A Six-Year-Old Takes on Form N-400 (With Some Help from Mrs. K)

Elizabeth Rosen

Form N-400 Application for Naturalization - Instructions

Part 1. Information About Your Eligibility.

Mrs. K says “eligibility” means “are you a good person for this.” Mrs. K is helping me fill this out because my s’s and b’s and p’s are messy and my h’s and n’s and m’s are lopsided. I want to stay here because Maggie S. is my friend, and Mr. Singh from the corner store at the bus stop gives me a free sweet after school. (Mrs. K says it’s probably not free and that Mami pays for it.) (Also, she says it is important to tell you that Mr. Singh is a citizen.)

Part 2. Information about you.

Item Number 1. Your Current Legal Name (do not provide a nickname)

Manuel Allende

Item Number 2. Other Names You Have Used Since Birth

Manny. Guapito. Mi solcito. Also, my Tío calls me Little Dude.

Part 3. Biographic Information.

Items Number 1.-2. Ethnicity and Race

Texan. (Mrs. K says to put Hispanic and Mexican.)

Item Number 3. Height

3 feet and a half.

Item Number 4. Weight

42 pounds

Item Number 5. Eye Color

Brown

Item Number 6. Hair Color

Brown

Part 4. Information About Your Residence

Physical Address

Mrs. K’s house. Mrs. K says I will stay here until Mami comes back. Mrs. K lives next door to us. She says some people came to Mami’s work and took her away to talk to them. (Mrs. K says to tell you that that was several days ago and that I am staying with her while I wait for Mami.)

Part 5. Information About Your Marital History

Mrs. K says “marital” means marriage. I am not married. I want to marry Maggie S. when we grow up.

Part 6. Information About Your Children.

When I marry Maggie S. we will have six children. Three boys and three girls, and they will be named Stephen, Ricky, and Little Dude, and Mariana, Mercedes and Little Maggie.

Part 7. Information About Your Employment and Schools You Attend

Mrs. K says “employment” means a job. My job is to make my bed every morning. Also, to get good grades. My school is St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. Maggie S. goes there too. We are in grade Kinder Garden.

Part 8. Time Outside the United States.

I have never visited my abuela in Valle Seguro where Mami is from, but one time we drove to Louisiana to see Mami’s brother who works on a sugar cane farm. Tío had a big knife. He peeled a piece of sugar cane and gave it to me to chew on. It was so sweet my head exploded with happiness.

Part 9. Additional Information About You

Good Moral Character

Mrs. K says this is the most important part. She says that “moral” is whether you are a good or bad person. I am a good person, except when Maggie S. won’t let me have my turn on the swing at school. Then I am a loud person and once I was a person who kicked the swing set and yelled that sharing is caring. Other ways I am a good person is I give hugs to Mami when she has a bad day at work and smells like chicken poop. I am also a good person to take a bath when I am supposed to. (Mrs. K. says this is true.)

(Mrs. K says I am also a good person because I did not cry or yell back at Maggie S’s mother at Maggie S.’s birthday party even though she got angry when she saw me holding Maggie S’s hand and yelled a word I didn’t understand and all the other grown-ups looked at her funny. Mrs. K says I am also a good person because I said thank you when Maggie S’s mother said my English was very good and asked where my family was from and what street I live on now. Mrs. K says it’s ok not to like Maggie S’s mother, even if she did give me a bigger piece of birthday cake than the other kids and said I probably need it more. Mrs. K says that some people are dumber than posts. That is a funny thing to say because posts do not have brains but I have to hide my laugh, because, one thing, Mami says it is not right to call someone dumb, and second thing, because Mrs. K does not look like she is saying a joke.)

Oath of Allegiance

I know all the words to the Pledge of Allegiance and “America the Beautiful” which we do every day at school before we start our lessons.

Part 10. Request for a Fee Reduction

Mrs. K says to ask you for this because I only have my allowance that I get on Sundays after church and the quarters that el ratoncito pérez leaves me for my baby teeth. Maggie S. says she gets a dollar for her teeth, so the tooth fairy must think that Maggie S. is gooder than I am. She has very shiny teeth, so she probably is. That is why I want to marry her when I grow up and we will go to Valle Seguro to live with my abuela and will eat sugar cane every day. Mrs. K says that we will get cavities if we do that and also that we have to take a break now and have a snack of ants-on-a-log before we do the other twenty-two pages of this form.