How to Become a U.S. Citizen in 2026: Attorney's Guide

Updated May 2026 — reflects the FY 2025 USCIS naturalization landscape, the April 2024 USCIS final fee rule, and the 2008 civics test status as of.

If you've held your green card for five years — or three years if you're married to a U.S. citizen — you've earned the right to become a U.S. citizen. The naturalization process is winnable. But the questions that send most applicants to Google at 9pm aren't the ones USCIS answers on its website: Will my 2009 misdemeanor sink the application? I never registered for Selective Service — am I done? Is the citizenship test still 100 questions? Do I even need a lawyer for this?

We wrote this guide for the person asking those questions. Novo Legal Group is a Denver- and Seattle-based immigration and civil rights law firm. We file N-400s, we run good-moral-character analyses on tough records, and we tell people when they don't need to hire us. Below is what we tell clients about how naturalization actually works in 2025 — what's changed, what hasn't, and where the real risk lies.

Talk to a Novo Legal Naturalization Attorney   or call (888) 746-5245 — bilingual intake.

1. What "Becoming a U.S. Citizen" Actually Means (and What It Doesn't)

There are three paths to U.S. citizenship, and only one is a process you "apply" for in the way most people picture:

• Birth in the United States or its territories. The Fourteenth Amendment makes you a citizen the moment you're born on U.S. soil, with narrow exceptions for children of accredited diplomats.
• Acquisition or derivation through a U.S. citizen parent. Children born abroad to one or two U.S. citizen parents may already be U.S. citizens by operation of law — sometimes without ever filing a form. Acquisition rules turn on the parent's status at the time of birth; derivation rules apply when a parent naturalizes while the child is still a minor lawful permanent resident. If you suspect you may already be a citizen through a parent, talk to an immigration attorney before filing an N-400 — you may need a Form N-600 (certificate of citizenship) instead.
• Naturalization. The administrative process by which a lawful permanent resident applies for citizenship by filing Form N-400 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. This article covers naturalization.

The rest of this guide assumes you're a lawful permanent resident pursuing naturalization. If any other path applies to you — or if you're not sure — that's a conversation to have with counsel before you start filling out forms.

2. Are You Eligible? The Five-Year (or Three-Year) Math

Naturalization eligibility is set by statute — primarily INA § 316 (8 U.S.C. § 1427) for the standard path and INA § 319(a) (8 U.S.C. § 1430) for the U.S.-citizen-spouse path. There are five prongs, and you have to clear all of them.

Prong 1: Lawful permanent resident status for the required period

• Standard path: LPR for at least five years before filing.
• USC-spouse path: LPR for at least three years before filing, with marriage to and living in marital union with the same U.S. citizen for the full three years (and the spouse must have been a U.S. citizen the whole time). The VAWA carve-out at INA § 319(a) preserves this abbreviated path for battered spouses whose marriage has ended in divorce or separation tied to abuse.
• Early-filing window: You may file the N-400 up to 90 days before hitting the five- or three-year mark. File earlier and USCIS will reject the application.

Prong 2: Continuous residence

This is the prong that trips up frequent travelers. The regulation that governs the math is 8 CFR § 316.5:

• An absence of 6 months to 1 year creates a rebuttable presumption that you broke continuous residence. You can rebut by showing you didn't terminate U.S. employment, your immediate family stayed in the U.S., you kept your U.S. home, and you didn't take foreign employment.
• An absence of more than 1 year breaks continuous residence — period — unless you filed Form N-470 before you left and got it approved.
• If you do break continuous residence, you generally have to wait 4 years and 1 day from the date you returned to refile on the 5-year path (or 2 years and 1 day on the 3-year USC-spouse path) before USCIS will even consider you eligible again.

If you've been outside the United States for more than six months on any single trip in the last five years, run the math with an attorney before you file.

Prong 3: Physical presence

You must have been physically present in the United States for at least half of the required residency period — 30 months on the 5-year path, 18 months on the 3-year USC-spouse path. This is a literal day count: total your absences and subtract from the days you've been an LPR.

