C. Obtaining a Disability-based Waiver of the Exam Requirements

• Library: Becoming a U.S. Citizen (Nolo) (2021 Ed.)

C. Obtaining a Disability-Based Waiver of the Exam Requirements

Many medical conditions make it difficult to learn English or the necessary U.S. history and government information. Besides permanent conditions—for example, developmental disability, severe learning disability, deafness, and blindness—a severe illness can bring on long-term pain and decreased functioning that interfere with one's ability to learn. In addition, prescription medications can impair concentration and memory. Some conditions can confine someone to home, making it impossible to attend classes and prepare for the exams.

Psychological conditions can have as serious an impact as physical ones. In particular, it's not uncommon for refugees to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to experience problems with concentration and memory as a result.

If you have such a disability, and a "reasonable accommodation" won't help you pass your citizenship exams, you can request a waiver of the English requirement, the U.S. history and government requirement, or both. You cannot request the exam waiver(s) by yourself; your doctor must prepare a detailed form (N-648) that explains your situation to USCIS.

Not every medical problem qualifies you for a waiver, however. Old age or illiteracy, for example, won't be enough by themselves to get you a disability waiver. And USCIS reportedly rejects about half of the waiver requests it receives. That's why it's important to review this chapter carefully and work closely with your doctor to prepare your waiver request convincingly.

CAUTION

The disability waiver excuses you from the citizenship exams, but not from other U.S. citizenship requirements discussed in Chapter 2. For example, you will still need to fulfill continuous residence, physical presence, and moral character requirements.

You will not find out whether USCIS will grant your disability waiver until your interview. (It's rare for the agency to even look at someone's file until that date). However, the N-648 is supposed to be the first thing the USCIS officer looks at during the interview. If the officer finds that the N-648 is insufficient to grant you a disability waiver, the officer is supposed to tell you this, and give you a choice of either proceeding with the interview or rescheduling to a later date. The officer might also prepare a written statement clarifying the issue and perhaps requesting that your doctor provide additional information.

Note that the USCIS officer is not supposed to act like a doctor and rethink your medical diagnosis, but merely review what the doctor said and decide whether it makes a convincing case for granting you a waiver. In other words, the USCIS officer is not supposed to say, "You look fine to me," or "PTSD doesn't sound like a big deal, you should have just studied harder," and then proceed with the normal interview.

Some applicants have experienced a situation where the officer's don't directly say yes or no to the N-648, but simply launch into asking the applicant U.S. history and government questions despite the waiver request.

They're not necessarily doing this to make an applicant's life difficult—they're just hoping that they can grant citizenship without having to make a decision on the waiver, having noticed some problems with the N-648. Perhaps an officer also has observed that the person speaks a reasonable amount of English. If this happens in your case, and the officer can get you to answer six questions correctly (and they'll always choose the easiest questions), everyone will win. You'll be approved for citizenship, and the officer won't have to deal with the waiver application. If this process causes you too much stress, however, you can protest and ask the officer to follow normal procedures.

Don't despair if you can't pass either test and the USCIS officer isn't convinced by your N-648. What should happen next is that the officer issues a request for evidence (RFE), asking for a revised N-648 that fixes the problems in the earlier one. In addition, the officer should reschedule you for a second interview, between 60 and 90 days from your first. At that second interview, a USCIS officer will go through the same steps as before: Review your latest N-648, decide whether the exam waiver is approvable, and if not, give you another chance to take the...