When you apply for U.S. citizenship, you are going to be asked whether you have ever lied to U.S. government officials in order to get money, services, favorable treatment, or any kind of immigration benefit, like entry into the United States, legal immigration status, or work authorization.
Specifically, on the N-400 Application for Naturalization, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will ask “Have you ever made any misrepresentation to obtain any public benefit in the United States?,” “Have you ever given any U.S. government officials any information or documentation that was false, fraudulent, or misleading?,” “Have you ever lied to any U.S. government officials to gain entry or admission into the United States or to gain immigration benefits while in the United States?,” and “Have you ever claimed to be a U.S. citizen in writing or any other way?.”
USCIS asks these questions as part of its test of your moral character.
You must prove to USCIS that you have been a person of good moral character during the five years before you file your N-400, or three years if you will be filing under rule that allows spouses of U.S. citizens to apply after three years of permanent residency.
Anyone who has committed an “unlawful act” during the relevant period may be found to lack good moral character, and lying to a government official or submitting a false document as part of an application for a benefit from the government is considered to be an unlawful act, whether you were convicted of a crime because of it or not.
If your answer is “yes” to any of the questions on the N-400 about misrepresentations or false documentation, you will need to attach a sheet explaining why.
If what you did happened more than five (or three) years before the date you’re going to file the N-400, make sure you tell USCIS that. You’ll probably be safe from a finding of bad moral character, but there are still a few reasons that USCIS would deny your citizenship. One is if you lied to get your permanent residence in the United States. Another is if your misrepresentation resulted in a criminal conviction for an offense relating to obstruction of justice or perjury and you were sentenced to a year in prison or more, or for the offense of federal tax evasion and the revenue loss to the government was more than $10,000. If USCIS finds out about any of these things, not only will they not give you citizenship, they might try to deport you instead. It might be better not to apply for citizenship at all in that case (but speak to an attorney to be sure).
If your misrepresentation or giving false documentation to the government happened within the period over which you need to show good moral character, USCIS can deny your application and tell you to apply again after it’s been five (or three) years since your unlawful act. USCIS will do so if you gave false oral testimony (which is more than just hiding something) to obtain any immigration benefit and the testimony was made under oath or affirmation and with an intent to obtain an immigration benefit.
It doesn’t even matter if the information you provided in the false testimony was harmless and couldn’t affect the government’s decision. USCIS can still find that you have bad moral character because of it.
USCIS will also deny your application if your misrepresentation or giving of false documentation happened within the relevant period and because of it you were convicted of a “crime involving moral turpitude.” Most fraud crimes are crimes involving moral turpitude, but you should consult with an immigration lawyer who specializes in the immigration consequences of criminal activity to analyze your conviction before applying for citizenship.
You will also be denied if your conviction, whether a crime of moral turpitude or not, was the second one within the relevant time period and your sentences imposed (not how much time you actually spent in prison), when combined, totaled five years or more. Finally, anyone who has spent 180 days or more in jail or prison during the relevant period cannot show good moral character.
If you have no criminal conviction but you’re pretty sure you committed an unlawful act within the relevant period and you want to risk applying for citizenship anyway, you might be able to convince USCIS that there were “extenuating circumstances.” That means something out of the ordinary that excuses your misrepresentation or giving a false document to the government. In the fraud context his would be rare, but an example might be if you had an abusive and controlling partner who forced you through threats and intimidation to lie about being his or her spouse on an I-130 visa petition in order to be classified as the spouse of a lawful permanent resident.
USCIS may determine that a false claim to U.S. citizenship isn’t a good moral character problem because of an exception in the law. The exception applies if you “reasonably believed” at the time of the false claim that you were a U.S. citizen because you permanently resided in the United States before you turned 16 and your natural or adoptive parents were U.S. citizens at the time you made the false claim.
