanent residence at some point by spending too much time outside the United States (a serious risk for LPRs).
U.S. immigration authorities can decide you abandoned your permanent residence if you moved to another country intending to live there permanently, or if you left the United States and remained outside it for a long time (typically more than six months). There’s no set period of time that you can stay outside the United States and feel safe, however. It’s more a question of whether you intended your trip to be temporary. Still, any trip that lasted six months or less won’t ordinarily be questioned.
Normally the biggest hurdle will be when you actually return to the United States, and interact with an officer of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The officer who greets you ask questions to examine whether you abandoned your permanent residence if you took a trip for more than six months, and you really have some explaining to do if your trip lasted more than a year. They CBP officer will look at the reason for your trip, how long you intended to be gone, and what caused you to be gone so long. You can also abandon your permanent residence by multiple trips, no matter how long, if you don’t really spend much total time in the United States at all.
But the fact that you made it back into the United States is no guarantee that USCIS won't take another look when you apply for naturalization, and decide that you did, in fact, abandon your U.S. residence.
The general rule is that you must have five years of continuous (unbroken) residence in the United States right before applying for citizenship, and also before attending your oath ceremony. The rule changes to three years for people who are married to and living with a U.S. citizen spouse up to the time they're sworn in as U.S. citizens.
To have continuous residence, your permanent dwelling place must have been in the United States. USCIS looks at the place you actually lived. If you lived overseas, it doesn’t matter if you considered your main residence to be in the United States or if you always had plans to move back.
USCIS will presume that you broke your continuous residence if you were gone from the United States for more than six months during the five years before applying. You can, in the course of applying for citizenship, convince USCIS that your absence didn’t break your continuous residence. To do so, you'll want to show evidence that, for example, you kept your job in the United States and didn’t take a job overseas when you were gone, that your family stayed in the U.S. when you were gone, that you kept a place to live in the U.S. for when you returned, and more about your ties to the United States.
If you were gone for a continuous period of one year or more during the five- (or three-) year period, your continuous residence was broken. You can’t try to convince USCIS otherwise. You’ll have to wait until you’ve been back in the U.S., living there continuously for four (or two) years and a day before applying for citizenship. (You don’t have to wait the full five (or three) years, because even if you leave again, you can’t possibly be gone for a whole year by the time you apply. But it’s best not to leave again for more than six months.)
If you broke your continuous residence by living outside the United States, you will have to wait to apply for citizenship. (For details, see When Can I Apply for U.S. Citizenship?)
You must be physically present in the United States during at least half of your required years of continuous residence. That’s a minimum of two and a half years before you apply and before you take your oath if you need to complete five years as an LPR, or one and a half years for spouses of U.S. citizens who must complete three years as an LPR.
The days do not have to be continuous in any way. USCIS is just going to look at the last five (or three) years and count the number of days you spent inside the United States. Even if you preserved your continuous residence by not staying outside the U.S. for more than six months or a year at a time, multiple shorter trips could be a problem for the physical presence requirement.
The day you leave the U.S. and the day you return are counted as days of physical presence within the U.S. for citizenship purposes.
What if you're stranded outside the U.S., and the total days of your absence are about to add up to have of your required physical presence time? One possibility is to quickly submit your naturalization application from abroad, so as to lock in your time as of the date your application is received by USCIS.
When you apply for naturalized U.S. citizenship, you must have lived in your state or in the USCIS service district where you apply for at least three months beforehand. If, for example, you’ve been living outside the United States, you can’t immediately apply for U.S. citizenship when you move back.
You need to decide where you want your U.S. citizenship interview and oath ceremony to take place, and live in that state or USCIS service district for at least three months before submitting your Form N-400. If you move later, you can ask that your interview location be changed.
If you’re coming back to your former residence in the United States after having been outside the country for less than a year, you can apply right away, as long as you had been living there (or in that state or USCIS service district) for three months before you left the United States.
If you’re going to school outside your state or USCIS service district, you can apply for U.S. citizenship where your school is located, or where your parents live, if you’re financially dependent on them at the time of filing and during the whole citizenship application process.
After you apply for citizenship, USCIS needs to take your “biometrics” (fingerprints and so forth), interview you, and give you your certificate of naturalization at an oath ceremony. These things must happen in the United States. If you leave the United States after sending your citizenship application, you must come back to complete the application process.
