By Sarah Yanez, Senior Attorney, Immigration Unit
Our client, Roberta (fictitious name), is a disabled former foster care youth. She needed our assistance with her naturalization application.
Her case was more complicated than most. Roberta is on the autism spectrum and has a cognitive disability caused by a traumatic brain injury she suffered as a child. Because of her inability to fully comprehend the citizenship process and the citizenship oath, she needed a medical waiver and an oath waiver.
I worked with Roberta’s former foster mother, with whom she still lives, to contact her doctor to obtain the medical waiver. Once we had it, Roberta needed a close relative (parent or sibling) to attend the naturalization interviews and then take the citizenship oath for her. I contacted Roberta’s older brother, with whom she still had contact, and he agreed to do it for her.
On the day of her citizenship interview, the immigration officer interviewed her brother, and he took the oath for her. Roberta received her naturalization certificate past May and is now a U.S. citizen.
