Citizenship 

1. Citizenship Benefits
Some of the benefits of becoming a U.S. citizen include:

1) Only U.S. citizens can exercise federal or state suffrage.
2) Parents, spouses, unmarried children under the age of 21, adult children over the age of 21, married children, siblings, etc. of citizens can be invited to the United States to receive permanent residency.
3) If a child of a U.S. citizen is born abroad, the child automatically becomes a U.S. citizen.
4) You can freely travel abroad with your US passport.
5) Can run as a candidate in elections for U.S. public office.

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2. Qualifications for application

You can apply for U.S. citizenship 3 months before the 5th year from the date you received your green card. Applicants must prove that they have lived in the United States for 2 years and 6 months, which is half of the 5 years. Spouses who have obtained permanent residency by marrying a U.S. citizen are eligible to apply for citizenship from 3 months before reaching 3 years. In this case, you must prove that you have lived in the United States for 1 year and 6 months, which is 3 and a half years.

 

In order to benefit from the three-year statutory period as a spouse of a citizen, the marriage must be maintained until the swearing-in of the citizenship oath. If you get divorced before then, you can apply for citizenship after waiting five years.

People who have served in the military for more than three years, such as spouses married to citizens, can apply for citizenship within six months of being discharged from the military. The three-year period of military service must be completed without incident.

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Under the new immigration law, as of February 27, 2001, if one parent is a U.S. citizen, children under 18 years of age automatically become citizens. An additional qualification requirement here is that children under the age of 18 must be legal permanent residents and live with their parents. If either parent obtained citizenship after the child turned 18, the child must apply for citizenship alone.

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A student couple who has a child in the United States can become a citizen because of a child or the birth of a child. However, children cannot invite their parents until they reach the age of 21.

To apply for U.S. citizenship, you must be able to read, write, and speak English. You must also be a person of good character, never joined the Communist Party or the Nazi government, and not commit a serious crime.

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[Details of application qualifications]

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1. To apply for US citizenship, you must have lived in the US for more than 4 years and 9 months.

 

2. 4 years and 9 months or more of the reference point starts from the date of acquisition indicated on the permanent residency.

 

3. A spouse who married a U.S. citizen and received permanent residency is eligible to apply for citizenship after 2 years and 9 months.

 

4. To apply for US citizenship, you must be able to read, write and speak English.

 

5. A person of good character who has never participated in the Communist Party or the Nazi government and has not committed any serious crimes.

 

6. To apply for citizenship, you must stay in the United States for 5 years from the date you received your green card.

 

7. Applicants must prove that they have lived in the United States for at least 2 years and 6 months, which is 5 and a half years.

 

8. People who frequently go on business trips abroad must go through procedures to maintain their citizenship and statutory residency period.

 

9. In order to be counted as the period of residence in the United States, you must submit and receive approval from the USCIS Form N-470.

 

10. Spouses married to citizens can apply for citizenship after 3 years from the date they received permanent residency.

 

11. Spouses can satisfy the statutory residence period for citizenship if they have lived in the United States for only 1 year and 6 months during the 3-year period.

 

12. If you have lived abroad for more than one year, it is recommended that you seek the help of a professional for the legal residency period for citizenship.

 

13. Citizenship application can be applied 3 months before the statutory residence period of 5 years or 3 years expires, so a lot of time required for citizenship application can be shortened slightly.

 

14. When applying for citizenship, you must apply for documents from the local immigration office.

 

15. You must have lived in the Immigration Office in the jurisdiction of your place of residence for about 3 months before applying for citizenship in order to apply for citizenship there.

 

16. As of February 27, 2001, children under the age of 18 (Under 18 Years of Age) automatically become U.S. citizens if one parent is a U.S. citizen.

 

17. The additional qualification requirements here are that children under the age of 18 must be legal permanent residents and live with their parents.