Understanding these strangely overlapping requirements for naturalized U.S. citizenship is confusing for everyone, and consulting an experienced immigration attorney can be quite helpful.
]]>But what happens if you get divorced after getting your green card? Many immigrants worry that this undercuts their basic green card eligibility, making them not only unable to pursue U,S, citizenship, but in danger of deportation. In most cases, such applicants have little or nothing to worry about.
If you were hoping to get early citizenship after three years as the spouse of a U.S. citizen, understand that divorce will end that possibility. You have to remain married up until you actually get your citizenship, and you have to be living with your spouse three years before filing your citizenship application to qualify for early citizenship. But you can still apply after the usual five years.
As long as your marriage was the bona fide, real thing—meaning that you honestly intended to establish a life together, as opposed to entering into a fake, or a sham marriage, meant to get you a green card—you should be okay when applying for citizenship. U.S. immigration authorities are always on the lookout for fraudulent marriages, and perceive them to be a common problem; but they don't automatically assume that a divorce indicates a sham marriage.
If married to a U.S. citizen, you probably spent two years as a “conditional resident,” then had to submit proof of your real, ongoing marriage (along with Form I-751) in order to become a permanent resident. So U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has already reverified that your marriage was real. But when you apply for citizenship, your divorce might cause USCIS to again examine how real your marriage was.
When you attend your naturalization interview, the USCIS officer may ask additional questions to double-check. The officer may not make a decision on your citizenship that day, but may ask you to first submit additional paperwork proving that your marriage was real.
If that is indeed what happens, USCIS will be looking in particular for documentation covering the time period beyond your submission of the I-751. You might want to submit the same sorts of documents that you did before, but covering the more recent time period, such as leases or mortgages in both your names, copies of joint bank or credit card statements, and so on.
If you and your husband or wife attended couples counseling before the divorce, a statement from the therapist would be good evidence that you were really trying to make the marriage work. And if you happen to have had any children that USCIS doesn’t yet know about, their birth certificates will serve as excellent evidence that your marriage was real.
Learn more about the process of and procedures for applying for U.S. citizenship.
Let's take, by way of example, the situation of a woman who has learned that her husband, a U.S. citizen who sponsored her for the green card, is married to another woman back in their home country. Although the woman is not committing bigamy, the husband is. What's more, his bigamy could cause the interviewing officer at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to decide that she herself is practicing polygamy; in other words, is involved in a household where multiple spouses are part of the mix.
Not only could she be disqualified from becoming a naturalized citizen, she could be placed into deportation proceedings and ultimately removed from the United States. (Also see Will You Be Denied U.S. Citizenship Based on Polygamy, Bigamy, or Multiple Marriages?)
Such a situation can be incredibly frustrating for the immigrating spouse. After all, she is not married to two people, hasn’t done anything wrong, and in our example, wasn't even aware of her husband's other wife when she married him. Why should her application for naturalization be denied because of her husband’s actions?
Let's take a closer look at whether there's any way someone in this situation could qualify for U.S. citizenship.
There is no way that to honestly answer all the questions on the Application for Naturalization (Form N-400) without telling USCIS that one's husband is currently married to two women at the same time. The Form N-400 requests the LPR applicant's complete marriage history AND the U.S. spouse's complete marriage history.
Form N-400 also requires applicants to list all their children (biological, adopted, or stepchildren). Under U.S. law, any children that a husband has while married are also considered the wife's children, whether or not she is the biological mother.
Unfortunately, USCIS interprets polygamy as a cultural or religious practice. That means that a wife who does not leave the relationship immediately upon finding out about the other marriage becomes a knowing partner to the husband’s other relationship.
Timing is key here. If the husband was already married when he married the immigrant wife, she does not have a valid marriage, and her very green card could be at risk. That would be a situation in which she should see an attorney immediately.
If, on the other hand, he got married to someone else and had a baby with her while already married to the immigrating spouse, she not only has a good reason to get divorced (the husband is committing the crime of bigamy) but might be able to preserve her green card.
Note that it does not matter that he married his other wife in a different country. In U.S. immigration law, a marriage anywhere in the world is still a marriage.
