Naturalization and Oath Ceremony Protection Act

Oath rights for approved applicants

If your naturalization application has been approved, you would have the right to appear at the scheduled ceremony, take the oath, and receive your certificate. The Secretary would be able to bar you only after approval and before the oath if individualized, articulable facts show statutory ineligibility or that approval was procured by fraud or a material misrepresentation. In that case, the Secretary would have to give written notice stating the specific factual and legal basis, serve it at least 10 days before the ceremony except in exigent circumstances, allow you to submit a written response, and obtain supervisory approval from an officer not involved in the original decision. The Secretary would be allowed to postpone the oath for up to 30 days only for an extraordinary, specific, and credible national security threat, and must give individualized written findings and notice at least 72 hours before the ceremony. The bill would bar exclusions based on nationality, country of origin, place of birth, categorical or generalized reviews, and would require any ceremony participation policy to be published in the Federal Register and not be waived by regulation, internal memo, or Executive directive. You would be able to seek federal court review; courts would be able to issue mandamus for unlawful withholding, award reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs to prevailing applicants, and require the Secretary to schedule a new ceremony no later than 10 days after the court’s order.