Procedures of U.S. Citizenship Application

The process of filing in your US citizenship application is quite easy, if you have acquainted yourself well, with the procedures, before starting on the application. If your case is a regular one wherein you have been a permanent resident for either 5 yrs or 3 yrs and have satisfied all the other eligibility criteria, then the process of filing in your citizenship application will be very easy.

Hierarchy of the procedures of US citizenship application

• Eligibility check
• Getting the correct USCIS Form
• Completing the form and submitting it

Eligibility Check

 

You can file in your application only after the completion of your 5yr/3yr anniversary as a green card holder. You can file 90 days before the expiry of this period. In order to check whether you are fully qualified for US citizenship, you can make use of the Naturalization eligibility worksheet (found at the end of the ‘A guide to Naturalization’). This is very helpful to determine whether you are an eligible applicant or not.

A very important criterion that you need to satisfy, apart from being a permanent resident is, that of maintaining the continuous residence period and physical presence period in the US as per the USCIS stipulations. Only if you are enlisted in the Military or under Government Service will you be exempt from this or enjoy certain concessions.

  

Getting the Correct USCIS Form

 

The USCIS forms that cater specifically to citizenship are N-400, N-600, and N-565. If you are filing it to get naturalized as a US citizen, then N-400 is your pick. N-600 is for acquiring citizenship through your US Citizens parents while the last one is to get a replacement of your citizenship certificate (in case of it being stolen, damaged or destroyed).

Generally N-400 is considered to be the citizenship application and you can obtain this from any of the USCIS offices. Additionally you can download them for free from the government website or place an order, with the USCIS, either through phone or mail.

 

Note that there is no fee for getting a USCIS form, but there is a specific fee for filing it. The current filing fee for N-400 is $680 ($85 is for biometrics), which needs to be sent in along with your citizenship application. This fee is absolutely not refundable even if your application gets rejected. So make sure that you read all the instructions that are provided, over and over again, so you avoid any possible chances of the application getting rejected.