Prong 4: State or USCIS-district residence

You must have lived in the state or USCIS district where you're filing for at least three months before you file.

Prong 5: Good moral character, English/civics, and attachment to the Constitution

The substantive prongs: Good Moral Character during the 5- or 3-year lookback (see §6 below), English proficiency and civics knowledge (see §5), and a willingness to take the Oath of Allegiance and support the Constitution. The Oath is administered at the end of the process; everything else is litigated at the interview.

3. The Form N-400 in 2026: Fees, Online Filing, What Changed

The biggest 2024 change to the N-400 was financial. On April 1, 2024, USCIS implemented a new fee rule (89 Fed. Reg. 6194) that rebuilt the entire fee schedule. These figures are accurate as of the "Updated" stamp above. USCIS fees are set by rulemaking, and they have historically updated every two to four years. Always confirm current fees at uscis.gov/n-400 before you file.

Current N-400 filing fees (post-April 2024 rule)

• Paper filing:
• Online filing:
• Reduced fee for applicants with household income at 150%–400% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (Form I-942 partial-waiver pathway):
• Full fee waiver (Form I-912) for applicants at ≤150% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, receiving means-tested public benefits, or experiencing extreme financial hardship: $0
• Biometrics fee: bundled into the N-400 filing fee as of April 1, 2024 — there is no separate $85 biometrics fee for N-400 applicants anymore
• Military naturalization under INA § 329: no filing fee (statutory waiver, 8 U.S.C. § 1440).

Online filing

Most N-400 applicants can file online through a myUSCIS account. Online filing gives you the $50 discount, lets you upload supporting documents directly, and provides automated case status. Paper filing remains available for everyone and is required in certain narrow situations (some fee-waiver applicants, applicants outside the United States, applicants invoking certain military provisions). Always download the current edition of Form N-400 from uscis.gov/n-400 — USCIS rejects outdated editions, and the form has been revised multiple times since the April 2024 rule.

What you actually need in the packet

• Form N-400, current edition
• The filing fee (or Form I-912 fee-waiver request, or Form I-942 reduced-fee request)
• A copy of both sides of your green card (Form I-551)
• Supporting evidence keyed to your eligibility theory: marriage certificate and spouse's USC evidence for the 3-year path; military service records for INA § 328 or § 329 filers; Selective Service Status Information Letter if relevant (see §7); court dispositions for any arrests or charges (see §6)
• Two passport-style photos only if you live outside the U.S. and are filing on paper — domestic paper filers and all online filers no longer need to mail photos because USCIS captures the photo at the biometrics appointment

Get Your N-400 Packet Reviewed Before You File   (888) 746-5245

4. The Biometrics Appointment — and the Reuse / Waiver Pathways

After USCIS accepts your N-400, you'll typically receive an appointment notice for biometrics — fingerprints and a photo, taken at an Application Support Center. USCIS uses the prints to run a background check against FBI and DHS databases. The appointment itself takes 15–30 minutes.

Biometrics reuse

USCIS may reuse biometrics it previously captured from you on a prior immigration filing (commonly the I-485 adjustment of status). If your prints are already on file and valid, you may not receive a biometrics appointment notice at all — you'll proceed directly to interview scheduling. Not receiving a biometrics notice does not mean something is wrong with your case.

Fee waivers and reduced fees

Two pathways reduce or eliminate the N-400 filing fee:

• Form I-912 (full fee waiver — $0 N-400). Available to applicants whose household income is at or below 150% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, who receive means-tested public benefits (Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, SSI, and similar programs), or who can document extreme financial hardship. The I-912 must be filed with the N-400, not after.
• Form I-942 (reduced fee — partial waiver). Available to applicants whose household income falls between 150% and 400% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines and who don't qualify for the full waiver.

If you're eligible for either pathway, file it with the N-400 packet. USCIS will reject a fee-short filing, and refiling burns months on the calendar.

5. The Civics + English Tests in 2026: What's Actually on Them

If you've Googled "civics test 2025," you've probably seen contradictory information. Here's what's true as of this update.

