LPR to Citizen English Level?

[C&AH 104]

Hello. My wife is here on a CR-1 and we hope her conditions will be removed this year. With all the talk surrounding the EO and other issues, e do not want to spend the rest of our lives stressing over things like this. The solution is that she apply for citizenship as soon as she becomes eligible- which is about 2 years out from this date. The major concern is that her English is very limited but we do have 2 years to prepare.

 

I'm a Spanish teacher and so we speak Spanish in the home (which is not benefiting her, I admit). I also understand how languages work and English is incredibly difficult to learn).

I'm willing to do whatever possible; however, for her to learn the language. She does have English speaking friends and works in an English speaking environment, and we are now watching TV and movies in English, which helps.

 

My question is this: what is the level of English that one has to know in order to pass the exam? Could someone share some experiences that might help? Is the interview conducted orally?

We are new to this process but now is the time to prepare!!!!

Edited April 22, 2020 by C&AH

[milimelo 4,481]

Go on USCIS.gov and download the guide to naturalization. They also have different downloads for prepping for naturalization interview - it's a 100 questions. English is basic. Yes, interview is oral. 

Turn on TV in English and put English captions on. 

[Boiler 45,519]

Certainly for me having to speak a foreign language makes the biggest difference,  so I would expect being fully immersed at home would be the most beneficial, will help in her work environment as well.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

Don’t be misled by some people posting that “the English test is reading one sentence and writing one sentence so it’s easy”. Those two sentences simply test the ability to read and write in English. The bulk of the “test” comes through the oral part where the interviewer goes over the questions in the N400 form and asks for any clarification if necessary, etc. it doesn’t require much more than basic conversational English so it’s not “difficult” in that sense, but yes people can fail it.

 

If she works in an English environment and needs to communicate with her fellow employees, she is probably fine for the test. Also, is she registered on an ESL course anywhere? Most towns have free ones aimed at immigrants, often paired with helping them prepare for the civics questions in the naturalization test too. Might just help her confidence to have that prep.

Edited April 22, 2020 by SusieQQQ

[Lemon23 400]

9 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Don’t be misled by some people posting that “the English test is reading one sentence and writing one sentence so it’s easy”. Those two sentences simply test the ability to read and write in English. The bulk of the “test” comes through the oral part where the interviewer goes over the questions in the N400 form and asks for any clarification if necessary, etc. it doesn’t require much more than basic conversational English so it’s not “difficult” in that sense, but yes people can fail it.

 

Is she registered on an ESL course anywhere? Most towns have free ones aimed at immigrants, often paired with helping them prepare for the civics questions in the naturalization test too.

Agreed on this, I saw one member here which I think his English is good but failed on Naturalization English exam on the oral part.

He was asked some words based on his application for verification but having a hard time to comprehend.

It's more than oral and written exam, USCIS will also test the ability of the applicant to understand some words that they will ask.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Lemon23

[carmel34 3,633]

My husband, from Brazil, who has been in the US on a CR-1 for 8 months, has been working hard at learning English and I help him as much as I can.  He was not comfortable in ESL classes, because none of the instructors spoke Portuguese, only English or Spanish (the vast majority of the students spoke Spanish), so it was only frustrating him and he did not want to go back after the first time.  I found a really good ESL online teacher who is native Brazilian and her English very fluent, initially for three one-hour lessons a week.  His English has improved so much this way that now he is only doing one lesson with her per week.  We speak mostly Portuguese together because I worked hard to learn it and visited Brazil 9 times when we were in a two-year long distance relationship.  It was easier for me to learn Portuguese than it was for him to learn English because I also speak fluent French and they are very similar languages.  With the virus situation and we're both at home all day now, I ordered a really good ESL set of books, "English for Everyone," and I use them to do one or two lessons per day with him, to supplement his weekly online lessons.  That has been something fun to do together.  I especially love to help him with sounds that are difficult to pronounce correctly.  I speak English more in the home now, and we watch English movies all the time, and news coverage in English of the virus every morning.  English can be a real challenge to learn, but we have found with regular lessons and hard work, improvement can be steady and significant.  We're not doing this for the US citizenship test, but for his job prospects in the future, and to strengthen our relationship even more.  Good luck!

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

@carmel34, interesting that you say the language of the instructor makes a difference. I’ve taken a couple of different languages via adult education centers, and the classes are almost never anything but the language you’re learning - I had just assumed ESL would be taught the same way, especially given the US has immigrants speaking so many different languages. 

[little immigrant 801]

Duolingo is free

[millefleur 5,046]

Many public libraries and other non-profit organizations offer free English classes for people intending to apply for citizenship. I realize that it's difficult now given closures due to the virus, but it may be worth looking into to see if they're offering remote services. Consider researching non-profit Hispanic cultural based programs in your area and/or immigrant community non-profits.

[cosmonauts 125]

On 4/22/2020 at 8:35 AM, SusieQQQ said:

@carmel34, interesting that you say the language of the instructor makes a difference. I’ve taken a couple of different languages via adult education centers, and the classes are almost never anything but the language you’re learning - I had just assumed ESL would be taught the same way, especially given the US has immigrants speaking so many different languages. 

It really depends on the area the class is taught. I'm an ESL teacher at an adult school and I've had classes where a minimum of 5 languages are spoken so yes, English only for everyone (it's the only way to communicate). But my current class is 100% Hispanic and it's really hard to stop them from speaking their native language. And it doesn't help that I speak it too, so it takes a conscious effort to bring everyone back to English. There's a big social aspect to ESL classes too, especially when the students are seniors.

[Boiler 45,519]

 

[Zaidba 39]

On 4/22/2020 at 11:35 AM, SusieQQQ said:

@carmel34, interesting that you say the language of the instructor makes a difference. I’ve taken a couple of different languages via adult education centers, and the classes are almost never anything but the language you’re learning - I had just assumed ESL would be taught the same way, especially given the US has immigrants speaking so many different languages. 

Absolutely right, no other language should be used next to the language you are learning.

 

[Scandi 4,166]

I'm fairly ok with English, I understand almost everything even though my English is very basic. However, if someone has an accent, especially a heavy one, I have major issues understanding them. So hopefully the IO at the interview doesn't have an accent.