How to Get US Citizenship Through Naturalization

To get U.S. citizenship through naturalization, you file Form N-400 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services after holding a green card for the required number of years, then pass an interview and civics test and take the Oath of Allegiance. Most applicants qualify after five years as a lawful permanent resident; spouses of U.S. citizens and members of the military follow shorter paths. Filing costs $710 online or $760 by paper, with reduced fees and full waivers available for lower incomes.

Who Qualifies

You need to be at least 18 when you file and to have held a green card for five years of continuous residence in the United States.¹ Within those five years, you must have been physically present in the country for at least 30 months, and you need to have lived in the state or USCIS district where you file for at least three months before submitting.²

You also have to read, write, and speak basic English and know the fundamentals of U.S. history and government.³ USCIS will assess your “good moral character,” which centers on your criminal record, tax history, and certain other legal obligations.

You don’t have to wait until the five-year mark to file. USCIS accepts N-400 applications up to 90 calendar days before you first satisfy the residency requirement.⁴ You still won’t be naturalized until the full five years are up, but early filing gets you into the queue.

Shorter Paths for Spouses and Military Members

If you’re married to a U.S. citizen and have been living together for the past three years, you qualify after three years of permanent residence instead of five, with 18 months of physical presence instead of 30.⁵ Your spouse must have held citizenship the entire three years, and you need to still be married and living together when USCIS examines your case.

Military service offers the most generous terms. If you served honorably during a designated period of hostilities (which covers any service since September 11, 2001), the continuous residence and physical presence requirements are waived entirely, there’s no age minimum, and there’s no filing fee.⁶ Peacetime service requires one year of qualifying service.⁷ Even on these expedited paths, you still have to pass the English and civics tests and show good moral character for at least one year before filing.

How Travel Abroad Affects Your Eligibility

Trips outside the United States are where many applications stumble. Any single absence of more than six months but less than a year creates a legal presumption that you broke your continuous residence.⁸ You can rebut it with evidence that you kept your U.S. life intact: an ongoing U.S. job, immediate family still here, a lease or mortgage that continued.

An absence of one year or more breaks continuous residence outright, and the clock generally has to restart. The safest approach is to keep individual trips well under six months. The N-400 asks you to list every trip outside the country since you became a permanent resident, with exact departure and return dates, so pull out your passport and put together a travel log before you start the form.

Good Moral Character, Crimes, Taxes, and Selective Service

USCIS evaluates your character over the statutory period before you file: five years for most applicants, three for spouses of citizens. Some convictions create a permanent bar. Anyone convicted of an “aggravated felony” under immigration law on or after November 29, 1990 can never establish good moral character for naturalization.⁹ The category is broad: murder, drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, fraud involving more than $10,000, money laundering, and many theft or violence offenses carrying a sentence of at least one year.

Other offenses create temporary bars within the statutory period. Any conviction with a sentence of 180 days or more, most drug offenses (with a narrow exception for a single incident involving 30 grams or less of marijuana), and crimes involving dishonesty all fall here. Conduct that never produced a conviction can still raise concerns if USCIS finds out about it.

Taxes matter more than applicants often realize. USCIS expects every required return to have been filed during the statutory period. A 2025 USCIS policy memorandum treats “compliance with tax obligations and financial responsibility” as a positive factor and lists “full payment of overdue taxes” as evidence of rehabilitation.¹⁰ If you owe back taxes, paying them off before you file is the safest course; a payment plan alone may not be enough under current guidance.

Selective Service Registration

Men who lived in the United States between ages 18 and 26 were required to register with the Selective Service System.¹¹ It applies to citizens, green card holders, refugees, and most male immigrants in long-term status. Nonimmigrants on valid temporary visas (student, work, or visitor) are exempt. If you didn’t register, the effect on your naturalization depends on where you are now:

Under 26: register now, then file. USCIS generally won’t hold the delay against you.
26 to 31: you can no longer register, and the failure falls inside the five-year character window. You’ll need to show the failure wasn’t willful. Request a Status Information Letter from Selective Service and include it with your application.
31 or older: the failure sits outside the five-year window and usually won’t block you, but be ready to explain at the interview.

Filing the N-400

Form N-400 is available for download or through a USCIS online account. You’ll provide your Social Security number, every residential address for the past five years, and a detailed employment history with dates (account for any gaps).¹² The form also asks for exact dates of every trip abroad since you became a permanent resident.

Every applicant submits a photocopy of both sides of their green card.¹³ Tax return transcripts for the past five years help demonstrate financial responsibility. If you’re applying based on marriage, include your marriage certificate and, where relevant, divorce decrees or death certificates showing any prior marriages ended. You can request a legal name change on the form.

The filing fee is $710 online or $760 on paper, with no separate biometrics charge, and it’s free for military applicants.¹⁴ A reduced fee of $380 is available if your household income is below 400% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.¹⁵ A full waiver on Form I-912 is available if you receive a means-tested benefit, your income is at or below 150% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, or you can show extreme financial hardship.¹⁶ For 2026, the 150% threshold for a single-person household in the continental United States is $23,940.¹⁷

You can file online or mail a paper application to the designated USCIS Lockbox. Online filing lets you track status and message USCIS directly. Once payment clears, you’ll receive a receipt notice (Form I-797C) with your case number.