Now let's see the immigrant does get a divorce from the U.S. citizen spouse, and goes ahead and applies for U.S. citizenship. It’s certainly possible that the divorce will raise questions. USCIS might take another look at whether the marriage was bona fide to begin with, as opposed to being a sham to get a green card.
Nevertheless, one can overcome this with documents and personal testimony. See Can I Apply for Citizenship if I’ve Divorced the Person Who Got Me My Green Card? for details.
If the couple doesn’t get divorced, then from the perspective of USCIS, they are probably practicing polygamy. This will depend to some extent on their country of origin. If it's a country where polygamy is not legally or culturally practiced (such as Argentina or Finland), then USCIS might not decide that the two are involved in polygamy. If, on the other hand, it's a country where polygamy is legal and common (like Egypt or Saudi Arabia) or even a country where it is not legal but practiced culturally, such as Kenya or Zimbabwe, it is likely that USCIS will find the couple is practicing polygamy, and likely deny citizenship as a result.
]]>First, let's get clear on which part of the law we're talking about. There's a whole separate list of problematic issues for people "seeking admission" to the United States. It's called the grounds of inadmissibility, and mostly applies to first-time applicants for visas or green cards. (See Inadmissibility: When the U.S. Can Keep You Out.)
However, in rare situations, even green card holders can end up in double trouble, facing inadmissibility. In particular, people who spend 180 continuous days or more outside the U.S., or leave the U.S. during removal proceedings, or have committed a crime, or who engaged in illegal activity outside the U.S., can be questioned by U.S. border officials upon their attempted return, and their records checked, to see whether they've become inadmissible. (See I.N.A. § 101(a)(13)(C).)
Even if such person are let back into the country, they are considered to be seeking readmission to the United States, so any reason for keeping people out of the U.S. in the first place can make them “inadmissible” as well as deportable.
Briefly summarized, a green card holder may be deportable from the U.S. if he or she:
Even if the immigration authorities believe that you are deportable, you will not be kicked out of the country right away. In most cases (unless, for example, there is an outstanding order of removal in your file), you have a right to defend your case in immigration court. For some types of deportability, the law might provide a waiver (legal forgiveness) that you can apply for.
Only immigrants who have successfully become U.S. citizens are safe from the grounds of deportability. U.S. citizens cannot be removed unless they used fraud to gain their green card or citizenship. Thus it's worth applying to naturalize as soon as you are eligible.
Also, if you are ever arrested for a crime, be extremely cautious about dealing with it. Simply agreeing to plead guilty to avoid jail time could be the worst possible choice if it means admitting to a crime that makes you deportable. You'll want to consult both a criminal lawyer and an immigration lawyer for assistance in this situation.
And definitely get expert help from a lawyer if you are facing removal proceedings or believe you might have become deportable.
]]>If you are in this situation—in other words, you were arrested for a crime and then had the case dismissed—keep reading to make sure you’re safe in applying to naturalize, and that you take appropriate steps in disclosing and dealing with the arrest.
Before analyzing the effect of an arrest on your application for citizenship, it’s important to realize that succeeding in a bid for naturalization doesn’t merely involve showing that you aren’t a serious criminal—it involves showing, affirmatively, that you possess “good moral character.”
Any inkling of trouble in your life, particularly if it’s not balanced out by positive factors such as a steady work record and home life and history of volunteering or participating in faith-based activities, could undermine this showing. Unfortunately, there is no easy or clearcut definition of what “good moral character” is, so the decision depends in large part on the discretion of your interviewing officer.
The most important time period that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will look at in determining your good moral character is the five years before you submit your application for citizenship. So if you’re close to that point with your arrest, it might be safer to wait a little longer. But USCIS can also look further back in time and decide that older arrests are serious enough to show bad character.
For most crimes that make an immigrant either deportable from the U.S. or ineligible for U.S. citizenship, the law requires that the immigrant have actually been convicted (most likely by either having pled guilty or been found guilty in court). But that’s not true of all crimes.
For example, USCIS can deny citizenship if it has “reason to believe” that a person has engaged in drug trafficking or prostitution or is a habitual drunkard or a drug addict or abuser. An arrest for a related offense could, by itself, give USCIS grounds for such a belief. The USCIS examiner would simply decide that the person hadn’t shown the good moral character required for citizenship.