 

18. If one of the parents obtained citizenship after the child turned 18, he or she must apply for citizenship alone.

 

19. A student couple who has a child in the United States may become a citizen because of a child or child's birth.

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3. Calculation of the duration of continuous residence (“Continuous residence”)

In order to apply for U.S. citizenship, you must satisfy the 5-year or 3-year continuous residency requirement.

If you have stayed outside the US for more than 6 months but less than 1 year, you must file a US tax report to show that you have not given up your intention to permanently reside in the US.

You must prove it through a utility bill, etc. If you cannot prove your intention to reside permanently in the United States, you will not be recognized as a permanent resident.

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If you have stayed outside the US for more than one year as a permanent resident, the new period of 5 or 3 years after entering the US will be calculated. At this time, if you entered the United States within 2 years, the last 364 days of your stay abroad can be recognized as the period of residence in the United States.

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4. Document submission

After completing the US citizenship documents, if you submit the relevant documents to the local immigration office, you will be fingerprinted within one month, and you will be notified of the interview date within 6 months of receiving the documents. During the interview, you will receive information about your citizenship application and a citizenship test.

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5. Interview

In principle, interviews should be conducted in English, but those who fall under the following conditions may take the test in their native language without an English test. Those who are over 50 years of age at the time of interview and who have received permanent residency for more than 20 years, and those who are over 55 years of age at the time of interview and who have received permanent residency for more than 15 years are exempt from taking the English test. During the interview, you may be accompanied by an attorney.

If you have a criminal record, you must bring all relevant documents to the interview, including arrest records and court records.

If the traffic accident was not drug or alcohol related and there was no arrest, you do not need to file paperwork related to a simple traffic violation with a fine of less than $500.

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6. Criminal Record

As one of the qualifications for citizenship application, the applicant must have good moral character. Sound character means the average character of a normal citizen in the community in which the applicant resides, and must be possessed during the statutory period and up to the time of the oath of citizenship.

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Offenses that do not fall under the definition of sound character by the USCIS include:

1) A crime committed with the intent to harm others
2) the crime of causing damage to the government or property by fraud or bad intent;
3) If the period of two or more sentences is more than 5 years in total
4) Violation of anti-drug laws in the United States or abroad
5) A person who has a habitual drinking habit or drunk driving
6) A person who gambles illegally
7) A person who engages in prostitution
8) A person who has a double marriage (a person who is married to two or more people at the same time)
9) Lying for an immigration benefit
10) Those who have been imprisoned for a total of 180 days or more in the past 5 years (Those who have been imprisoned for more than 180 days in the past 3 years when applying for citizenship after obtaining permanent residency by marriage to a citizen)

11) Those whose probation has not expired before applying for citizenship
12) Those who commit terrorism
13) Persecuting others because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or social group

In the past, drinking and driving once or twice was not a big problem when applying for citizenship. In particular, I would like to request that if you have a criminal record, you should honestly write it down on your citizenship application. If the FBI background check reveals that the crime is missing, you should be careful as not only will you lose the right to apply for citizenship for several years, but you may also be deported in the case of a serious crime.

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Revised Citizenship Test

The revised citizenship test is largely divided into two parts: an administrative test and an English test.

The administrative exam is a type of exam that Koreans commonly recognize as an interview. If you ask 10 questions out of 100 expected questions and get 6 correct, you will pass. Administrative test questions are set with common knowledge related to life in the United States, such as the US government system, history, and geography.

In the case of the English test, it is divided into 3 parts: ▷Oral Test, ▷Reading Test, and ▷Writing Test.

The oral test is similar to the existing test, in which the examiner asks simple personal information such as the applicant's name to check their English proficiency. In the reading test, you must read the sentences shown by the examiner in English. In the writing test, you must dictate the sentences spoken by the examiner.

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Applicants have three chances each in the reading test and the writing test. If you fail all three times, you will fail the citizenship test even if you passed the administrative test.

Those who fail the test have the opportunity to take the test again, but if they fail the test again, they must reapply for citizenship.