Get Revised Guidance For Determining The Sufficiency Of Form N 648

Use this form if you are applying for U.S. citizenship and need to request an exception to the English and civics testing requirements for naturalization because of physical or developmental disability or mental impairment.

An immigration officer may deny an N-648 for insufficiency, lack of credibility, fraud, or material misrepresentation. If your N-648 is denied simply for being insufficient, the immigration officer will proceed with your interview as if you had not submitted an N-648 (testing you on English, civics, and so forth).

What type of medical conditions are required for an N-648? The applicant must have a “medically determinable” mental or physical disability or impairment that makes the person unable to learn to read, write, or speak English, or to learn U.S. history. Examples: Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

An immigration officer may deny an N-648 for insufficiency, lack of credibility, fraud, or material misrepresentation. If your N-648 is denied simply for being insufficient, the immigration officer will proceed with your interview as if you had not submitted an N-648 (testing you on English, civics, and so forth).

Naturalization applicants with a physical or developmental disability or mental impairment that precludes them from fulfilling the English and civics testing requirements for naturalization, may file Form N-648 to request an exception to those requirements.

On October 19, 2022, USCIS announced major revisions to the Form N-648, which is used by naturalization applicants who seek a waiver of the English and/or civics requirement based on a disability or impairment that causes the applicant to be unable to learn or demonstrate knowledge of English and/or civics.

DHS published a notice in the Federal Register announcing plans to conduct a trial of proposed changes to the current nationalization test with volunteers from community-based organizations. USCIS will hold a virtual engagement on May 31, 2023, to provide an overview of the proposed changes and the trial test.

The new guidance states that while the N-648 should be submitted as an attachment to Form N-400, “USCIS should accept a Form N-648 submitted after the applicant files the naturalization application”6 with none of the strict conditions imposed by the previous guidance.