Biometrics and the Interview

Shortly after filing, USCIS schedules a biometrics appointment at a local Application Support Center, where staff take your fingerprints, photograph, and signature for background checks. If anything comes up in those checks, USCIS will address it before or during your interview.

The interview itself is where the case is decided. A USCIS officer walks through your N-400 with you, asking follow-up questions about your background, travel, employment, and character. The conversation also serves as an informal test of your spoken English. Be ready to explain anything that has changed since you filed and any discrepancies in your file.

At the same appointment, you take the English and civics tests. The English portion has you read one sentence aloud and write one from dictation, with up to three tries at each; minor spelling and punctuation errors are forgiven as long as the meaning is clear.¹⁸ For civics, the officer asks up to 10 questions from a published list of 100, and you need at least 6 correct.¹⁹ The officer stops once you hit 6 right or 5 wrong.

At the end, the officer hands you Form N-652 with a preliminary result: granted, continued, or denied.²⁰ “Continued” means the officer needs more documents or time to resolve an issue. If you fail the English or civics portion, USCIS schedules one retest 60 to 90 days later on just the part you failed.²¹

Test Exemptions and Disability Waivers

Older long-term residents can skip the English test and take civics in their native language, using an interpreter at the interview.²² Two exemptions apply:

50/20: age 50 or older at filing, with at least 20 years as a permanent resident.
55/15: age 55 or older at filing, with at least 15 years as a permanent resident.

Both are set in federal statute.²³ Applicants 65 or older with at least 20 years of permanent residence study from a shorter civics list.

If a physical disability, developmental disability, or mental impairment prevents you from learning English or civics, you can request a full waiver of those requirements on Form N-648. The condition must be diagnosed by a licensed medical doctor, doctor of osteopathy, or clinical psychologist and must have lasted or be expected to last at least 12 months.²⁴ Age or illiteracy alone don’t qualify. For disabilities that make testing harder but not impossible, you can request a reasonable accommodation (extra time, a separate room, a modified format) directly on the N-400 instead.

If Your Application Is Denied

A denial isn’t final. You have 30 days from the notice to file Form N-336, which triggers a fresh review by a different USCIS officer.²⁵ The window is strict.

If USCIS upholds the denial, you have 120 days from the final determination to petition for review in the U.S. District Court where you live.²⁶ At that point, working with an immigration attorney makes sense. If the problem is something fixable (a failed test, an incomplete residency period), you can simply refile a new N-400 with a new fee.

The Oath Ceremony

Once approved, the last step is the ceremony. Beforehand, you complete Form N-445, which asks whether anything has changed since your interview: new arrests, additional travel, marital status changes, or involvement with certain organizations.²⁷ A USCIS officer reviews your answers on the day. Bring documentation for any “yes.”

You swear to support and defend the Constitution and turn in your green card. Ceremonies are either administrative (run by USCIS) or judicial (conducted by a federal or state court judge). The difference matters if you want to change your legal name as part of naturalization: a judicial ceremony lets the presiding judge order the name change and issue court documentation on the spot.²⁸ After an administrative ceremony, a name change generally means a separate proceeding in local court.

After the oath, you receive your Certificate of Naturalization, which lists your name, USCIS registration number, and naturalization date. Keep it somewhere secure. With it in hand, you can apply for a U.S. passport, register to vote, and update your records with the Social Security Administration.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1427 – Requirements of Naturalization
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Continuous Residence and Physical Presence Requirements for Naturalization
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1423 – Requirements as to Understanding the English Language, History, Principles and Form of Government of the United States
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12, Part D, Chapter 6 – Jurisdiction, Place of Residence, and Early Filing
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1430 – Married Persons and Employees of Certain Nonprofit Organizations
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1440 – Naturalization Through Active-Duty Service in the Armed Forces During World War I, World War II, Korean Hostilities, Vietnam Hostilities, or Other Periods of Military Hostilities
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12, Part I, Chapter 3 – Military Service During Hostilities (INA 329)
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12, Part D, Chapter 3 – Continuous Residence
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12, Part F, Chapter 4 – Permanent Bars to Good Moral Character
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Memorandum – Restoring a Good Moral Character Evaluation Standard for Aliens Applying for Naturalization
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3802 – Registration
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form N-400 – Application for Naturalization
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. M-477 Document Checklist
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Fact Sheet – Form N-400 Application for Naturalization Filing Fees
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Additional Information on Filing a Reduced Fee Request
16
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1, Part B, Chapter 4 – Fee Waivers and Fee Exemptions
17
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Poverty Guidelines
18
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Scoring Guidelines for the U.S. Naturalization Test
19
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Civics (History and Government) Questions for the Naturalization Test
20
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12, Part B, Chapter 4 – Results of the Naturalization Examination
21
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Commonly Asked Questions About the Naturalization Process
22
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Exceptions and Accommodations
23
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1423 – Requirements as to Understanding the English Language, History, Principles and Form of Government of the United States
24
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12, Part E, Chapter 3 – Medical Disability Exception (Form N-648)
25
eCFR. 8 CFR Part 336 – Hearings on Denials of Applications for Naturalization
26
eCFR. 8 CFR 336.9 – Judicial Review of Denial Determinations on Applications for Naturalization
27
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Naturalization Ceremonies
28
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12, Part J, Chapter 6 – Judicial and Expedited Oath Ceremonies