Over the past decade, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has facilitated the naturalization of 7.7 million individuals, transforming their dreams of becoming U.S. citizens into reality. In 2023 alone, USCIS conducted ceremonies across the country, welcoming a significant number of new citizens—878,500 individuals to be exact.
Naturalization, as outlined by the U.S. Congress under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), allows lawful permanent residents to obtain U.S. citizenship after meeting specific conditions. Though citizenship can also be granted through birth to U.S. citizen parents or acquired by children of U.S. citizens under the age of 18, naturalization is typically the primary route for lawful permanent residents.
To be eligible for U.S. citizenship, applicants must fulfill particular requirements as set forth in the INA, which generally mandates that individuals have lawful permanent resident (LPR) status for at least five years. Spouses of U.S. citizens have a shortened requirement, needing to be lawful permanent residents for only three years. These eligibility requirements help ensure that those seeking U.S. citizenship have established substantial ties to the country and its community.
In 2023, the median number of years applicants waited as lawful permanent residents before becoming citizens was seven years. Among the primary applicant countries, those from Mexico and Canada waited the longest, averaging 10.4 years. On the other hand, Nigerian applicants had the shortest waiting period, averaging only 5.6 years, which was also the wait time for applicants from India. This variance highlights how timelines for permanent residency and naturalization can differ significantly depending on the applicants’ country of origin.
Across the U.S., specific field offices were particularly active in processing new citizens in 2023. The Dallas and Houston offices each accounted for 4.1% of the total naturalizations, followed closely by Chicago at 3.7%, Newark at 3.4%, and San Francisco at 2.9%. These locations thus served as the leading hubs of new citizenship across the country, facilitating the transition for thousands of new citizens into full membership within American society.
Analyzing the countries of birth for naturalized citizens, Mexico took the lead, with its nationals representing 12.7% of all naturalizations in 2023. This was followed by India, whose nationals made up 6.7%, the Philippines at 5.1%, the Dominican Republic at 4.0%, and Cuba at 3.8%. Together, these five countries represented 32% of the new U.S. citizens in 2023. Breaking it down further, 111,500 Mexican nationals and 59,100 Indian nationals were granted U.S. citizenship during the fiscal year. The significant number of applicants from these nations underlines the diverse sources from which the United States draws its population of naturalized citizens.
In terms of residency patterns, 70% of the new U.S. citizens resided in just ten states, in the following order: California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Concentrations were especially high in the top four states alone, where over half of all naturalized citizens resided. Within these states, the leading cities where new citizens lived included Brooklyn, Miami, Houston, the Bronx, and Los Angeles.
Through its structured path to citizenship, USCIS has successfully facilitated a steady increase in the number of naturalized citizens in recent years. This achievement reflects both the enduring appeal of U.S. citizenship to people worldwide and the effectiveness of USCIS’s naturalization efforts, which continue to welcome those willing to contribute to and become part of American society.
