Oath of Allegiance (United States)

This article is about the oath used in U.S. naturalization ceremonies. For the oath spoken to the U.S. flag, see Pledge of Allegiance.
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A USCIS official administering the Oath of Allegiance to a group of U.S. servicemembers during a naturalization ceremony at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan
U.S. military personnel taking and subscribing to the Oath of Allegiance at the USS Midway Museum in San Diego, California, in 2010
Lawful immigrants taking and subscribing to the Oath of Allegiance at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, in 2010
15 people from ten countries taking and subscribing to the Oath of Allegiance on World Refugee Day in Boise, Idaho, in 2015
U.S. military personnel taking and subscribing to the Oath of Allegiance in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2008

The Oath of Allegiance of the United States is the official oath of allegiance that must be taken and subscribed by every immigrant who wishes to become a United States citizen.[1][2][3]

The oath may be administered by any immigration judge or any authorized officer of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), including by any eligible federal judge.[4][a]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference 8 C.F.R. § 371.1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference 8 U.S.C. § 1448 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ 8 U.S.C. § 1452 ("Certificates of citizenship or U.S. non-citizen national status; procedure"); see also 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(22) ("The term 'national of the United States' means (A) a citizen of the United States, or (B) a person who, though not a citizen of the United States, owes permanent allegiance to the United States.") (emphasis added); Black's Law Dictionary at p.87 (9th ed., 2009) (defining the term "permanent allegiance" as "[t]he lasting allegiance owed to [the United States] by its citizens or [permanent resident]s.") (emphasis added); Ricketts v. Att'y Gen., 897 F.3d 491, 493-94 n.3 (3d Cir. 2018) ("Citizenship and nationality are not synonymous."); Jennings v. Rodriguez, 583 U.S. ___, ___-___ (2018), 138 S.Ct. 830, 855-56 (2018) (Justice Thomas concurring) ("The term 'or' is almost always disjunctive, that is, the [phrase]s it connects are to be given separate meanings."); Chalmers v. Shalala, 23 F.3d 752, 755 (3d Cir. 1994) (same).
  4. ^ USCIS Policy Manual, Vol. 12 (Citizenship & Naturalization), Part J (Oath of Allegiance), Chapter 2 (The Oath of Allegiance).


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