Business Immigration Insights

As discussed in last week’s post, obtaining US citizenship is the ultimate goal for many foreign nationals in the US who often wait years for a green card and then wait a few more years to apply for citizenship through naturalization. But naturalization is not the only way to obtain citizenship. A major source of data on citizenship laws, GlobalCit’s Global Database on Modes of Acquisition of Citizenship available from the Global Citizenship Observatory has identified 30 different modes of acquisition of citizenship, 10 of which are available under US law through more than 15 different sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

 Obtaining US citizenship is the ultimate goal of many foreign nationals in the United States. Naturalization is US citizenship.  It provides security and an end to endless waiting and uncertainty. Or it used to be. The current administration has made denaturalizing individuals who obtained naturalization through fraud a priority. The scope of US Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) denaturalization efforts remains to be seen; however, with heightened scrutiny, including revising the citizenship test, it is important to remember the basics of naturalizing in the US to ensure the best outcome for individuals and employers.

On Tuesday, December 13th, 2016, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced the upcoming release of a new version of Form N-400, Application for Naturalization.  The new version, which will become available on December 22, 2016, must be used in all applications filed or postmarked on or after December 23, 2016.  USCIS will reject applications containing any earlier version of Form N-400 after that date.  We will provide an update as soon as the new form is available ...