47,000 Nigerians Naturalise As US Citizens In 4 Years

A total 47,819 Nigerians have naturalised as United States citizens between 2019 and 2023, according to the updated US Naturalisations Annual Flow Report released in August 2025 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Compiled by the Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS), the report got its figures from Form N-400 applications and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) case files that track each application from fingerprinting to the oath ceremony.

In the 2020 fiscal year, October 2019 to September 2020, 8,930 Nigerians were sworn in despite COVID-19 disruptions that paused oath ceremonies for 11 weeks between March and June 2020.

Naturalisation numbers surged the following year as USCIS cleared its pandemic backlog, granting US citizenship to 10,921 Nigerians. The upward trend peaked in 2022, when 14,438 Nigerians took the oath—an all-time high and a 32 per cent increase from 2021. However, the figure dipped to 13,530 in 2023.

Altogether, the four years produced nearly 48,000 new Nigerian-American citizens, representing about 1.4 per cent of the 341,884 Africans naturalised in that period.

The OHSS listed Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) among the top 30 naturalisation source countries worldwide. While Nigerians led Africa with 47,819 new citizens, the DRC almost doubled its tally in 2022 to about 6,000. Other African countries on the list included Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya.

Overall, African-born nationals accounted for 11 per cent of all U.S. naturalisations in 2022 and 2023, the highest share on record, up from an average of 9.6 per cent in the previous decade. Naturalisation of Africans rose by 43 per cent between 2020 and 2023, the fastest growth rate among all regions.

Africans who naturalised in 2023 had a median of six years as lawful permanent residents before taking the oath, the shortest waiting period globally, matched only by Asians.

Across all regions, Mexico produced the highest number of new U.S. citizens during the three-year window, with 437,697 naturalisations. India followed with 230,164, while the Philippines accounted for 180,073. Cuba (159,393), the Dominican Republic (116,523), Vietnam (113,487), China (113,126), Jamaica (77,335), El Salvador (73,489), and Colombia (65,486) also made the top ten. Collectively, these countries accounted for more than half of the 3.3 million naturalisations completed.

The DHS emphasised that naturalisation is not automatic, but earned under strict statutory and regulatory requirements of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952.

“To be considered for naturalisation, an applicant must meet statutory and regulatory requirements and file a Form N-400, Application for Naturalisation, with appropriate documentation,” the department explained.

“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducts an investigation and examination of all naturalisation applicants, which includes completion of security and criminal background checks, review of the applicant’s complete immigration record, interview(s) with oral and written testimony, testing for English and civics requirements, and qualifications for accommodations or disability exceptions. Following approval, USCIS schedules applicants for a required oath ceremony before a judge or authorised executive branch official.”

Naturalisation, DHS added, “confers U.S. citizenship upon applicants who have fulfilled the requirements established in the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

Applicants must be at least 18, hold lawful permanent resident status for at least five years (or three if married to a U.S. citizen), demonstrate continuous residence, meet physical presence thresholds, and prove good moral character with attachment to the U.S. Constitution.

For decades, Europeans dominated U.S. naturalisations. But the 1965 amendments to the INA, which abolished national-origin quotas, shifted the landscape in favour of Asia and Africa. By the 1970s, Asia overtook Europe; since 2020, Africa has recorded the fastest growth.

The OHSS noted that Africans now spend a median of six years in permanent resident status before naturalising, one year quicker than the global average, underscoring the region’s growing footprint in America’s immigration story.