Over 34,000 Nigerians Became U.S. Citizens in Three Years — Report

The United States granted citizenship to 34,289 Nigerians between 2020 and 2022, according to the latest Naturalizations Annual Flow Report released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The report, compiled by the Office of Homeland Security Statistics, is based on data from Form N-400—the application for naturalization—and electronic case files maintained by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), tracking applicants from fingerprinting to oath ceremony.

Figures obtained by News Review show that 8,930 Nigerians became U.S. citizens between October 2019 and September 2020, despite an 11-week COVID-19 shutdown from March 18 to June 4, 2020, which suspended all oath ceremonies.

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In 2021, 10,921 Nigerians completed the naturalization process as USCIS cleared a backlog caused by the pandemic. By 2022, the number surged to 14,438—an all-time high for Nigerian nationals and a 32% increase from the previous year.

These naturalisations represent about 3% of the 248,553 Africans who gained U.S. citizenship during the same period. Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were the only African countries to rank in the global top-30 naturalisation list.

Nigeria led among African nations, while the DRC saw a near doubling of its naturalisations in 2022 to approximately 6,000. Other African countries, including Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya, were listed under the “All other countries” category.

Overall, African naturalisations jumped by 40% between 2021 and 2022—the highest regional increase recorded.

Across all regions, Mexico topped the chart with 326,237 naturalisations over the three years, followed by India (171,114), the Philippines (135,313), Cuba (126,203), the Dominican Republic (81,303), Vietnam (80,177), China (82,376), Jamaica (57,145), El Salvador (52,399), and Colombia (48,396). Together, these ten countries accounted for nearly half of the 2.4 million naturalisations recorded from 2020 to 2022.

The USCIS emphasized that naturalisation approvals don’t always align with application volumes, as some cases are denied or delayed into later fiscal years.

Naturalisation in the U.S. is governed by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Applicants must be at least 18 years old, have five years of lawful permanent residence (or three if married to a U.S. citizen), and pass background checks, an interview, English language, and civics tests.

The DHS noted that African immigrants are now the fastest-growing group of new U.S. citizens. While Europeans historically dominated U.S. naturalisations, changes to immigration law in 1965 opened the door to increased Asian and African migration. Since 2020, Africans have recorded the fastest growth rate, typically spending a median of six years as permanent residents before naturalising—one year less than the global average.

In 2022 alone, naturalisations in the U.S. rose to over 969,000 people—a 19% increase from 2021 and 34% above the decade-long average of 721,000.

With USCIS now processing cases more quickly, Nigerians who applied after October 2024 could be eligible to take their oath of citizenship as early as summer 2025.

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