Citizenship
Applying for a citizenship usually represents the final stage in a long process of immigrating to the United States. To take this final step the applicant must meet a few criteria. The applicant must be a green card holder for a certain period of time: if the foreign national obtained a green card through marriage then they can apply for citizenship after 3 years. If they obtained a green card by any other means then they can apply for citizenship after 5 years. There is also a residence requirement. For a green card holder, the United States must always be a foreign national’s permanent home.
For the application for naturalization, N-400 form immigration has two key requirements so that residency is not interrupted: no trips longer than 6 months and must have been physically present in the United States for half of the time. Meaning if applying for citizenship through a marriage based green card you must be physically present in the united states for 1 ½ years. For all other green cards, it is 2 ½ years.
Good Moral Character
A green card holder must have good moral character to become a naturalized citizen of the United States. The burden of proof is on the applicant to prove to immigration that they are a person of good moral character. The relevant time period for immigration, generally, is the 5 year period before the applicant filed for citizenship. However, certain conduct like being convicted of certain crimes will matter even if outside of the 5-year period.
Good moral character is not limited to criminal convictions. Immigration can interpret a variety of conduct as demonstrating a lack of good moral character. For instance, failing to provide information on a previous immigration application; answering questions incorrectly or failure to register for the selective service. Immigration can find a lack of good moral character and deny a citizenship application for all these reasons. If you believe your naturalization application might have a good moral character issue contact David M. Bercovitch today.
Test
On top of the statutory requirements just mentioned, to become a U.S. Citizen you must also pass 3 tests. A written and oral test of the English language and a civics test of United States history. The test is for a basic, not advanced, understanding of English. However, many foreign nationals struggle with the test all the same. In these instances, there are options to explore for either an easier test or none at all.
“The entire team at Bercovitch Law was indispensable in making sure my case had a strong foundation and achieved success.”
– D. Savage
David Bercovitch
Owner
David M. Bercovitch is a Philadelphia personal injury lawyer focusing on premises liability, motor vehicle accidents, construction accidents, dog bites, wrongful death and other personal injury claims. Mr. Bercovitch has successfully represented thousands (1,000) of accident victims. Collectively, Mr. Bercovitch has recovered millions of dollars for clients.