The civics test is the 2008 version

The 2008 civics test (100-question pool, 10 asked at the interview, 6 correct to pass) is the active version for all N-400 applicants.

In December 2020, USCIS rolled out a redesigned 128-question test that briefly applied to applicants who filed on or after December 1, 2020. The Biden administration rescinded the redesign in February 2021, and the 2008 test has been the active version ever since. USCIS has discussed potential future redesigns, but as of this update, no replacement has been announced or scheduled.

The English test

The English requirement has three components, evaluated by the USCIS officer at the interview:

• Speaking: assessed throughout the interview based on your answers to the officer's questions about your application.
• Reading: you must read 1 of 3 sentences correctly.
• Writing: you must write 1 of 3 sentences correctly (the officer dictates).

Vocabulary on the reading and writing portions is drawn from civics topics — USCIS publishes the official word lists at uscis.gov/citizenship.

Age-based exemptions (INA § 312 / 8 U.S.C. § 1423)

• 50/20 rule: If you're 50 or older and have been an LPR for 20 or more years, you're exempt from the English requirement. You still take the civics test, but you can take it in your native language with an interpreter.
• 55/15 rule: If you're 55 or older and have been an LPR for 15 or more years, same exemption — English exempt, civics in your native language.
• 65/20 special consideration: If you're 65 or older and have been an LPR for 20 or more years, you take a modified civics test drawn from a designated 20-question subset (marked with asterisks on the official 100-question list); you must answer 6 of 10 correctly. You're also exempt from English.

Medical disability waiver (Form N-648)

If you have a physical or developmental disability or mental impairment that prevents you from learning English or civics, a licensed medical professional can complete Form N-648 in support of a waiver. The form is detailed and the medical bar is real — USCIS rejects N-648s that are conclusory or that don't tie the diagnosis to the specific functional limitation. If you're considering the medical waiver, talk to counsel before the medical appointment.

6. Good Moral Character: The Five-Year (or Three-Year) Lookback

This is the section that keeps people up at night, and it should. Good Moral Character (GMC) is the discretionary standard USCIS uses to decide whether your conduct during the statutory lookback period — and sometimes before — disqualifies you from naturalizing. The statute is INA § 101(f) (8 U.S.C. § 1101(f)), implemented at 8 CFR § 316.10, and interpreted in the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12, Part F.

The permanent bars

Two convictions create a permanent GMC bar — meaning USCIS can never find GMC, no matter how long ago the conduct was:

• Murder (any time).
• An aggravated felony conviction as defined in INA § 101(a)(43), entered on or after November 29, 1990 (post-IIRIRA). The aggravated-felony category is broader than most people assume — it covers many state-court felonies and even some misdemeanors depending on the sentence. If you have any felony conviction or any conviction with a sentence of one year or more (suspended or imposed), read our guide to aggravated felony immigration consequences and talk to counsel before you file the N-400.

The conditional bars (lookback-period)

The statute enumerates several categories of conduct that bar GMC if they occurred during the 5-year (or 3-year) lookback (paragraph (2) was repealed in 1981):

1. Habitual drunkard during the lookback period.
2. Conviction of (or admission to the elements of) a crime of moral turpitude (CIMT) or a controlled-substance offense during the lookback (other than a single offense of simple possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana — though even that is fact-specific given federal vs. state law tension); also reaches multiple criminal convictions with aggregate sentences of five years or more, prostitution-related conduct, and certain smuggling offenses described in INA § 212(a)(2)(D), (6)(E), and (10)(A).
3. Income derived principally from illegal gambling during the lookback.
4. Two or more gambling-offense convictions during the lookback.
5. False testimony given for the purpose of obtaining an immigration benefit during the lookback.
6. Confinement in a penal institution as a result of conviction for an aggregate of 180 or more days during the lookback — and the statute reaches that confinement even if the underlying offense was committed outside the lookback window.

