Wikipedia articles on citizenship and naturalization, page 1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_nationality_law (abbreviated)
1. Article I, section 8, clause 4 of the United States Constitution expressly gives the United
States Congress the power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. The Immigration
and Naturalization Act sets forth the legal requirements for the acquisition of, and
divestiture from, citizenship of the United States. The requirements have become more
explicit since the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, with the
most recent changes to the statutory law having been made by the United States Congress
in 2001.
Acquisition of citizenship
2. There are various ways in which a person can acquire United States citizenship, either at
birth or later on in life.
Birth within the United States
3. The Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled on whether children born in the United States
to illegal immigrant parents are entitled to birthright citizenship via the 14th
Amendment,[2] although it has generally been assumed that they are.[3] A birth certificate
issued by a U.S. state or territorial government is evidence of citizenship, and is usually
accepted as proof of citizenship. This differs from most western nations[citation needed];
countries of the European Union which awarded citizenship to children born there (such as
Ireland until 31st December 2005) closed this possibility.
4. In most cases, one is a U.S. citizen if both of the following are true:
Both parents were U.S. citizens at the time of the child's birth
At least one parent lived in the United States prior to the child's birth.
Through birth abroad to one United States citizen
5. For persons born on or after November 14, 1986, a person is a U.S. citizen if all of the
following are true:[4]
One of the person's parents was a U.S. citizen when the person in question was born;
The citizen parent lived at least 5 years in the United States before his or her child's
birth;
A minimum of 2 of these 5 years in the United States were after the citizen parent's
14th birthday.
Naturalization
6. A person who was not born a U.S. citizen may acquire U.S. citizenship through a process
known as naturalization.
Wikipedia articles on citizenship and naturalization, page 2
Eligibility for naturalization
7. To become a naturalized United States citizen, one must be at least eighteen years of age at
the time of filing, a legal permanent resident of the United States, and have had a status of a
legal permanent resident in the United States for five years less 90 days before they apply
(this requirement is reduced to three years less 90 days if they (a) acquired legal permanent
resident status, (b) have been married to and living with a citizen for the past three years
and (c) the spouse has been a U.S. citizen for at least three years prior to the applicant
applying for naturalization.) They must have been physically present for at least 30 months
of 60 months prior to the date of filing their application. Also during those 60 months if the
legal permanent resident was outside of the U.S. for a continuous period of 6 months or
more they are disqualified from naturalizing (certain exceptions apply for those continuous
periods of six months to 1 year). They must be a "person of good moral character", and
must pass a test on United States history and government.[5][6] Most applicants must also
have a working knowledge of the English language.[5] There are exceptions, introduced in
1990, for long-resident older applicants and those with mental or physical disabilities.[7][8]
This requirement for an ability to read, write, and speak English is not regarded as too
difficult, since the test requires that applicants read and write in English.
Citizenship test
8. Applicants for citizenship are asked ten questions, and must answer at least six correctly.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has published a list of 96 sample questions
(with answers), from which the questions asked are normally drawn. The full list of
questions can be found in the "A Guide to Naturalization" which is available for free from
the USCIS.[9]
9. There is a new naturalization test that is being utilized for all N-400 applications filed on or
after October 1, 2008.[10] If the applicant filed the N-400 application before October 1,
2008 then the applicant may choose to take the new test or the old test. The new test
examines the applicant's knowledge of American society and the English language. Sample
questions and answers are published by the USCIS in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog,
and Vietnamese.[11]
10. Besides passing the citizenship test: citizenship applicants must also satisfy other specific
requirements of naturalization to successfully obtain U.S. citizenship.[12]
Eligibility for public office
11. A person who becomes a U.S. citizen through naturalization is not considered a natural
born citizen. Consequently, naturalized U.S. citizens are not eligible to become President of
the United States or Vice President of the United States, which would ordinarily be the case
as established by the Presidential Succession Act. …
Expeditious naturalization of children
Wikipedia articles on citizenship and naturalization, page 3
12. Effective April 1, 1995, a child born outside the U.S. to a U.S. citizen parent, if not already
a citizen by birth because the parent does not meet the residency requirement (see above),
may qualify for expeditious naturalization based on the physical presence of the child's
grandparent in the U.S. In general the grandparent should have spent 5 years in the U.S., 2
years of which after the age of 14.
