US citizenship denials unfortunately happen on a regular basis. These denials lead to a lot of frustration, especially if you feel that you were denied for an invalid reason. The good news is that there is an appeal process that your immigration lawyer can guide you through in order to get relief from an improper USCIS decision.

Potential Reasons Why Citizenship Would Be Denied

If you can not meet all of the requirements of US citizenship, your application will be denied. Many of the requirements are fairly straight forward and objective while others are more vague and subjective.

The objective criteria include: 1) the applicant for US Citizenship must be a lawful permanent resident(green card holder) 2) the applicant for US Citizenship must meet the physical residence requirement 3) the applicant must meet the continuous residence requirement 4) the applicant must be 18 or older 5) the applicant for US Citizenship must have resided in the state where the application has been filed for at least three years 6) the applicant for citizenship must pass the civics test.  

The more subjective criteria include a requirement that the US citizenship applicant demonstrate a command of the English language and demonstrate that they have been a person of good moral character for at least the last five years preceding the application for US Citizenship.  

Criminal convictions oftentimes throw a monkey wrench into plans to obtain US Citizenship and frequently serve as a basis for an adjudicator’s denial. If you have been convicted of certain crimes, you will need to hold off on trying to obtain citizenship until five years has passed since the date of the conviction. These crimes include: crimes involving moral turpitude and crimes for which you have spent 180 days or more in Jail. If you are convicted and placed on probation for a crime that is not considered a crime of moral turpitude, you are precluded from applying for citizenship until after the probation has ended.

Some convictions will make you temporarily ineligible for while other crimes may make you deportable. Generally, a lawful permanent resident is deportable if he or she has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude that was committed within five years of entering the United States and the crime was punishable for a sentence of up to one year or more. There are other crimes that will make you deportable regardless of when they were committed. The law regarding deportable crimes is complex and beyond the scope of this post. If you were convicted of any crime it is imperative that you have a thorough discussion with a knowledgeable immigration lawyer before considering an application for naturalization.

What To Do If Your Citizenship Was Denied?

Step One: Consult with an Immigration Lawyer

The first thing that you should do when your US Citizenship is denied is to sit down with an immigration lawyer to determine if you have a basis to appeal the adjudicator’s decision. Maybe the adjudicator incorrectly applied the law, maybe they overlooked something in your application. In any case, your immigration lawyer can analyze the facts and help you decide if it makes sense to appeal.

Step Two: File for Administrative Review

If you decide to appeal after consulting with your immigration lawyer, the first appeal must be in the form of an appeal to a different immigration officer. This process is referred to as administrative review.

The request for a hearing on the denial must be made within 30 days of the decision of US Citizenship and the review hearing must be scheduled within 180 days from the date of the appeal. Most experienced immigration lawyers will tell you that relief is infrequently granted at the administrative review stage. The most likely explanation for the lack of relief at this level is due to the fact that there is a lack of true independent review. USCIS is reviewing their own decision and are therefore, unlikely to concede that they made a mistake. Fortunately, at the next level of review, you can have a federally appointed independent judge decide if your citizenship should be granted.

Step Three: Seek Judicial Review of a Denied US Citizenship Application

Federal District Courts have the authority to review “de novo” a denial of citizenship. This means that they are not bound by the previous denials and are looking at everything as if it was the first time that citizenship was requested. This fresh perspective from an independent judiciary oftentimes results in better results for the US Citizenship applicant.

Although it is great to have a neutral judge deciding the issues, any person who is contemplating judicial review should understand that the burden of proof remains on the applicant to demonstrate their eligibility for citizenship in every respect. Although there is some dispute amongst the Federal District Courts over the proper standard of proof for judicial review, the standard is generally considered to be a preponderance of the evidence standard. This means that the applicant for US Citizenship must present evidence that makes it more likely than not that citizenship should be granted.

Conclusion

If you feel that your US Citizenship application has been denied unfairly, there is an appeal process that you can go through to obtain relief. This multi step process starts with filing for administrative review and can end with a decision by a Federal Judge granting or denying citizenship. Given the complexity of the appeals process and the Federal Court System, anyone who is considering an appeal seek the guidance of a knowledgeable immigration lawyer.