What’s more, a green card holder who, at any time after U.S. admission, has been a drug abuser or addict can be placed into removal proceedings and deported from the United States. No actual court conviction is required under the law. See Grounds of Deportability: When Legal U.S. Residents Can Be Removed for more on this.
Submitting an application for U.S. citizenship is one way that immigrants unwittingly bring the fact that they are deportable to the attention of the immigration authorities.
Even some criminal cases that were dismissed can cause trouble in a citizenship interview, depending on the circumstances of the case. For example, if you initially pled guilty at a criminal court hearing, but the court later vacated the guilty plea and dismissed the case due to completion of some kind of rehabilitation/diversion program, it is not considered a true dismissal for immigration purposes. You should always submit an original or certified document showing proof of compliance with probation requirements.
If your case was not dismissed “on the merits,” it can still be deemed a conviction for immigration purposes. This is why it’s so important to not only consult with a criminal lawyer but an immigration attorney as well, before accepting any kind of plea deal. The criminal justice system might consider your case dismissed, but the immigration system could still deem you “convicted” of a crime.
In order to apply for U.S. citizenship, you will need to fill out Form N-400, the Application for Naturalization. One of the questions on that form asks whether you have “ever been arrested, cited, or detained by any law enforcement officer (including any and all immigration officials or the U.S. Armed Forces) for any reason.”
Another question asks whether you have ever committed, assisted in committing, or attempted to commit a crime or offense for which you were not arrested. Another variation is the question, “have you ever been charged with committing, attempting to commit,or assisting in committing a crime of offense?”
Clearly, USCIS’s intent here is to find out about more than your court record. The agency wants a full picture of whether you are a person of good moral character. And if the substance of the questions didn’t already make this clear, you will need to disclose the arrest even if your case was dismissed.
Because Form N-400 also asks if you have ever been cited by law enforcement, you should also disclose any traffic tickets or moving violations. While traffic tickets usually don’t rise to the level of something that puts you at risk of denial for lack of good moral character (unless you have an exceptional number of citations), failing to disclose them could cause you significant problems.
It goes without saying that you need to tell the truth on Form N-400. Failure to do so will mean that you are vulnerable, at any time in the future, to being stripped of U.S. citizenship if the falsehood is discovered. Besides, every applicant for citizenship must undergo a fingerprint check, which means your arrest record will likely be discovered regardless.
It’s not just lying that could get you in trouble. Not remembering an arrest or telling a different story about it, even if you’re not trying to mislead USCIS, is almost as bad. It’s the USCIS officer’s job to be skeptical, and if what you tell the officer doesn’t match up with the facts—for whatever reason—you are in danger of having your citizenship denied.
Your best bet in such a situation is to consult an experienced immigration attorney, who will fully analyze the significance of your arrest for immigration purposes and help you craft a strategy for your citizenship application.
]]>First, the Form N-400 asks an open-ended question about whether you have been a member of any organization, association, or other type of club or group. Then the form asks specifically whether you are or have ever been a member of or in any way associated (either directly or indirectly) with the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party, or have ever advocated (either directly or indirectly) the overthrow of any government by force or violence.
Broadly speaking, membership in groups is not always a bad thing. In fact, you can improve your chances of obtaining citizenship if you're been an active member of volunteer groups or houses of worship.
Saying “yes” or otherwise indicating membership in or advocacy for the Communist Party or any totalitarian or similar party, however, can result in denial of one’s application for U.S. citizenship.
This all relates to the portion of U.S. immigration law that requires citizenship applicants to show that they are attached to the principles of the U.S. Constitution and well-disposed to the nation’s good order and happiness. (See I.N.A. § 316(a)). This includes a belief in representative democracy and the basic premise that political change should be brought about in an orderly fashion.
Given how many people come to the U.S. from regimes whose governments fit (or once fit) this description, however, it’s worth taking a closer look at both the bar, the exceptions to it, and real-life interpretations of who is ineligible.
The Immigration and Nationality Act (I.N.A.) contains a prohibition on naturalization for anyone involved, within the last ten years, with a group that advocates or teaches opposition to all organized government; or involved with the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party of the U.S. or any foreign state; or who advocates world communism or totalitarian dictatorship even without formal group membership. (See I.N.A. § 313).
