United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) reported in its Fiscal Year 2022 (“FY 2022”) Progress Report that over one million immigrant adults were naturalized as US citizens in FY 2022. The Service “completed 1,122,300 naturalization cases and naturalized 1,023,200 new U.S. citizens” marking the highest number of naturalized citizens in “almost 15 years” and the “third- highest annual tally recorded in U.S. history.”

The uptick in naturalizations is a result of the Biden Administration’s Executive Order 14012 to restore faith in the legal immigration systems and strengthen integration and inclusion efforts for new Americans which promotes naturalization by improving the naturalization process. USCIS Director Ur Jaddou noted “the agency has launched public awareness and information campaigns to make the naturalization process more accessible, and streamlined citizenship cases for U.S. service members” and the service will “continue the focus on ensuring that people who wish to become Americans, can be."

To become a US citizen, one must be at least eighteen years old and have held lawful permanent residency, with continuous presence in the US for at least five years, or three years if married to a US citizen. There are also special provisions for those permanent residents serving in the US Military. Naturalization applicants must be vetted through background checks and successfully complete an English language test and a Civics test. It is not a simple process, but worth the effort as US Citizenship confers certain privileges and obligations including the right to vote, sponsor other family members, serve on a jury, and apply for government jobs and benefits.

Congratulations to the million plus new US Citizens, we know firsthand what an arduous road you must have gone through to get here and kudos to USCIS for moving naturalization applications out of the limestone caves!