If you are a Green Card holder, you will have to file the USCIS citizenship application, Form N-400, to apply for US citizenship. However, all the Green Card holders may not become eligible for US citizenship, as soon as they obtain permanent resident status and they will have to wait for five years and file Form N-400, only after they satisfy the eligibility requirements for naturalization. It is mandatory to avoid common mistakes while completing Form N-400 and you must carefully prepare your paperwork.
The USCIS Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, consists of fourteen parts and it is mandatory to complete all those parts. Leaving important parts of the application blank, may result in the denial of your application. Hence you must see to that you fill out the form completely, without mistakes.
- You will have to enter your name in the first part of the application. You need to enter your name as it is printed on your Green Card. If you wish to change your name, you may use this opportunity, as you can legally change your name while applying for US citizenship. You will have to enter your chosen new name in the space that is provided, in part 1.
- In the second part, you need to enter information about your eligibility for naturalization.
- The next part requires information about you and you will have to enter your date of birth, social security number, countries of birth and nationality and marital status. Similarly, you will have to provide details about your disability, if any and to request an accommodation, you need to check the right box, that applies to you.
- Enter your home address and your mailing address in part four. Though the USCIS may not call you, you need to enter your phone number and your email address, in this part.
- Information that you enter in part five, will be used by the FBI, to conduct background checks. Information about your height, weight, gender, race, eye and hair colors, must be entered.
- Enter details about your employment and residence, in the sixth part. Make sure that you list all your old addresses and names of all the companies where you had worked.
- Details about your foreign trips must be provided in part 7 and you need to enter the number of days that you had spent outside the United States. This information will help you to prove that you meet the residency requirements for naturalization.
- You will have to provide details about your spouse and children in parts eight and nine.
- Tenth part of Form N-400, contains few additional questions and you must answer honestly to these questions. These questions will help the USCIS officers to make sure that you are a person with good moral character and that you are eligible for US citizenship. You also need to provide details about your military service and deportation proceedings, in part 10.
- You will have to sign your name in part 11. If you had not completed Form N-400 and if it was filled out by someone else, that person must sign in part 12.
- Parts 13 and 14, must be completed at the time of your interview only after you are instructed to do so, by the USCIS immigration officer who conducts the interview.