On September 14, 2026, USCIS issued policy alert PA-2026-13, which reorganizes its internal guidance on when a case gets referred for revocation of naturalization. It took effect immediately. If you are already a citizen or preparing an N-400, the most useful thing to know is what changed and, more to the point, what did not.

What USCIS says

The alert reorganizes Volume 12, Part L of the Policy Manual and renames it, from “Revocation of Naturalization” to “Loss of U.S. Nationality and Revocation of Naturalization.” Chapters 1 and 2 are rewritten in full, and the contents of Chapter 3 move into Chapter 2.

What the alert adds in practice:

  • For any pending or future petition or application associated with a U.S. citizen, USCIS determines whether that person lawfully obtained citizenship.
  • It sets out the circumstances under which USCIS refers a case for revocation, and which cases get prioritized.
  • It covers the burden of proof required, with examples of grounds for referral.
  • It clarifies that if someone is denaturalized, USCIS may review petitions that person filed on behalf of other beneficiaries.

And here is the part worth reading slowly. The alert itself states that the updated guidance does not otherwise change the circumstances under which a naturalized citizen is subject to revocation. This is a reorganization of existing guidance, not a new standard.

What did not change

The legal standard is the same one it has been, under section 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act: naturalization may be revoked where it was procured illegally or procured by willful misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact.

Two words carry the whole thing:

  • Willful. Not an oversight, a mix-up, or a good-faith mistake.
  • Material. It has to be a fact that would have changed the outcome, not any stray detail.

There are also two separate routes, civil revocation under section 340 and criminal revocation under 18 U.S.C. 1425, and both require the government to prove its case in court.

Who this affects

Naturalized citizens whose file shows indications of illegality or willful misrepresentation. And, indirectly, anyone with a petition filed by a naturalized citizen, since USCIS checks the lawfulness of that naturalization as part of the process.

For the large majority of people who naturalized by telling their story as it is, this changes nothing about daily life. The alert itself acknowledges that the vast majority of people who naturalize do so lawfully.

What to do

Nothing urgent, and nothing that was not already good practice:

  • Keep a copy of what you filed. Forms, supporting documents, and the certified translations with their certificates of accuracy. If anything ever needs explaining, it explains far better with the file in front of you.
  • Keep your documents consistent with each other. If your birth certificate, passport, and application spell your name differently, that difference can be explained. What does not work is having quietly “fixed” it on one of them.
  • If you have a specific question about your own case, talk to an immigration attorney. This is information, not legal advice, and an individual case needs someone looking at the whole thing.

If you need translations

A naturalization file almost always rests on civil documents issued in another language: birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce decrees, police records. The translation is what the officer actually reads, which makes it the thing that has to say exactly what the original says.

That does not mean a translation error is the kind of problem this alert deals with. It is not: the standard requires willfulness, and a sloppy or incomplete translation is not that. It means something simpler and more useful: a complete, accurate translation is how what you filed matches what your documents actually say, without gaps that someone has to account for later.

In practice it comes down to three things: the whole page gets translated, seals and marginal notes included; names and dates are reflected exactly as the original has them; and it arrives with a signed certificate of accuracy. The same thing 8 CFR § 103.2(b)(3) already asks for with any document in another language filed with USCIS.

If your case includes police records from another country, our guide to the Colombian judicial records certificate walks through, with an example, why the names almost never match the passport and why that gets reflected rather than corrected.

Sources

Notice

Fidelis Certified Translations is an independent translation service, not affiliated with USCIS or any U.S. government agency. This content is for information only and is not legal advice. For your case, talk to an immigration attorney.

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