The law similarly blocks naturalization for anyone who within the last ten years, individually or as part of any organization, advocates or teaches the forceful or violent overthrow of the U.S. government, who assaults or murders any government officer, or who damages, injures, or destroys property, or commits sabotage.
The law doesn’t use the word “anarchist,” but lawyers consider this to be among the types of prohibited groups referred to in this section of the law.
The above is a boiled-down summary. If you think you fit into a loophole in what was just described, be sure to consult with an attorney or read the original law, which clearly tries not to leave anyone out.
Despite the ideological and political bars described above, you might be able to succeed with an application for U.S. citizenship if you fall into an exception. The exceptions within the law cover applicants who:
In addition, court decisions have said that the person's association with the organization in question must be a “meaningful” one in order to bar naturalization. Simply paying dues, attending meetings or social events, especially while young, is less likely to be considered meaningful than, say, enthusiastic participation or taking on leadership roles.
For example, a federal district court found in a case called In re Pruna, 286 F. Supp. 861 (D.P.R. 1968), that because the applicant’s membership in an organization supporting Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution in 1958 resulted from his belief that its objective was to restore representative democracy rather than communism, his participation did not amount to a "meaningful association" and he was eligible for U.S. citizenship.
Although some of the above exceptions could be easy to prove that one fits into, others will require more research and persuasion. In either case, it’s best to get a lawyer’s help with showing that you fall into an exception.
U.S. court decisions contain important examples of naturalization applicants who successfully proved that they fall into an exception to the bar on naturalization for Communist or totalitarian party members.
For example, in a case called Grzymala-Siedlecki v. United States, 285 F.2d 836 (5th Cir. 1961), the applicant’s enrollment in the Polish Naval Academy, which automatically conferred Communist Party membership on him, was found to not disqualify him from naturalizing, because it was necessary to his earning a living in Poland.
In another case, called Petition of Klajic (C.D. Cal., 1966), the court found that the applicant’s membership in the Narodna Omladina Jugoslavije ("People's Youth of Yugoslavia") did not bar him from naturalization because the organization primarily fostered social and athletic events for young people and might not have even been truly affiliated with the Communist Party. Also, the court found that his membership was involuntary and was solely for the purposes of obtaining employment and other essentials of living, including a basic education so as to make him employable.
Of course, there are courts that came to the opposite conclusion in similar situations. Again, your best bet is to get help from an experienced U.S. immigration attorney.
]]>Whether you qualify to naturalize in spite of your extramarital affair will depend on the timing, facts, and other details of what happened, as described below.
As an applicant for naturalization, you must demonstrate good moral character (GMC) for a specific period of time. This might be one year, three years, or five years. For most people, the GMC period is five years. Special residency rules may apply to residents married to U.S. citizens, immigrants who have served in the military, and battered spouses of U.S. citizens.
Sex outside of marriage used to be considered automatic evidence of bad moral character. That is no longer the case. But cheating on a spouse is still considered bad moral character. Examiners at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are taught to ask more detailed questions if they find evidence of an extramarital affair.
What’s the difference? Mostly it depends on whether you were living with your spouse when you had the affair, and whether your spouse had full knowledge of the relationship. An outside relationship when you and your spouse are separated, or an outside relationship that your spouse knows about and accepts won’t be considered evidence of bad moral character.
On the other hand, if you were still living with your spouse when you had the affair and if your spouse did not know and approve of the relationship, that will be considered cheating, and evidence of bad moral character. This is especially true if your affair led to your divorce.
So, if your application for naturalization indicates that you have had an extramarital relationship, the USCIS officer who interviews you and reviews your case will want more details about your situation.
The most common evidence of an extramarital affair is that the applicant had one or more children born or conceived with one person while still married to someone else. This is not difficult for USCIS to figure out. Because an affair is no longer automatically considered to show bad moral character, USCIS officers are trained to ask follow-up questions. They will want to know whether you were separated from your spouse when you had the affair. They will especially want to know whether your affair caused the breakup of your marriage.
You are required to list ALL your children on your N-400 application for naturalization. This includes adopted children and stepchildren, as well as all biological children. The form requires you to state the date and country of birth of each child, where each child currently lives, and whether you have ever failed to support them.
While Form N-400 does not ask you to name the other parent of each of your children, if the officer spots oddities, for instance, if you are the father of two children born less than nine months apart, or if you are a married woman who took your husband's surname but your child's surname is different.
