United States Citizenship

Ways of becoming a citizen

Fourteenth Amendment


The Oath of Allegiance

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;  that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against allenemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law;  that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

• Note requirements for naturalization.
• New citizenship test.

The complex status of Native Americans and further background

Click here to see a graph showing the foreign-born population of the US 1850-2000.

Data on foreign-born population 

Immigration in much in the news.

The duties of citizenship