13. The process of naturalization, including the oath of allegiance, must be completed before
the child's 18th birthday. It is not necessary for the child to be admitted to the U.S. as a
lawful permanent resident.[13]
Dual citizenship
14. Based on the U.S. Department of State regulation on dual citizenship (7 FAM 1162), the
Supreme Court of the United States has stated that dual citizenship is a "status long
recognized in the law" and that "a person may have and exercise rights of nationality in two
countries and be subject to the responsibilities of both. The mere fact he asserts the rights
of one citizenship does not without more mean that he renounces the other," (Kawakita v.
U.S., 343 U.S. 717) (1952).
15. Although the U.S. Government does not endorse dual citizenship as a matter of policy, it
recognizes the existence of dual citizenship and completely tolerates the maintenance of
multiple citizenship by U.S. citizens. In the past, claims of other countries on dual-national
U.S. citizens sometimes placed them in situations where their obligations to one country
were in conflict with the laws of the other. However, as fewer countries require military
service and most base other obligations, such as the payment of taxes, on residence and not
citizenship, these conflicts have become less frequent. As a result, there has been a
dramatic increase in recent years in the number of people who maintain U.S. citizenship in
other countries.
Nationals who are not citizens
16. Not all U.S. nationals are U.S. citizens; all U.S. citizens are U.S. nationals. The U.S.
passport bio-page shows one’s status as either a citizen or a non-citizen
national.[17][18][19] Noncitizen U.S. nationals may reside and work in the United States
without restrictions, and may apply for citizenship under the same rules as other resident
aliens.
17. All persons born in Hawaii on or after April 30,1900, are natural-born citizens of the
United States. Hawaii was declared U.S. State on August 21, 1959.
Loss of citizenship
18. As a historical matter, U.S. citizenship could be forfeited upon the undertaking of various
acts, including naturalization in a foreign state, service in foreign armed forces, and voting
in a foreign political election (with a few exceptions, such as municipal and local elections
as opposed to presidential and other national elections). However, a line of U.S. Supreme
Wikipedia articles on citizenship and naturalization, page 4
Court decisions beginning with Afroyim v. Rusk constitutionally limited the government's
capacity to terminate citizenship to those cases in which an individual engaged in conduct
with an intention of abandoning their citizenship. In the wake of administrative practice
changes adopted by the U.S. Department of State during the mid 1990s, it is now virtually
impossible to lose one's citizenship without expressly renouncing it before a U.S. consular
officer.[22]
19. It is also possible to forfeit U.S. citizenship upon conviction for an act of treason against
the United States.[22]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalization
20. Naturalization/Naturalisation is the acquisition of citizenship or nationality by somebody
who was not a citizen or national of that country when he or she was born.
21. In general, basic requirements for naturalization are that the applicant hold a legal status as
a full-time resident for a minimum period of time and that the applicant promise to obey
and uphold that country's laws, to which an oath or pledge of allegiance is sometimes
added. Some countries also require that a naturalized national must renounce any other
citizenship that they currently hold, forbidding dual citizenship, but whether this
renunciation actually causes loss of the person's original citizenship will again depend on
the laws of the countries involved.
22. Nationality is traditionally based either on jus soli ("right of the territory") or on jus
sanguinis ("right of blood"), although it now usually mixes both.
In the United States
23. In the United States of America, naturalization is mentioned in the Constitution.
24. Congress is given the power to prescribe a uniform rule of naturalization, which was
administered by state courts. There was some confusion about which courts could
naturalize; the final ruling was that it could be done by any "court of record having
common-law jurisdiction and a clerk (prothonotary) and seal."
25. There is an interesting loophole here in that the Constitution does not mandate race-neutral
naturalization. Until 1952, the Naturalization Acts written by Congress still allowed only
white persons to become naturalized as citizens (except for two years in the 1870s which
the Supreme Court declared to be a mistake).
26. An 1862 law allowed honorably discharged Army veterans of any war to petition for
naturalization, without having filed a declaration of intent, after only one year of residence
in the United States. An 1894 law extended the same privilege to honorably discharged 5year veterans of the Navy or Marine Corps. Over 192,000 aliens were naturalized between
May 9, 1918, and June 30, 1919, under an act of May 9, 1918. Laws enacted in 1919, 1926,
1940, and 1952 continued preferential treatment provisions for veterans.