How to Check Your Citizenship Status: Files, E-Verify, Certificates

There is no single tool that displays your U.S. citizenship status on demand, so how to check your citizenship status depends on what you actually need to see. USCIS offers different paths for tracking a pending application, confirming how your information appears in federal work-authorization databases, obtaining your immigration file, establishing a citizenship claim on the record, and replacing a lost certificate. Pick the path that matches your situation.

Track a Pending Application

If you have already filed for naturalization, a Certificate of Citizenship, or another immigration benefit, use the Case Status Online tool at uscis.gov. You will need the 13-character receipt number printed on your Form I-797 receipt notice: three letters followed by 10 digits.¹

A free USCIS online account at myaccount.uscis.gov gives you more. You can see the full case history, read most notices the agency sends, respond to requests for evidence, send secure messages, update your address, and reschedule biometrics. Cases filed on paper by mail can still be linked to the account.²

See How Federal Databases Show Your Work Authorization

If what you want is a look at how DHS and the Social Security Administration currently see you — the same records employers check at hire — use E-Verify Self Check. It is free, voluntary, and open to anyone in the United States age 18 or older.³

You log in through a USCIS online account and pass an identity authentication quiz drawn from credit-reporting and address records to prove you are the person whose data you’re asking about. Self Check then runs your name, Social Security number, date of birth, and related details against government databases and returns a result.⁴

A confirmation means a future E-Verify-participating employer entering the same information will likely get an instant match. A mismatch means your details don’t align with what DHS or SSA have on file. You aren’t required to do anything about a Self Check mismatch, but the tool tells you which agency to contact to correct your records.³ Self Check reflects what’s in the databases; it does not change your underlying citizenship or immigration status.

Get Your Full Immigration File

The Freedom of Information Act lets you request the government’s records about yourself, including your USCIS immigration history.⁵ When you request your own file, the Privacy Act also applies and generally gives broader access. If you don’t specify a statute, USCIS processes the request under both.

Requests go through the FOIA Immigration Records System (FIRST). Submit online through the FIRST portal or mail Form G-639; you’ll get a tracking number, and the responsive documents are delivered electronically through the portal.⁶

If someone else — an attorney, a family member — needs to request your records on your behalf, USCIS requires a written, signed, and notarized privacy release from you. Attorneys and accredited representatives must also have a Form G-28 on file.⁷

Establish Citizenship If You Were Born Abroad to a U.S. Citizen Parent

If you were born outside the United States to a U.S. citizen parent, or you became a citizen automatically before turning 18, you may already be a citizen — but nothing in the government’s files says so until you file Form N-600. If approved, N-600 puts your citizenship on the record and produces a Certificate of Citizenship as official proof.⁸

The law that governs your claim depends on when you were born or when the last qualifying condition was met. Generally, a U.S. citizen parent had to be physically present in the United States for a required period before your birth; the specifics vary by your year of birth and whether one or both parents were citizens. If you acquired citizenship after birth but before 18, you typically had to be a lawful permanent resident living in the legal and physical custody of your U.S. citizen parent.⁸

Two limits often catch people off guard. Stepchildren do not acquire citizenship through a stepparent unless they are formally adopted. And if your U.S. citizen father was not married to your mother, you’ll need documentation that he was legally recognized as your parent — legitimation, a sworn written acknowledgment of paternity, or a court order.⁸

Replace a Lost Certificate

If your naturalization certificate or Certificate of Citizenship is lost, stolen, or damaged, apply for a replacement on Form N-565, filed either online through a USCIS account or by mail. Filing online lets you pay the fee electronically, track the case, receive notifications, and respond to requests for evidence.⁹

Even if you file electronically, you still mail the original document (if you have it) to the Nebraska Service Center. Check the USCIS fee schedule (Form G-1055) for the current amount; fees were updated effective March 1, 2026. USCIS sends a receipt notice once your case is pending.⁹ You may be scheduled at an Application Support Center for biometrics.¹⁰

Urgent situations — a medical emergency, imminent humanitarian travel, a clear USCIS error — may qualify for expedited processing, which USCIS evaluates case by case.¹¹

While you wait, a U.S. passport works as official proof of citizenship in most situations. USCIS treats it as evidence during the replacement process.¹² The passport doesn’t have to be currently valid to serve as evidence, as long as it was originally issued without a limitation noted on it.¹³

Don’t Guess: The Cost of a False Claim

If you are not certain of your status, use the verification tools above rather than assuming. Claiming to be a U.S. citizen when you are not carries severe consequences under both immigration and criminal law. Anyone who falsely represents themselves as a citizen for any benefit under federal or state law is permanently inadmissible to the United States; someone already in the country can be deportable on the same ground.¹⁴

The law does not require that the false claim be intentional or knowing. There is generally no waiver, though a narrow exception exists for people who had U.S. citizen parents (by birth or adoption), permanently resided in the U.S. before age 16, and reasonably believed they were citizens when they made the claim.¹⁵ Under federal criminal law, willfully and falsely representing yourself as a U.S. citizen carries a fine, up to three years in prison, or both.¹⁶

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Checking Your Case Status Online
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Benefits of a USCIS Online Account
3
E-Verify. Self Check
4
E-Verify. myE-Verify
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 552 – Public Information; Agency Rules, Opinions, Orders, Records, and Proceedings
6
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. DHS/USCIS/PIA-077 FOIA Immigration Records System (FIRST)
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1, Part A, Chapter 7 – Privacy and Confidentiality
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form N-600, Instructions for Application for Certificate of Citizenship
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form N-565, Instructions for Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Expedite Requests
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. New U.S. Citizens
13
eCFR. 42 CFR 436.407 – Types of Acceptable Documentary Evidence of Citizenship
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 8, Part K, Chapter 2 – Determining False Claim to U.S. Citizenship
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 911 – Citizen of the United States