Forms

Form N-400

Also called N-400, Application for Naturalization.

Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, is the application for United States citizenship, open to a permanent resident after five years of continuous residence, or three when married to and living in marital union with a US citizen, and USCIS accepts it up to 90 days early.

What it decides

8 U.S.C. 1427(a) requires five years of continuous residence after lawful admission for permanent residence, physical presence for at least half of that time, three months in the state or USCIS district of filing, and good moral character throughout. 8 CFR 334.2(b) allows filing 90 days early. For an EB-5 family the five years run from the grant of conditional residence, because 8 U.S.C. 1186b(e) treats a conditional resident as lawfully admitted for permanent residence, but USCIS will not approve the application while the conditions are still on, so Form I-829 has to be approved first even though the conditional years count. An absence of more than six months but under a year breaks continuity unless the applicant rebuts it; a year or more breaks it unless Form N-470 was approved, and the applicant then waits four years and one day after returning. The fee is $760 on paper and $710 online, or $380 on paper where household income is no more than 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and any reduced fee or fee waiver forces a paper filing.

Governed by 8 U.S.C. 1427(a), (b) and (c), INA 316, for continuous residence, physical presence, the three month state or district requirement and the effect of absences; 8 U.S.C. 1430(a), INA 319(a), for the three year married route and the marital union condition; 8 CFR 334.2(b) for filing 90 days early; 8 CFR 316.5(c)(1)(i) and (ii) for the six month and one year absence rules and the four years and one day wait; 8 U.S.C. 1186b(e) for the conditional years counting. USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12, Part D, Chapter 2, Section A, subsection 2, Conditional Permanent Residents, for the rule that conditional residents are generally not eligible until the conditions are removed. Form G-1055, edition 05/29/26, is the only source of the fees; the USCIS Form N-400 page, last updated 06/16/2026, form edition 01/20/25, states no dollar amount and confirms the five year and three year bases and the 90 day rule.

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into form n-400 rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Form I-829Form I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status, is the petition an EB-5 conditional permanent resident files in the 90 days before the second anniversary of that status, asking USCIS to confirm the capital was invested and the ten jobs created and to make the green card unconditional.
Conditional permanent residenceConditional permanent residence is the status an EB-5 investor and their spouse and children hold for the first two years: full lawful permanent residence, evidenced by a Green Card valid for two years, whose conditional basis must be removed on Form I-829 or the status ends.
NaturalizationNaturalization is the process by which a lawful permanent resident becomes a US citizen, requiring under 8 U.S.C. 1427(a) five years of continuous residence after lawful admission for permanent residence, physical presence for at least half of that time, three months in the state where the application is filed, and good moral character.
Continuous residence and physical presenceContinuous residence and physical presence are the two separate naturalization tests in 8 U.S.C. 1427(a): an unbroken five year residence in the United States after admission as a permanent resident, and at least 30 months, or 913 days, actually spent inside the country during those five years.
Form N-470Form N-470, Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purposes, is the filing a permanent resident uses to stop an absence abroad of a year or more, taken for qualifying employment, from breaking the continuous residence that naturalization requires.

Checked against primary sources on 10 August 2026. Back to the glossary