If you have a physical or developmental disability or mental impairment that would make it impossible for you to pass the English language or civics tests during an interview for naturalized U.S. citizenship, you can ask to be excused from taking the tests.
Or, if you’ve been allowed to apply for citizenship on behalf of a person with such a disability, this article is for you, too. You need to know how to prove the disability to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) so the person with the disability doesn’t have to take the tests.
The English and civics tests do not have to be given to people who have a “medically determinable” physical or developmental disability or mental impairment that has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.
“Medically determinable” means that the disability or impairment can be shown using acceptable clinical or laboratory techniques. The disability or impairment must totally prevent the person from passing the tests, even if the person were to have help.
You ask to be excused from the tests at the same time you send the N-400 Application for Naturalization to USCIS.
There’s another form called a Medical Certification for Disability Exceptions (Form N-648) that you include with the application package. This form needs to be completed by a licensed medical professional who certifies that the applicant’s medical condition prevents the applicant from meeting the English language requirement, the civics requirement, or both.
You can also send the Form N-648 to USCIS later or bring it to the interview.
Not just anyone can sign a Form N-648. You must go to a medical doctor, doctor of osteopathy, or a clinical psychologist. The doctor must be licensed to practice in a U.S. state, Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
After you get the N-648 from the doctor, don’t open the envelope! If you open it or damage it in any way before sending it to USCIS, you’ll probably have to go back to the doctor to get a new one.
An N-648 expires six months after the doctor signs it if you don’t send it to USCIS, so don’t wait too long to send it to USCIS after you get it from the doctor. Once USCIS has it, it won’t expire.
The doctor must examine the citizenship applicant in person. After that, the doctor reports the results on the N-648. He or she must explain the nature and extent of the medical condition and explain how the medical condition relates to the person’s inability to comply with the English and civics requirements.
The doctor shouldn’t use language on the Form N-648 that a person without medical training (for example, a USCIS officer) wouldn’t be able to understand. USCIS wants the doctor to say on the form that the person has had the medical condition for at least a year, or if it developed more recently than that, the doctor expects it to last at least 12 months.
The doctor must also say that the medical condition was not caused in any way by the illegal use of drugs. (If it was, the person is not eligible to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.)
A doctor can rely on staff to help fill out the form and help with an examination in other ways, but the doctor must perform an in-person examination and be the one who signs the form.
A USCIS officer will review the Form N-648 and decide whether the citizenship applicant can be excused from the tests. First, the officer will check to see that the form was properly completed, certified, and signed by the doctor. Then the officer makes sure that the person who the doctor examined is really the person applying for citizenship.
The USCIS officer can’t second-guess the doctor’s medical opinion, but the officer will make sure that the N-648 form fully addresses the applicant’s medical condition and shows how it causes the applicant’s inability to take the English language and civics tests. Overall, the officer needs to see that the form contains enough information to establish that the applicant is more likely than not eligible to be excused from the tests.
If after reviewing the N-648 the USCIS officer finds that it wasn’t complete or that it doesn’t prove that there’s a disability or impairment that prevents the applicant from taking the tests, the officer will interview the applicant as if the Form N-648 was never filed.
During the interview, the applicant can take the English and civics tests if he or she wants to. If the applicant ends up passing the tests, however, the officer might think he or she was trying to fake a disability or impairment and start asking questions about why the person asked to be excused from the tests.
It’s better not to take the tests during that first interview. Let the officer give the applicant a “Request for Evidence.” This will give the applicant a chance to explain why the N-648 was incomplete or insufficient, or to get a new one. USCIS might excuse the applicant from taking the tests at a second interview.
