By Debbie McGoldrick

“Is English language still part of the U.S. citizenship requirement? As far as I know it is, and I speak good English, but I am not the best at punctuation, grammar or spelling and I’m worried about that. Will it be held against me?”

The main gist of the English part of the naturalization process is to ensure that applicants are able to read, write and converse in the language. The knowledge required is termed as “basic” by the USCIS, which means you don’t have to be an English major, or anything even close, to pass.

The naturalization interview is conducted in English. You’ll be asked the U.S. history and civics questions in English, and more than likely the officer will want you to read some simple sentence, or write a sentence.

Grammar and spelling and punctuation aren’t counted as part of the exam, unless, of course the spelling is so bad as to make the words completely unreadable.

The letter you submitted to this column indicates that you’ll have no problem at all passing the English portion of the interview! If you’re still worried, visit http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/natz/natzsamp.htm where sample English sentences that could be asked during the interview are provided.