Naturalization...

[frank1538]

Jingwen has expressed an interest in becoming a naturalized citizen, but has always been concerned about her English proficiency, some level of which is required for naturalization. I have always told her that she will need to be able to read and write a little English to become a US citizen, unless she waits for the "old person's exemption" (no English test and civics test in the language of her choice).

 

Lately, Jingwen has been talking to some of her friends about naturalization. In a fashion similar to some of the mis-information out there on other boards, she is being told that she doesn't need to know English to become a citizen. One friend told her that all she needs to do is to pay a certain lawyer in San Francisco a certain fee, and the language requirements will be waived.

 

Maybe I'm naive or uninformed, but I've never heard of this, so I thought I'd seek the collective wisdom of the membership here at CFL.

[xtal]

Jingwen has expressed an interest in becoming a naturalized citizen, but has always been concerned about her English proficiency, some level of which is required for naturalization.  I have always told her that she will need to be able to read and write a little English to become a US citizen, unless she waits for the "old person's exemption" (no English test and civics test in the language of her choice).

 

Lately, Jingwen has been talking to some of her friends about naturalization.  In a fashion similar to some of the mis-information out there on other boards, she is being told that she doesn't need to know English to become a citizen.  One friend told her that all she needs to do is to pay a certain lawyer in San Francisco a certain fee, and the language requirements will be waived.

 

Maybe I'm naive or uninformed, but I've never heard of this, so I thought I'd seek the collective wisdom of the membership here at CFL.

178377[/snapback]

The Naturalization process is quite simple - at least that's my experience. As long as she doesn't have a criminal record, paid her taxes, can speak/read/write basic English, is willing to take the oath of allegiance and knows the basic civics stuff she should be fine. I have not heard either of the English requirement being waived by paying a fee to an atty.... I would assume that to not be true.

 

She also needs to meet residency requirements - she needs to have resided for at least 3 months in the state you guys live in. I think the other two residency requirements have to do with contiguous residency and total residency in the past 5 years - from what I remember she should be fine if she hasn't been out of the country for more than 6 consecutive months, and has been in the 'States for at least 50% of the time in the past 5 years. This stuff is documented on the uscis site in more detail - I'm just going off of memory.

 

Her spoken English will be evaluated during the naturalization interview as the officer will go through the N-400 form to verify the info. She will probably be asked to write a simple sentence in English. The civics questions, I think, are normally always from the standard list - you can find it on the uscis site (it's a list of 100 questions from what I remember). The interviewing officer will normally ask her a handful of those questions, unless they do a written test but some of this stuff is different from location to location. I studied beyond the 100 questions though just to be safe. There is a US History and a US Government study guide on the USCIS website.

 

Some locations will do the Oath Ceremony the same day but I think most of them don't - the time between the naturalization interview and the oath ceremony varies - can be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. At the ceremony she needs to turn in her green card and should get the naturalization certificate that day. I would recommend applying for a passport right away (keep in mind that for that, you need to send in the original certificate so she will briefly be without proof of citizenship - make some copies before you do that). She will also need to let the SSA know about her change in status.

 

Check out www.newcitizen.us for more info.

 

Best of luck!

Edited December 28, 2005 by xtal (see edit history)

[frank1538]

It's the language part (reading and writing) that scares Jingwen. She has had a really tough time with the language and after almost 2 years in the US, has a spoken vocabulary of only a few dozen words. So, when she heard about being able to do away with the English part, she got real excited. It is still hard for her to understand that dealing with the US government isn't like in China - pay someone a few bucks and voila, problem solved.

[tonado]

No lawyer. Let her take some Naturation classes at the local Chinese community. They will teach her everything to pass the test.

[tywy_99]

I printed the nearly 100 pg. PDF file on the USCIS website a few months ago for my wife.

She hasn't even looked at it.............YET!

[LeeFisher3]

Frank, most of the locations teaching ESL have a citizenship class that covers the test and such as part of their program. Usually they wait for the student to achieve what is considered Level 5 in English proficiency before moving to this level as the language used on the written test, while simple to English speakers, requires a grasp of the language.

 

We have been fortunate to locate a community center that offers classes 5 days a week and does alot with the immigrant community.

 

Your question was reinforced tonight as my wife brought home a study guide for Citizenship and we are working on it together. She's only at level 4, but she's Chinese is why she got in that class.

[frank1538]

Thanks Lee. Jingwen absolutely refuses to go to the first level ESL class, but I have a sneaking suspicion that she may be forced into it if she wants to be naturalized after 3 years of residency. Besides, my step son just bought a new old car and the clunker that he wrecked a number of times, I mean learned to drive in, is now sitting on the street. Jingwen is talking about finally getting her learner's permit so I can teach her to drive the jalopy. She can take the test in Chinese, but I've told her that she'll still need to be able to read the road signs to drive.

[skibum]

Frank, mywife took the ESL first classes and said it was a waste of time. I guess her English was better than the others there. She really learned by herself by taking one word and copying it until she knew it well. She filled up many sheets of paper with tiny handwriting. It seems to have worked as she passed the Accuplacer test fot college the first time.

 

Now think about this--- why are ballots printed in both English and Spanish? I would say that the language requirements are not good enough.

[tonado]

http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/natz/require.htm

 

Sample tests

[jim_julian]

Frank, mywife took the ESL first classes and said it was a waste of time. I guess her English was better than the others there. She really learned by herself by taking one word and copying it until she knew it well. She filled up many sheets of paper with tiny handwriting. It seems to have worked as she passed the Accuplacer test fot college the first time.

 

178667[/snapback]

My Lao Po is in English classes here in China but, based on the one I sat in on, they are not what I would call very good. There's a lot of chanting words and repetitive exercises and virtually no grammar. I've been drilling her on SVO and VSO sentence construction as well as some other fundementals. She also learns words by repetitive writing and has quite a large vocabulary at this point.

 

How did your wife learn grammar?

[skibum]

Jim, grammar is the hardest part and I think it will be an ongoing thing. I am not much help as I don't know all the rules. Sweetie got a book called "Keys for Writers" by Ann Raimes when it became apparent that she would be writing many papers in her college work. It is pretty nice and even covers MLA.

Edited December 30, 2005 by skibum (see edit history)