How to Find the Date You Became a U.S. Citizen

How to find the date you became a U.S. citizen depends on how you got citizenship in the first place. If you were born in the United States, it’s your date of birth. If you naturalized, it’s the oath date printed on your Certificate of Naturalization. If you acquired or derived citizenship through a parent, it’s the date printed on your Certificate of Citizenship as the day you became a citizen, which is not the same as the date the certificate was issued. If you were born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent, it’s your date of birth, shown on your Consular Report of Birth Abroad.

If You Were Born in the United States

Your citizenship date is your date of birth. Federal law provides that a person born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction is a citizen at birth, so the status attaches the moment you’re born rather than on a later registration or filing date.¹

Your U.S. birth certificate is the proof. When a form asks for a “date of citizenship,” enter your date of birth. A U.S. passport also proves citizenship, but the dates it shows are issuance and expiration, not a citizenship date. Use your date of birth either way.

If You Naturalized

Your citizenship date is the day you took the Oath of Allegiance, and it’s printed on your Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550). On modern certificates, look near the bottom of the document, close to the USCIS director’s signature and the agency seal. The date appears in a sentence reading something like “having taken the oath of allegiance at a ceremony conducted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at [location] on: [date], such person is admitted as a citizen of the United States of America.”²

If you naturalized before October 1991, your ceremony was held in a federal or state court rather than at a USCIS office, and the certificate may list the date of your court appearance. That court date serves the same purpose. It’s the day you became a citizen.³

A replacement certificate (Form N-570) shows the same information. If your name was legally changed at the ceremony, the new name appears on the certificate, but the oath date does not change. A certificate reissued for a name correction or amendment carries the original naturalization date.

If You Acquired or Derived Citizenship Through a Parent

A Certificate of Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561) is issued to people who became citizens automatically through a U.S. citizen parent rather than by naturalizing on their own. This covers two main groups: children born abroad to American parents who met the requirements to pass citizenship on, and foreign-born children who derived citizenship when a parent naturalized while the child was under 18 and living in the United States as a lawful permanent resident.⁴

This certificate prints two dates, and the difference matters. One is the date the person became a U.S. citizen. The other is the date the certificate itself was issued.⁵ Those dates are often years apart, because families sometimes apply for the certificate long after the child actually became a citizen. When a form asks for your citizenship date, use the date you became a citizen, not the date of issuance.

The date you became a citizen is the day all statutory conditions were met: a U.S. citizen parent, the child under 18, and the child’s lawful admission for permanent residence. Depending on the sequence, that day might be the child’s date of birth, the date the child was admitted to the United States, or the date the parent naturalized.

If You Were Born Abroad to a U.S. Citizen Parent

If your parents registered your birth at a U.S. embassy or consulate, you have a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA, Form FS-240). The CRBA confirms that you acquired U.S. citizenship at birth, so your citizenship date is your date of birth, the same as someone born on U.S. soil.⁶

Replacements go through the U.S. Department of State, not USCIS. Send a notarized written request, a copy of a valid photo ID, and a $50 fee by check or money order to the State Department’s Passport Vital Records Section in Sterling, Virginia. Standard delivery takes one to two weeks.

If You Were Adopted From Abroad

Children adopted from abroad by U.S. citizen parents often acquire citizenship automatically under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. The citizenship date is typically the date the child was admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident, provided the child was under 18 and in the legal and physical custody of the citizen parent.⁴ For children who entered on an IR-3 or IH-3 visa (adoption finalized abroad), the citizenship acquisition date is the date of admission.⁷

That admission date is what the Certificate of Citizenship shows as the date the person became a citizen. It also matches the date on the immigrant visa stamp or green card. If you were adopted and never received a Certificate of Citizenship, admission records from USCIS or Customs and Border Protection can establish when your citizenship began.

Quick Reference: Which Date to Use

Born in the U.S.: your date of birth, from your birth certificate.
Born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent: your date of birth, from the Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certificate of Citizenship.
Naturalized: the date you took the Oath of Allegiance, from your Certificate of Naturalization.
Derived citizenship through a parent’s naturalization: the day all statutory conditions were met, often the date of the parent’s naturalization or the date the child was admitted to the U.S., from the Certificate of Citizenship.
Adopted from abroad: usually the date of admission to the U.S. as a permanent resident, from the Certificate of Citizenship or admission records.

If Your Certificate Is Lost or Damaged

If your Certificate of Naturalization or Certificate of Citizenship is lost, stolen, or damaged, you can’t read the date until you replace it. File Form N-565, Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document, with USCIS.⁸ The replacement carries the same citizenship date as the original.

With the form, submit a copy of a government-issued photo ID. If you live outside the United States, include two identical passport-style photographs. If the document was lost or stolen, attach a police report or a sworn statement describing what happened.⁹ USCIS charges a filing fee that is periodically adjusted, so check the current fee schedule before filing. Processing typically takes several months.

Replacing a CRBA is a separate process handled by the State Department, not by USCIS on Form N-565.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1401 – Nationals and Citizens of United States at Birth
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Approved N-550 Personalized
3
National Archives. Naturalization Records
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1431 – Children Born Outside the United States and Lawfully Admitted for Permanent Residence
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 2 – Certificate of Citizenship
6
U.S. Department of State. How to Replace or Amend a Consular Report of Birth Abroad
7
Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM). Adoption-Based Classifications and Processing – Overview
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. N-565, Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form N-565 – Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document