Citizenship and Naturalization

This training will provide an overview of the legal elements for naturalization, including lawful admission as an LPR, continuous residence and physical presence requirements, the English/civics requirement, exceptions, and the disability waiver, as well as the requirements for the oath. We will also discuss red flag issues that can cause an applicant to be denied or even deported.

ILRC attorneys and guest speaker Bill Bliss will give an overview of the USCIS naturalization test redesign announced in December 2022. The redesign proposes a reading-based multiple-choice test to evaluate a naturalization applicant’s knowledge of civics, instead of the current oral questions. A new test of English knowledge would involve photo prompts that an applicant would need to describe. This would replace the current evaluation of English which occurs during the interview as the officer asks questions and verifies information from the N-400 naturalization application. Educators of low-literacy adults believe that these changes would make the test significantly more difficult for applicants. This is a free webinar.

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center continues to write and publish the most accessible and comprehensive guide on citizenship and naturalization in the country. This indispensable guide thoroughly addresses the entire process of representing a naturalization applicant from the initial client meeting through the oath of allegiance. Included in this guide are sample forms, practice guides and tips, and many other critical tools for both private attorneys and practitioners working with community-based organizations. One of the strengths of this resource is that it is very easy to read and understand for lawyers, community advocates, paralegals, community and labor organizers, and teachers. With dozens of examples demonstrating the legal concepts and thousands of citations to the law, regulations, and court cases, the reader will be thoroughly prepared to do the legal research necessary to successfully support their clients in applying for and winning naturalization.

Naturalization for Persons with Disabilities: This webinar will cover the 2022 changes to the naturalization disability form N-648 and the USCIS Policy Manual. Speakers will describe the exemptions from the English and Civics naturalization requirements, eligibility for the disability exemption, restrictions added in 2018 and 2020 to the USCIS Policy Manual, and USCIS changes in October 2022. The statutory background and USCIS Policy Manual on oath waivers will also be covered.

Level: Advanced
This advanced webinar will discuss the criteria for automatically deriving citizenship from a U.S. citizen parent under both the Child Citizenship Act as well as former INA 321. Using examples and the ILRC’s derivation chart, we will explain how to analyze the legal requirements in determining eligibility for derivation of citizenship, including for children born out of wedlock and for children whose parents separated.
Presenters
Eric Cohen
Eric Cohen has been with the ILRC since 1988, and has been its Executive Director since 2007. He has extensive experience training attorneys, paralegals, community advocates, and organizers on a variety of immigration law, immigrants’ rights, and leadership development topics. Eric is a national expert on naturalization and citizenship law and is the primary author of the ILRC’s manual entitled, Naturalization and U.S. Citizenship: The Essential Legal Guide. Eric helped develop ILRC's community model for naturalization workshops. Additionally, Eric has worked on voter outreach and education programs for naturalized citizens.

Prior to working at the ILRC, Eric worked with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Labor Immigrant Assistance Project where he worked on legalization and union organizing campaigns.

Eric obtained a B.A. degree in History from Colorado College and a J.D. degree from Stanford Law School. He is conversant in Spanish and is a member of the State Bar of California.

Alison Kamhi
Alison Kamhi is the Legal Program Director based in San Francisco. Alison is a dedicated immigrant advocate who brings significant experience in immigration law to the ILRC. Alison leads the ILRC's Immigrant Survivors Team and conducts frequent in-person and webinar trainings on naturalization and citizenship, family-based immigration, U visas, and FOIA requests. She also provides technical assistance through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program on a wide range of immigration issues, including immigration options for youth, consequences of criminal convictions for immigration purposes, removal defense strategy, and eligibility for immigration relief, including family-based immigration, U visas, VAWA, DACA, cancellation of removal, asylum, and naturalization.

She has co-authored a number of publications, including The U Visa: Obtaining Status for Immigrant Victims of Crimes (ILRC); FOIA Requests and Other Background Checks (ILRC); Naturalization and U.S. Citizenship (ILRC); Hardship in Immigration Law (ILRC); Parole in Immigration Law (ILRC); Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Other Immigration Options for Children and Youth (ILRC); A Guide for Immigrant Advocates (ILRC); and Most In Need But Least Served: Legal and Practical Barriers to Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for Federally Detained Minors, 50 Fam. Ct. Rev. 4 (2012).

Alison facilitates the eight member Collaborative Resources for Immigrant Services on the Peninsula (CRISP) collaborative in San Mateo County to provide immigration services to low-income immigrants in Silicon Valley.

Prior to the ILRC, Alison worked as a Clinical Teaching Fellow at the Stanford Law School Immigrants' Rights Clinic, where she supervised removal defense cases and immigrants' rights advocacy projects. Before Stanford, she represented abandoned and abused immigrant youth as a Skadden Fellow at Bay Area Legal Aid and at Catholic Charities Community Services in New York. While in law school, Alison worked at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, and Greater Boston Legal Services Immigration Unit. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Julia Gibbons in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Alison received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from Stanford University. Alison is admitted to the bar in California and New York. She speaks German and Spanish.

FOIA Requests and Other Background Checks: A Practical Guide to Filing Records Requests in Immigration Cases provides practitioners with a one-stop guide for information about why, when, where, and how to file background checks in immigration cases. This guide describes the various federal agencies and components that generally hold immigration records, explains how to request records and appeal denials or incomplete responses, and provides tips for certain circumstances, such as representing minors or immigrants in removal proceedings.