Significance

• By completing the naturalization process, a foreign-born person gains the status of U.S. citizen and the rights and responsibilities associated with citizenship.
  
  Citizens, both naturalized and native-born, have the right to vote, serve on juries, obtain a U.S. passport and participate in government programs, such as social security and Medicare. They can also obtain selected security clearances that make them eligible for jobs that otherwise would not be available to non-citizens.
  
  When traveling aboard, U.S. citizens can take advantage of services and protections offered by the U.S. embassy.
  
  U.S. citizenship grants college students eligibility for federal financial aid programs, such as grants and loans.
  
  Only U.S. citizens are eligible to join the military.
  
  

Features

• A permanent resident can apply for naturalized citizenship five years after receiving her green card. She must also be at least 18 years old, have resided for three months in the state where she is applying for citizenship, be physically present in the country for at least 30 months of the preceding five years, have been of good moral character while residing in the country, be able to read and write English at a level of at least elementary school and have a basic knowledge of the government and history of the United States.
  
  

Time Frame

• Permanent residents seeking citizenship must complete a naturalization application with the United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service. The application process includes an interview and tests on U.S. civics and the English language. The USCIS will evaluate the application, interview and tests before rendering its decision. If a person's application is approved, he will take an Oath of Allegiance, during which he will swear his allegiance to the U.S. and renounce all allegiances to foreign countries.
  
  A permanent resident does not become a citizen until taking the oath and must have continuously resided in the country from the time the application is filed until taking the oath.
  
  

Types

• The naturalization process does not apply to individuals born in the United States. A person, regardless of the citizenship of her parents, becomes a native-born citizen of the country at birth. In addition a child born abroad to U.S. citizens is also eligible to gain U.S. citizenship without being naturalized. Also children born outside the country can become a U.S. citizen upon the naturalization of his parents.
  
  

Considerations

• While naturalized citizens gain many of the same rights as native-born citizens, they cannot become President or Vice President of the United States. Section I, Article II of the U.S. Constitution limits both offices to those born as native citizens of the country. Naturalized citizens may serve in Congress and the Cabinet, but they are disqualified from the order of presidential succession.
  
  

History

• The U.S. Congress passed the country's first naturalization act in 1790 granting eligibility for citizenship to any free, white, adult male or female in residence for at least two years. The law was changed in 1795 and increased the residency requirement from two years to five years and required any alien to renounce his or her allegiance to a foreign country.
  
  Naturalization was granted to blacks of African descent in 1870. Naturalization standards for people of other ethnic groups were set by the Immigration Act of 1924. This legislation was revised in 1952 by the McCarran Act, which opened up naturalization to an annual quota of one-sixteenth of one percent of the U.S. population.