Two more bars apply to conduct at any time, not just during the lookback:

• Aggravated felony conviction as defined in INA § 101(a)(43), entered on or after November 29, 1990 — a permanent bar to GMC (treated above).
• Conduct described in INA § 212(a)(3)(E) (Nazi persecution, genocide, torture, or extrajudicial killings) and § 212(a)(2)(G) (severe violations of religious freedom by foreign officials) — also permanent bars.

The catch-all

INA § 101(f) ends with a sentence that does most of the actual work: "The fact that any person is not within any of the foregoing classes shall not preclude a finding that for other reasons such person is or was not of good moral character." That clause is how USCIS officers reach unpaid child support, unfiled or late tax returns, unpaid taxes, recent DUIs, recent arrests that didn't result in conviction, late Selective Service registration, adultery in some older cases, and a long tail of other discretionary factors.

What this means in practice

An arrest without conviction — even one dismissed or expunged years ago — can still trigger a discretionary GMC challenge at the interview. So can a deferred-judgment plea, a juvenile adjudication, an unpaid IRS balance, an unfiled return, a late or missing Selective Service registration, or unpaid court-ordered child support. The Attorney General's 2019 precedent decision Matter of Castillo-Perez, 27 I&N Dec. 664 (A.G. 2019), held that two DUIs within the lookback create a rebuttable presumption against GMC — and that's just one example of how a record that feels minor can become an N-400 problem.

The honest rule: if you have any arrest, charge, conviction, dismissed case, deferred-judgment plea, expungement, juvenile adjudication, traffic ticket involving a substance, IRS issue, unpaid child support, or Selective Service gap within the relevant lookback — and often before it — get a GMC analysis from an immigration attorney before you file the N-400. USCIS officers see the FBI background check; they will see anything in the record, even if the disposition was favorable. The Application asks; you have to answer truthfully.

Concerned About Your Record? Let's Run the GMC Analysis Before You File   (888) 746-5245

7. The Selective Service Question (For Male Applicants Born After 1959)

This is the question that nobody warns you about until it shows up on the N-400.

Federal law requires almost all male U.S. citizens and male immigrants — including lawful permanent residents and undocumented people — who lived in the United States between the ages of 18 and 25 to register with the Selective Service System. Selective Service does not accept registrations after age 26.

If you're a male applicant whose 18-to-26 window included any period of U.S. residence (in any status), and you didn't register, USCIS will see it. The question is whether it kills your N-400.

The framework

• If you're now under 26: register at sss.gov right now, before you file the N-400. That solves it.
• If you're 26–30: you can't register anymore, but you can request a Status Information Letter (SIL) from sss.gov documenting that registration is no longer possible. File the SIL with your N-400 along with a sworn statement explaining why you didn't register. USCIS generally accepts the SIL plus a credible explanation as resolving the issue, particularly if your failure to register wasn't knowing and willful.
• If you're 31 or older: the failure to register typically falls outside the 5-year GMC lookback, which is the more favorable posture — the statutory bars only reach conduct within the lookback. But USCIS can still consider pre-lookback conduct under the catch-all clause. The framework most counsel use is that a non-registration that was not knowing and willful, documented by the SIL plus a credible sworn statement, is usually resolvable. A non-registration that was knowing and willful is a harder fact pattern.

What "knowing and willful" actually means

USCIS asks whether you knew about the Selective Service registration requirement during the 18–26 window and chose not to register. Many LPRs and undocumented applicants didn't know — the rule isn't well-publicized to non-citizens, and there's a colorable argument that a non-citizen who didn't grow up in the U.S. educational system reasonably didn't know. That argument has to be made in writing, on the record, and consistent with everything else in your file. Don't make it pro se if there's any complexity.

Selective Service can be reached at 1-888-655-1825 or at sss.gov/verify/.

8. The Interview, the Oath, and What Comes Next

If your N-400 packet clears USCIS's initial review, you'll be scheduled for a naturalization interview at the field office that has jurisdiction over your residence. Current processing times run roughly, varying significantly by office.

