There are many advantages to becoming a U.S. citizen—including helping family members immigrate to the United States, traveling with a U.S. passport, and voting in U.S. elections. Millions of lawful permanent residents are eligible to naturalize but need support to take the important step of becoming a U.S. citizen.
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) provides critical support to organizations helping immigrants navigate the naturalization process. We provide trainings and technical assistance, publish the top practitioner’s guide, Naturalization and U.S. Citizenship: The Essential Legal Guide, engage in federal and local advocacy. Through the national New Americans Campaign, we also develop and disseminate best practices in providing access to naturalization services.
Latest Resources
Public Comments / Sign-on Letters
Resources
Publication Date
09/30/2025
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) opposes the general elimination of money order and check payments for immigration benefit filings. This change was introduced by a USCIS alert on changes to the USCIS Policy Manual on August 29, 2025, to be effective as of October 28, 2025. The new guidance states that all applications filed October 28, 2025, or after must pay by ACH bank account payment, credit or debit card, or pre-paid card. No bank checks, certified checks, personal checks or money orders will be accepted thereafter.
Public Comments / Sign-on Letters
Resources
Publication Date
09/30/2025
On September 30, 2025, ILRC submitted this comment to USCIS to oppose the proposed changes to the N-648 and request that they be withdrawn. The changes create a series of substantial obstacles for naturalization applicants applying for a disability waiver of the English/civics requirement. The proposed changes create a form more than twice the length (10 pp.) of the current form (just over 4 pp.) that creates an undue burden on applicants and the medical professional who must complete the N-648. It also doubles the burden of time for USCIS adjudicators who must review this form.
The barrier that these changes would pose is prejudicial to eligible waiver applicants. Standards expressed in the revised form are outside any guidance provided by the statute, regulations and USCIS Policy Manual. The form purports to create law and invents barriers to eligibility in areas where no such law has been established by legitimate guidance.
The barrier that these changes would pose is prejudicial to eligible waiver applicants. Standards expressed in the revised form are outside any guidance provided by the statute, regulations and USCIS Policy Manual. The form purports to create law and invents barriers to eligibility in areas where no such law has been established by legitimate guidance.
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
08/29/2025
This practice alert covers recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy statements announced in August 2025 that could affect naturalization applicants.
Public Comments / Sign-on Letters
Resources
Publication Date
07/28/2025
On July 28, 2025, the ILRC submitted a comment opposing a new government proposal to add extra questions to nine immigration forms, including applications for naturalization, asylum, and green cards.
Public Comments / Sign-on Letters
Resources
Publication Date
07/16/2025
On July 16, 2025, ILRC submitted a comment opposing a new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy that allows the agency to use “derogatory information” against immigration applicants without always disclosing it.
Public Comments / Sign-on Letters
Resources
Publication Date
05/02/2025
On May 2, 2025 the ILRC submitted a letter signed by 115 organizations has opposing a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) proposed rule to expand the information collected on immigration forms.
Public Comments / Sign-on Letters
Resources
Publication Date
05/02/2025
On May 2, 2025 the ILRC submitted a comment opposing a proposed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rule that would expand the collection of personal information from immigration applicants.
Public Comments / Sign-on Letters
Resources
Publication Date
05/05/2025
On May 5, 2025 the ILRC submitted a comment opposing a proposed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rule that would require immigrants to disclose their social media identifiers on application forms.
Practice Advisory
Resources
Publication Date
08/14/2025
For many noncitizens, naturalization is the best defense against deportation from the United States. Indeed, USCIS lacks the authority to detain or deport a U.S. citizen. However, applying for naturalization can be risky for some individuals because it can instigate immigration enforcement. This concern has increased following President Trump’s February 28, 2025 NTA Memo. The ILRC, NIPNLG, CLINIC, and the Ready to Stay collaborative wrote a practice advisory summarizing the most common reasons why USCIS may deny an N-400, providing guidance for ways to screen and avoid an N-400 denial and removal proceedings, and discussing immigration relief options in immigration court.
Practice Advisory
Resources
Publication Date
08/07/2025
This practice advisory provides background on the disability waiver of the English and civics requirement for naturalization and describes the June 2025 revisions to the USCIS Policy Manual (PM) on the submission and review of disability waivers. The revised guidance in the PM applies to applications filed on or after the publication date of June 13, 2025. Overall, the PM revisions signal a change in tone that assumes fraud in the disability waiver process is frequent and encourages increased scrutiny by USCIS adjudicators.
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
08/05/2025
Recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a memo listing out its priorities for civil enforcement cases. In that memo, the DOJ states that it will be focusing on denaturalization cases. This memo - along with statements made by administration officials and members of congress - has sparked a lot of attention on denaturalization and questions about who could be denaturalized. This has caused a lot of fear and uncertainty in communities, but denaturalization is not as straightforward as you might think.
New Americans Campaign
A project of the ILRC, the New Americans Campaign is a nonpartisan, groundbreaking national network of legal-service providers, faith-based organizations, businesses, foundations and community leaders that is paving a better road to citizenship.
Related Products
Webinar
Webinar
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.
Webinar
Webinar
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.
Publication
Publication
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.
Webinar
Webinar
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.
Webinar
Webinar
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.
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.
Publication
Publication
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.