US Citizenship Application Process (Naturalization)
If you live in the USA with a Green Card, you can become a US Citizen through Naturalization when the time comes.
If you are US military personnel, 1 year after your Green Card status
If you are married to a US Citizen 3 years after your Green Card status
If you have received a Green Card in other ways, after 5 years;
By completing the N-400 form, you can start your US citizenship process. Also, to start your Naturalization process:
You are at least 18 years old
You have a Green Card
You have passed at least 30 months of the last 5 years (or at least 18 months of 3 years) in the USA
You have stayed in the state where you applied for at least 3 months
is required.
US Citizenship Application Process
I am writing my US Citizenship Application Process to guide those after me:
Since I have lived in NY for the last 5 years, I will write the whole process according to the state of New York. To start the citizenship process, you need to fill in the N-400 form and send it to USCIS. Some states should ship to Texas, others to Arizona. You should decide where to send by looking at this page:
You can also find all the information about the process on this page.
You can submit (file) the N-400 90 days before the end of the 5th year, but if you send it 91 days ago, your application may be returned to you or your application may be canceled during the process. That's why you need to count 90 days well. You can not take any risk and send it 85 days ago.
1) Document delivery (July 8)
My 90 days were up in the beginning of June, but since I was not in a hurry, I sent the form only on the 8th of July and received 3 different mails within two weeks. I sent the check along with the form (if you are outside of the USA, you are sending two photos).
First of all, the form you need to fill in for citizenship is:
The explanations of the questions in the form are as follows:
Here is the list of documents you need to submit when making the first application:
You can find the current price to send on the N-400 line on the following page:
($ 640 as of now)
All 3 mails that came to me within 2 weeks are Form I-797C, Notice of Action document.
In the first document, he says that they received the form and check. The second document contains the information I need to open an account on the uscis site. The third document also contains information on appointments given to me for biometrics and fingerprint. I will not enter information about the online account here. As you know, the friends on the forum love to get stressed by asking questions like "my status still hasn't changed from X to Y, I wonder if there is a problem" 😊
2) Biometrics and Fingerprints (August 2)
I went to uscis office with the document (the document with the appointment place and time) and my green card sent to me today. (The document only states that I will not bring these two, it may be the same or different for you, so read the document) My appointment was at 10 o'clock and the document said it was forbidden to bring a mobile phone. But I brought in a cell phone, all they did was turn off all electronic devices (both at the entrance and inside). But they did not pick up the phone or refuse to get in. I entered the building at 10:41 am and finished all the work and left the building at 10:41. I didn't expect it to come out that fast 😊 Sure, the app or speed can be different in different places.
Inside they took the prints of the fingers one by one and collectively and took a photograph. Besides, civics gave M-638 to prepare for the test. You can find the M-638 here.
3) Appointment Notice (13 February)
I got my letter by post today and learned that the second appointment will be made on the morning of March 15th. In the letter, they say that I should not come to the appointment earlier than 30 minutes, and when I come with me, they say that I bring the water documents:
The letter itself
Green Card
Selective Service Registration card (for military service)
Passport
(If I am a citizen due to military or spouse status, relevant documents)
Apart from these, if there are documents that you sent along with the N400 form, you must bring their originals (documents regarding divorce, marriage, court, etc.).
4) Appointment (March 15)
Today I set out in the morning and was in front of the building 30 minutes ago (10:10). I went through the security and got to the relevant floor and immediately followed the arrows and entered the line.
They took my letter and my green card and asked me if there was someone representing me, if I had a translator or if I had a lawyer. When they said no to all of them, they did something on the computer and immediately gave them a number. (10:23)
At 10:54 am my row number was read and I headed to the relevant room. An officer picked me up at the door and guided me to his room. (I guess there were more than 20 rooms inside and someone else was interviewed in each room). Before sitting down, he took an oath with my standing hand up and asked me for the documents written above. Then we did the civic test (he asked by reading from his computer, I answered while I was in front of him), we did the reading and writing test (he had them read and printed in a sentence), and then we went over the form. He asked me all the questions and got the answers confirmed. (I would recommend that you review the whole form one day before, because he was reading some of the questions so quickly that if I had not looked at what was written last night, I might not have understood some of what was said). Somewhere in the form says "By any chance, do you have your birth certificate with you?" she asked. The birth certificate was not written in the letter I received, but I just had to take some extra official documents with me and the birth certificate was one of them. 2-3 weeks ago, I asked the notary department of the Turkish Consulate for the English registration of the population, and they gave this document for a transaction fee of about $ 10.
Apart from that, he asked for the driver's license at the very beginning, he said that I can get all the ID's, and he wanted to see him when he said the driver's license was with me. I don't know what would have happened if I didn't have my driver's license or birth certificate, there would probably be nothing.
He made a copy of the document I received from the consulate and returned the original to me and the interview continued. After reading the whole form, he had my tablet signed and then returned all the documents (gc, driver's license, passport, birth certificate, faq) to me. He gave me the report of the interview and said that I will give a positive recommendation for your application to be approved. Then I left the room and left the building around 11:25 am. The interview lasted approximately 20-25 minutes.
The interview was generally very comfortable and the person in charge never had a hard time for me.
5) Oath grandfather notification (8 May)
The letter about the place and time of today's oath torah has reached me.
It says that I should receive the letter and my Green Card and be at the address they said on June 2. Apart from that, marriage, divorce, court etc. If there are records, take them too, if you leave the USA, bring the documents about him in this period.
At the back of the letter, there are questions asked to fill in on the day of the oath (just to learn about the changes in your situation from the day of the interview to the day of the oath that I mentioned in the above sentence).
The day before the oath certificate, a USCIS employee called me on a secret number and told me to bring two passport-based photographs with me in the oath toe. I already took them out for passport application before, and I will take them with me.
6) Oath of Promise (June 2)
I just took my Green Card, letter and two photos and went to the oath certificate. According to the letter, the toren would start at 10 o'clock ... I was at the door at 9:30. I never waited, people had just begun to arrive. They called my upper back, took my phone and inserted it ... As soon as I entered, they checked whether the questions on the back of the letter were answered. They took the letter, checked the information on the naturalization document, then gave me a welcome package and told me to move on somewhere. The hall was for 400 people and all of the checks and waits I said took place in that hall. Since I was in their turn, the name ran out immediately, and then I took a seat with them and looked at the documents inside the package.
The package contains information on responsibilities after becoming a citizen, voting in elections and voting registration, as well as a DS-11 american passport application form.
But I had already downloaded the form online and filled in 2 pages, so I did not use this form.
When I finished examining the documents, everyone in the hall was also checked. Then the judge came in and made a welcome speech, and the whole toren lasted between 2 and 2.5 hours. At the end of the torus, the judge congratulated everyone and handed over his certificate to fresh citizens one by one.
When I went home, I photocopyed the naturalization certificate (because I have to send the original for passport application), and the next day, I took the certificate of naturalization, driver's license, photo, DS-11 form and photocopies of these personal documents and went to the post office (USPS) for passport application. For the details of the passport application, you can examine the following topic:
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