So, let's go into details about all of these various elements by which a person can apply to become a naturalized citizen. One is that you have to have been a lawful permanent resident for at least 5 years. However, if the way you got your lawful permanent residents or green card is through marriage to a US citizen. Not through an employment petition, not through an asylum petition, not by winning the lottery. But if the way you got your lawful permanent residents or green card is by marriage to a US citizen, you can apply to naturalized within 3 years, not 5 years of being a lawful permanent resident. To go on, so in order to apply to be a citizen, a naturalized citizen, first make sure that you're not yet a citizen, in fact you might be and you don't know it. So, you need to assess and make sure. So, for example were you born in the US, mind you have a birth certificate, so you don't even need to apply for citizenship. Because you are a citizen by virtue of the fact that you were born in the US. If you were born abroad, and one of your parents was a US citizen, they may have conferred US citizenship on you by virtue of blood passing to blood. The legal Latin terminology for this is jus Sanguinetti's. So again, some baseline criteria to apply for citizenship is make sure you're not yet a citizen and secondly, determine that you are eligible to apply because you are at least 18-years old. And again, you've been a lawful permanent resident for at least 5 years, or 3 years if the way you got residency is through marriage to a US citizen. And if you served in the military for at least 1 year during peace time, you need not wait 5 years. So then, if all these are met, you're now ready to prepare the immigration form, N-400 application for naturalization. Let me go on and talk a bit more about the 5 years. So again, in order to be a naturalized citizen, you have to have been a lawful permanent resident for at least 5 years prior to the filing of the form. And you need to have been in continuous residence in the United States before filing the form. However, there are some kinds of overseas employment which forced you to be outside of the US. For which you might be eligible for an exception to this continuous residency requirement. Some examples of an exception to the continuous residency requirement are; you work for the US Government as a lawful permanent resident. For example, you were in the military or you're a lawful permanent resident but you're a contractor with the US Government which sent you overseas. Or you're a lawful permanent resident but you work doing some research for a recognized American institution. Or you work for a public international organization as a lawful permanent resident of the US, for the United Nations for example. And so you need to confer with an immigration specialist or a non profit organization. If you want to become a US citizen, but you have not met the 5 year or 3 year continuous residency except requirements. There might be an exception if you work for the US Government or a contractor or research institution or the UN. So again, you're 18 years old, you're a lawful permanent resident for at least 5 years or 3 years. You have been living in the United States continuously for either 5 years or 3 years, and now you're ready to complete immigration form N-400. In addition to completing the form, you need to get your fingerprints and photographs ready to submit. The N-400 immigration form, N-400 is the application for naturalization, and this is where it all begins. The first few pages are bio data, what's your name, what's your address, where have you lived, where do you live, do you have any family members? And then the last section asks you questions such that if you answer yes, you might be ineligible for citizenship. Some of the questions deal with crime, morals, treason, politics. Again, it's important that you confer with an immigration specialist or a non profit organization to review the form in case you have any doubts. If none of these issues apply to you that you're not a member of the Communist Party, that you're not a former Nazi Persecutor, that you have not been convicted of a felony. Then maybe there's no need to go get legal counseling, but the N- 400 is where it all starts.