The second most common evidence of an extramarital affair is children born during a marriage that ended in divorce, where the divorce decree does not include or make financial support arrangements for the child. Sometimes a divorce decree will state that a child born during the marriage is not the child of both parties; other times the divorce decree will simply fail to mention the child. In either case, USCIS examiners read through divorce decrees carefully, and they will notice when facts don’t match up neatly.
Finally, you will need to prove that you are current on all child support obligations. If, for example, you have been taken to court and required to pay child support for children born to one person while you were married to someone else, that is also clear evidence of an extramarital affair.
If you are still married and living with the same spouse, and the affair occurred during a period of marital difficulty that you have now worked through and resolved, USCIS will probably approve your case. If you and your spouse were already separated and in the process of divorce at the time of the affair, your application will probably be approved. If you are separated due to domestic violence by your spouse, or for some other reason you did not cause (your spouse is or was incarcerated), even if you are still married, your case may be approved.
As a general rule, if you were still living with your spouse when you had the affair, USCIS will rule that your affair contributed to your divorce. If that is the case, or if you know that your affair contributed to the breakup of your marriage, then the only way to be certain that your application will not be denied is to wait five years (or the length of your required GMC period) from the end of the affair or from the date of your divorce (whichever comes first) before applying for naturalization.
Hiring an immigration attorney can be a good idea if there's a chance that USCIS could deny your U.S. citizenship application based on an extramarital affair. The attorney can suggest the best time for you to submit your application, help you gather evidence showing that the reasons behind a broken-up marriage weren't only the affair, write a cover letter summarizing the evidence and arguing for your GMC, and accompany you to your naturalization interview with USCIS.
]]>The word “procure” in this context means to act as a procurer or pimp, who induces others to engage the services of a prostitute. (This definition was discussed by the Board of Immigration Appeals (B.I.A.) in a case called Matter of Oscar GONZALEZ-ZOQUIAPAN, 24 I&N Dec. 549 (B.I.A. 2008). The B.I.A. said that although, "The dictionary meaning of the word “procure” is generally to obtain or acquire,” . . . “as applied to prostitution, it has a specific meaning, i.e., ‘[t]o obtain [a prostitute] for another.’ Webster’s II New College Dictionary 882.")
Therefore, paying a prostitute for a “date,” often described as “soliciting a prostitute” one's criminal record, does not fit the description on the question in Form N-400. An applicant with solicitation on record should be able to truthfully answer “No” to this question. That at least avoids being faced with an automatic, statutory bar to naturalization based on lack of good moral character.
Someone who has been arresting for visiting a prostitute will not be able to hide this arrest, and will need to answer “Yes” to the various questions about whether you have been arrested or charged or convicted of a crime. You will need to give U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) details about the arrest and conviction (such as the place and date) and documentation showing the outcome.
USCIS can take a conviction for soliciting a prostitute into account in determining whether you have good moral character. You will likely need to work extra hard to prove your good moral character, such as by obtaining a letter of support from your religious leader and demonstrating that you live a responsible life, work hard, do volunteer work, and so forth. Also see the discussion of waiting longer to apply for citizenship in the next section below.
In the worst-case scenario USCIS could accuse someone arrested for hiring a prostitute of having committed a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT). This can, in some circumstances, depending on the timing and length of sentence, lead not only to denial of naturalization but to deportation. (See I.N.A. § 237(a)(2)(A)(i).)
Also a possible strategy is to wait a full five years from your conviction before applying for citizenship. (That five years represents the number of years that most people must remain in the U.S. as permanent residents before applying for citizenship, though it’s less time in a few cases, as described in When Can I Apply for U.S. Citizenship?.) The idea here is that you can more easily show good moral character for the entire period that USCIS looks most closely at when assessing whether you have good moral character.
USCIS can look further back in time than those five years, and will definitely consider your arrest no matter how far back in time it occurred. Nevertheless, if your record looks clear for the whole required five years of permanent residence, USCIS will give much less weight to what happened before that.
With the complicating factor of an arrest for visiting a prostitute in your case, and the need for added documentation, you would definitely be best advised to hire an experienced immigration attorney for help. Also speak to an attorney before traveling outside the U.S., as your conviction could block you from reentering on grounds that you're inadmissible.
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