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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

Northern District of Texas

David C. Godbey, Chief Judge
Karen Mitchell, Clerk of Court

Naturalization

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Naturalization is the process by which United States citizenship is conferred upon a foreign citizen or foreign national after the applicant fulfills the requirements established by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Title 8, United States Code.

To Apply for Naturalization

Applicants for citizenship must file an Application for Naturalization (Form-400) with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). To obtain application forms and naturalization information, please contact the USCIS National Customer Service Center, Phone: 1-800-375-5283, or visit their website at www.uscis.gov.

When the USCIS determines that an applicant has met the requirements for citizenship, they will schedule the applicant for a public oath ceremony. (The Court does not schedule applicants for oath ceremonies.)

  • The three USCIS field offices that assist applicants in the geographical area covered by the Northern District of Texas judicial district have been conferred the authority by the Court to conduct administrative oath ceremonies without the presence of a judge. An approved applicant who is NOT contemporaneously seeking a name change may receive the oath during an administrative oath ceremony if one is offered by the applicable USCIS field office. The Court is aware that the USCIS Dallas Field Office periodically offers administrative ceremonies at their facility in Irving, TX. Administrative ceremonies are not scheduled with the Court, and clerk’s office personnel are unaware of their timing. 
  • Applicants approved for citizenship by the USCIS who have also petitioned to change their names must be scheduled by the USCIS to attend a judicial oath ceremony, which will be presided over by a federal judge. (The USCIS may also schedule applicants not seeking a name change to receive their oath during a judicial ceremony.) Judicial ceremonies conducted in this district are usually held in a courthouse in the Amarillo, Dallas, Fort Worth, Lubbock, San Angelo, and Wichita Falls divisions, although offsite locations are occasionally used.

    The schedule of known upcoming judicial ceremonies, and information that will be helpful to know if you are attending a judicial ceremony, is available here: Naturalization Schedule (Note: Dates are subject to change.)

 

To Obtain a Copy of Your Name Change Petition/Certificate

If you were provided an electronically signed and sealed copy of your name change certificate following a ceremony that the judge attended via videoconference, and you wish to obtain a copy of the certificate that bears an embossed (raised) seal, you may request one copy from the clerk free of charge. 

If you attended a courthouse ceremony, and wish to obtain copies of your certificate that have been certified by the clerk as "true copies" of the original, you must first determine whether the original is maintained by the clerk or by the Federal Records Center. Please contact the clerk’s office in the division in which you were naturalized to confirm the record’s location.

If the clerk has your certificate, you may purchase as many "true copy" certified copies as desired. When you place your order, you may specify if you prefer for the court’s seal on the certification to be embossed (raised), which requires the copies to be mailed or hand-delivered to you, or flat (which allows them to be emailed to you). Please view the current fee schedule for costs of copies and document certifications.

Please note that we are unable to provide a copy of your naturalization certificate.  To obtain a replacement of your naturalization certificate, please follow the instructions found here: www.uscis.gov/n-565

 

The Court's Naturalization Records

Naturalization records after 1996 are maintained by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). All naturalization records (declaration of intentions, court orders, and index to naturalization petitions, etc.) for the period 1907 to 1996 can be found at:

Street Address: 

Fort Worth Federal Records Center
1400 John Burgess Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76140
(817) 551-2038

Mailing Address:  

NARA Southwest Region
Fort Worth Federal Records Center
P.O. Box 6216
Fort Worth, TX 76115

Before contacting the Federal Records Center for information or copies, you must contact the naturalization clerk in the Clerk's Office to obtain accession and location numbers of the documents. Contact the divisional office in the city where your naturalization ceremony was conducted.

Court records regarding naturalization prior to 1907 can be found at:

The Dallas Public Library
Dallas History and Archives
1515 Young Street, 7th Floor
Dallas, TX 75201
Phone: (214) 670-1435