What happens at the interview

1. Oath at the start of the interview. The officer places you under oath. Everything you say after this is testimony.
2. Document review and identity verification. Bring your green card, your interview notice, your passport(s), and originals of anything you submitted in copy.
3. Application review. The officer walks through the N-400 question by question. They are looking for discrepancies between what you wrote and what you say in person, and for issues you may not have flagged on the form. Be straightforward.
4. Civics test. 10 questions from the 100-question pool; 6 correct to pass.
5. English test. Read 1 of 3 sentences correctly; write 1 of 3 sentences correctly. (Speaking has been assessed throughout the interview already.)

Three possible outcomes

• Granted. The officer recommends approval. You'll receive Form N-652 ("Notice of Examination Results") indicating approval and either a same-day Oath ceremony or a scheduled Oath ceremony — typically 2 to 4 weeks later, varying by office.
• Continued. The officer wants more information or another interview — most commonly a second interview to retake the civics or English test (you get one retake) or a request for additional documents.
• Denied. The officer recommends denial, with a written explanation. See §9 below for what to do next.

The Oath of Allegiance

The Oath ceremony is administrative but emotionally weighty. You renounce prior allegiances, swear to support and defend the Constitution, and receive your Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550). The certificate is your proof of citizenship — guard it as you would a passport.

What to do the day after the Oath

• Apply for a U.S. passport. Form DS-11, filed at an acceptance facility (post office, library, or passport agency) with your Certificate of Naturalization as evidence.
• Update your Social Security record. Bring your Certificate of Naturalization to your local SSA office to update your citizenship status — this matters for employment verification and many federal benefits.
• Register to vote. Federal elections are open to all citizens; state and local registration deadlines vary.

9. Common Reasons N-400s Get Denied (and How to Pre-empt Them)

USCIS doesn't publish granular denial statistics by reason, but practitioners see the same patterns over and over. None of what follows is a guarantee; outcomes always depend on your specific facts and the officer.

• Failed civics or English test. Rarely fatal — you get one retake, scheduled within 60–90 days of the first interview. Two failures within the same N-400 results in denial; you can refile.
• GMC issue surfaced at the interview. Either the officer reaches a different GMC conclusion than you did, or you weren't fully forthcoming on the N-400 about an arrest or other adverse fact. Pre-empt by getting a GMC analysis before you file.
• Continuous residence math wrong. An absence of more than 6 months, especially if more than 1 year, that you didn't disclose or didn't rebut effectively. Pre-empt by running the math honestly and, if a 6-month+ absence is in your record, addressing it head-on in the N-400 packet.
• Abandonment of LPR status. An absence so long that USCIS finds you abandoned your green card — sometimes asserted at the N-400 interview, even though it's technically a different determination. This can result in not only a denied N-400 but a Notice to Appear (NTA) in removal proceedings.
• Unpaid child support or unfiled/unpaid taxes. Catch-all GMC denials. Pre-empt by getting current before you file, and documenting payment plans where current isn't possible.
• Selective Service gap (male applicants). See §7 above. Pre-empt by requesting the SIL and submitting a sworn statement with the N-400 — don't wait for the officer to bring it up.
• Prior immigration fraud, misrepresentation, or unauthorized work. Material misrepresentation in any prior immigration filing — including the original green-card application — can sink the N-400 and, in some cases, trigger removal proceedings.

If your N-400 is denied, you have procedural tools

A denial is not the end of the road. Three statutory levers apply:

• Form N-336 hearing. Under INA § 336(a) (8 U.S.C. § 1447(a)), you have the right to a hearing before a different USCIS immigration officer to review a denial. The filing deadline is 30 days from receipt of the denial notice (8 CFR § 336.2). The current N-336 filing fee is. Miss the 30-day window and the denial becomes administratively final.
• INA § 336(b) (8 U.S.C. § 1447(b)) federal-court relief for processing delays. If USCIS fails to decide your N-400 within 120 days of the interview, you may petition the U.S. District Court in your district for direct judicial review — the court can either decide the application itself or remand to USCIS with instructions. This is a powerful tool for cases that have stalled inexplicably after the interview.
• De novo district-court review after final N-336 denial. Under INA § 310(c) (8 U.S.C. § 1421(c)), an applicant whose N-336 hearing also results in denial may petition the federal district court for de novo review.

