New ways to help our immigrant community become New Americans

Some of you might have ESL students who have expressed an interest in preparing for US citizenship with a tutor.  It also might be helpful just to share this information with your class this fall.  

To be eligible for US citizenship an individual must be a legal permanent resident for five years or three years if their spouse is a US citizen.  The ideal time to begin tutoring is three to six months prior to that five year (or three year) anniversary and DEFINITELY BEFORE  the individual mails in their application form.   Often students mail in their application  and $360 application fee and then ask for help just a few months (and sometimes just a few weeks) before their interview.  That leaves the tutor with insufficient time to prepare the student for their interview.  Here are the reasons why tutors need to begin preparation before the student applies:

Some students mistakenly believe all they need to do is memorize the questions and answers from the list of 100 questions on US history and government.  Knowledge of history and government is a necessary but small part of the interview process.  

Students must be able to answer personal information questions from the N400 application.  They will need to understand and speak English in order to answer questions about their marital history, travels outside the USA, employment record, moral character.  They need to understand vocabulary such as arrest, deportation, failure to pay taxes, persecution, terrorist, Communist, etc.

Students must be able to read the Oath of Allegiance to the USA and explain in their own words what it means to them.  They will have to understand vocabulary such as loyalty, bear arms, renounce foreign allegiance, noncombatant service, mental reservation, etc.

Students must be able to write several simple sentences dictated to them by the INS adjudicator.  Some examples: Warm clothing was on sale in the store.  Many people come to America for freedom.  I count the cars as they pass by the office.  Our government is divided into three branches.   Spelling errors are allowed if what the student writes is phonetically correct.  But they will fail this written portion if they omit articles and prepositions. 

And lastly the student will be asked to answer 10 - 12 questions on US history and government randomly chosen by the INS adjudicator's computer.

To take on the responsibility of US citizenship, a legal permanent resident must be able to understand, speak, read, and write ordinary English.  They must understand what it means to answer "under oath".  And most important they need to understand the magnitude of professing loyalty to the United States and be willing to renounce their allegiance to their native country.  This is not a step to be taken lightly.

If you believe your students are not ready to take this step, please encourage them to continue their English studies.  Otherwise they are setting themselves up for failure and throwing a lot of money "out the window".

(For Chinese/English version of details in the US citizenship interview and test, please visit the St. Louis Chinese American News website at http://www.scanwes.com/citizen.)