I.
What It Means to Be a Citizen Who is a Citizen? • A citizen is a person with certain rights and duties under a government. Each of us is a citizen of the town, state, and nation in which we live. • You are legally a United States citizen if any of the following situations apply to you: 1) You were born in the US or one of its territories (even if your parents were not citizens); 2) At least one of your parents was a US citizen at the time you were born; 3) You have been naturalized, meaning you have gone through the legal process of becoming a citizen; 4) You were less than eighteen years of age when your parents were naturalized •
Before citizenship, if you are an immigrant to this country who is a citizen of another country you are legally considered an alien. As an alien, you have many of the same rights and duties of US citizens; however, you may not vote or hold political office. •
In order for a resident alien to become a citizen, there is a three-­‐step process: 1) Apply to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services; 2) Prove that you meet certain qualifications (18 years of age or older, legal resident in the US for at least 5 years, good moral character, loyalty to the principles of the US Constitution, ability to speak, read, and write English, and basic knowledge of US government and history); 3) Final hearing before a citizenship court, at which time an oath of loyalty to the United States is sworn and a certificate of citizenship is awarded. II.
• Naturalized citizens have all the rights and duties of native-­‐born citizens except one: they are not eligible to serve as President or Vice-­‐
President. The Office of Citizen • As an American citizen you hold a very important position of authority. You have the right to vote. Our elected representatives have the right to make laws, but only as long as we grant them that power. As citizens, we have the power to vote someone out of office if we are unhappy with the way they represent us in government. • As Abraham Lincoln described it, ours is a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”