All three are attorney-handled. None should be approached pro se unless you have a strong reason.

10. When You Need an Attorney (and When You Don't)

We are an immigration law firm. We make our money when people hire us. So take the honest framing below at face value:

You can probably file pro se if all of this is true:

• You're cleanly eligible on residency and physical-presence math (no absences over 6 months in the lookback).
• You have no arrest history of any kind — no convictions, no dismissed cases, no deferred judgments, no juvenile adjudications, no traffic tickets involving substances.
• You have no Selective Service gap (or you registered on time).
• Your taxes are current, you have no IRS issues, and you have no unpaid child support.
• You've never been in removal proceedings.
• You've never been denied any immigration benefit and you've never used a different name on a prior immigration filing.
• If you got your green card through marriage, the marriage is still intact (or, if it ended, it ended cleanly after the I-751 was approved).
• You have no complicated employment history involving any period of unauthorized work.

If all of that is true, USCIS provides the form, the instructions, and the civics study materials for free at uscis.gov/n-400 and uscis.gov/citizenship. You can do this yourself.

Talk to an attorney before you file if any of this is true:

• Any criminal record, in any state, even if dismissed, expunged, sealed, deferred, or characterized as juvenile. Especially if it involved a controlled substance, a CIMT, an aggravated-felony-eligible statute, a DUI, or a sentence of one year or more.
• Absences from the U.S. of 6 months or more in the relevant period — or any single absence over a year.
• Any prior immigration enforcement contact, including an old Notice to Appear, an administratively-closed proceeding, or a terminated removal case. If you've had an immigration case that was administratively closed or terminated — or you're an LPR who once obtained Cancellation of Removal under INA § 240A(b) — your N-400 will face heightened scrutiny on the prior record. This is squarely our deportation-defense practice.
• Any prior denial of any immigration benefit, by USCIS or DOS, at any time.
• A Selective Service gap and you're now 26 or older.
• Tax issues — unfiled returns, unpaid balances, or a payment plan in default.
• Unpaid court-ordered child support or unpaid alimony.
• A green card obtained through a marriage that ended in divorce, separation, or annulment.
• Any use of a different name or different date of birth on any prior immigration filing.
• Any period of unauthorized work after entering the U.S. as a non-immigrant.
• You think you may already be a U.S. citizen through a parent — don't file an N-400 until you've checked.

11. What Novo Legal Does Differently in Naturalization Cases

Most N-400s are clean. The ones that aren't tend to sit at the intersection of immigration and criminal law — and that's the intersection we built the firm on. Aaron Elinoff founded Novo Legal Group with a removal-defense and crimmigration practice as the spine; the naturalization work grew out of running good-moral-character analyses for clients whose criminal records would have ended other firms' interest.

When you bring us a naturalization case, here is what we actually do:

• Pull every record. Court dispositions, FBI rap sheet, state-level criminal history, prior immigration file. We run the GMC analysis against what USCIS will see — not against what you remember.
• Run the continuous-residence math. Day-by-day, with passport stamps and entry records.
• Pre-empt issues in writing. If there's a Selective Service gap, an old arrest, or an absence that needs explaining, we put the explanation in the N-400 packet — sworn statement, documentation, and a legal memorandum where the issue is close enough to warrant one.
• Prepare you for the interview. Not just the civics test — the testimony. The officer is going to ask, in oath, about things on your record. You'll know what's coming and how to answer truthfully without volunteering harm.
• Show up. When permitted by the field office, an attorney attends the interview. We make objections on the record where appropriate and request hearings under § 1447(b) when USCIS sits on a case past the 120-day mark.
• Crimmigration competence. If your file has any criminal-immigration crossover — a CIMT, a controlled-substance case, an aggravated-felony issue — we run that analysis with full doctrinal command. That's our immigration practice's core competency.

Schedule a Naturalization Consultation   or call (888) 746-5245. Our intake line is bilingual.

12. Frequently Asked Questions

By Aaron Elinoff, Managing Partner, Novo Legal Group. Colorado Bar #46468.