Citizenship Rules
This is a brief overview of a process through which a naturalized citizen of the United States may lose his or her citizenship.
Denaturalization is a process by which a naturalized citizen's citizenship can be revoked: (a) by a US District Attorney through court proceedings; (b) as a result of a criminal conviction for knowingly procuring Naturalization by fraud, or (c) through administrative processing initiated by the INS.
A native born or lawfully naturalized US citizen may lose his or her citizenship through voluntary relinquishment as evidenced by naturalization in a foreign country, renouncement of US citizenship before a consular officer, taking up arms against the United States and/ or being convicted of treason against the United States. Denaturalization, on the other hand, is not voluntary relinquishment and does not apply to native-born citizens of the United States. Denaturalization only applies to people who acquired their citizenship through the Naturalization process and were either legally ineligible at the time of their application to the INS or subsequently committed a subversive activity against the United States within five years of obtaining their citizenship.
An applicant for citizenship to the United States must be lawfully admitted to the United States. A person who was not entitled to be a lawful permanent resident in the first place, is consequently not entitled to become a U.S. citizen. Due to long delays in nonimmigrant visa processing, often times beneficiaries of immigrants visa become ineligible for consular processing or adjustment. For example, children of lawful permanent residents ("LPR") cannot marry while their immigrant visa petitions are pending. If a child or an LPR marries during the time his or her visa petition is being processed, he or she no longer qualifies for an immigrant visa and the immigrant petition is void.
With extremely long waiting periods for issuance of immigrant visas for citizens of many countries, this has become quite common. Often times when immigrant visas become available, beneficiaries procure immigrant benefits through concealment of material facts or willful misrepresentation at overseas consular offices. Fraud or concealment of material facts to obtain an immigrant visa is grounds for the INS or a US District Attorney to file a motion to reopen or start our proceedings to denaturalize a person who subsequently obtains citizenship. Moreover, when denaturalization occurs based on concealment or material misrepresentation, any person who claimed citizenship through the denaturalized person (such as a spouse, child or parent) also loses his or her citizenship. There is no time limit for a US District Attorney or the INS District Director to initiate a denaturalization proceeding against a person suspected of visa fraud or illegal procurement of citizenship.
If at the time of applying for an immigrant visa or Naturalization, a person willfully conceals his or her involvement in any criminal or terrorist activity, that person's subsequent citizenship to the United States can also be revoked. Naturalization can also be revoked if a person at the time of obtaining LPR status was a war criminal or terrorist. When applying for Naturalization a person must show that he was a person of good moral character for the five years immediately preceding his application for Naturalization. Moreover, an aggravated felony as defined by Immigration Nationality Act (INA) Section 101(a)(43) makes a person permanently ineligible for Naturalization if the aggravated felony conviction occurred on or after November 29, 1990. Therefore omission by a Naturalization applicant of any facts or criminal activity that INS did not know about at the time a Naturalization application is granted is a basis for later revoking the same Naturalization application.
A person who becomes affiliated with or joins a subversive, communist or anarchist organization within five years of Naturalization is also subject to denaturalization under INA Section 340(c).
A US District Attorney or the Attorney General can initiate the process of denaturalization and a person has a right to counsel in such proceedings. Judicial Review is also available. I will conclude by saying that denaturalization proceedings can be initiated against a naturalized citizen many years after he or she becomes a citizen. Beware that any immigration benefit procured through fraud or misrepresentation can be prosecuted many years after the offense was committed and may severely impact children of such violators.
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