My process for officially becoming a citizen started in the summer of 2021, and over a year and a half later, I’ve officially taken my Oath of Citizenship. There were months of worrying, fearing that I may not be able to get my citizenship in the near future. I had the unfortunate luck of having the wrong documents filled out, and it delayed my citizenship process. And given the fact that my green card expired last year, it’s something I was worried about.

I feared that it wouldn’t come in on time, especially given the fact that I have to leave the country this coming summer. It took over a year for my official approval letter to come in, so why wouldn’t the new forms also take that long?

But, I was luckier than most. My father is a US-born citizen; he was able to naturalize me instead of going through the proper channels and taking a citizenship test before I could be approved. I didn’t have to do all those extra steps, I just had to wait for the government to send me the proper documentation needed to become an official US citizen.