What rights come with citizenship?

The rights that come with U.S. citizenship include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom to petition the government, the right to vote in federal elections, the right to run for federal office, the right to apply for federal employment requiring citizenship, the right to a U.S. passport, the right to bring family members to live in the United States, the right to due process and equal protection of the law, and the right to remain in the country without fear of deportation absent fraud or denaturalization proceedings. The USCIS Citizen's Almanac highlights several rights that distinguish citizens from lawful permanent residents.

Voting in federal elections is restricted to citizens by federal law, including 18 U.S.C. § 611, which makes voting by noncitizens a federal crime. Service on a federal jury under the Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968 requires U.S. citizenship. Most federal jobs in the executive branch require citizenship, and federal security clearances are generally available only to citizens. Running for federal office requires citizenship, with additional residency and age requirements: representatives must be at least twenty-five years old and citizens for seven years; senators must be at least thirty and citizens for nine years; the president must be a natural-born citizen and at least thirty-five.

Citizens may sponsor a wider range of family members for immigration without numerical limits, including spouses, parents, and unmarried children under twenty-one as immediate relatives, while permanent residents face caps and longer waiting times. Citizenship also brings constitutional protections that cannot be lost through deportation. The Fourteenth Amendment defines as citizens all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, and Vance v. Terrazas (1980) and Afroyim v. Rusk (1967) require specific intent to relinquish citizenship before the State Department may revoke it.

Naturalized citizens receive almost all the same rights as natural-born citizens under Schneider v. Rusk (1964), with the exception of eligibility for the presidency. The first ten amendments, the Reconstruction Amendments, and many federal statutes protect citizens against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, and other characteristics. Citizens also enjoy the constitutional right to travel between states under Saenz v. Roe (1999) and the right to access federal courts. Naturalization candidates assume all of these rights immediately upon taking the Oath of Allegiance.