An Overview of Naturalization
This webinar will review the basics of naturalization. We will discuss the following requirements for applying for naturalization: age, lawful permanent residence, including abandonment of residence, continuous residence, physical presence, good moral character, English and civics, and the oath of allegiance. We will include many examples in this interactive webinar. This webinar is for beginners and those who want a naturalization basics refresher course.
Eric Cohen has been with the ILRC since 1988, and has been its Executive Director since 2007. He has extensive experience training attorneys, paralegals, community advocates, and organizers on a variety of immigration law, immigrants' rights, and leadership development topics. Eric is a national expert on naturalization and citizenship law and is the primary author of the ILRC's manual entitled, Naturalization and U.S. Citizenship: The Essential Legal Guide. Eric helped develop ILRC's community model for naturalization workshops. Additionally, Eric has worked on voter outreach and education programs for naturalized citizens.
Prior to working at the ILRC, Eric worked with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Labor Immigrant Assistance Project where he worked on legalization and union organizing campaigns.
Eric obtained a B.A. degree in History from Colorado College and a J.D. degree from Stanford Law School. He is conversant in Spanish and is a member of the State Bar of California.
Peggy Gleason, who has dedicated her career to immigrant rights, joined ILRC in 2019 as a senior staff attorney in Washington, D.C.
She worked most recently in the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security, dealing with civil rights complaints concerning U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Earlier, she worked on family and humanitarian immigration policy and legal issues for the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman and on legal access issues for the Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review.
Before her time with the federal government, she was a senior attorney for Catholic Legal Immigration Network's training and technical support section for 23 years, providing technical assistance and training to CLINIC's affiliated programs and other nonprofits nationwide. She also represented immigrant clients of Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services for the Archdiocese of Washington. She began fulltime practice of immigration law while working for the Colorado Rural Legal Services Farmworker Program.
She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Ibero-American Studies and earned her J.D. at Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Colorado Bar.
Peggy is a frequent speaker on immigration law topics and contributor to publications. She speaks Spanish.
Featured Publications
The updated edition of FOIA Requests and Other Background Checks describes the various federal agencies and components that generally hold i
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center continues to write and publish the most accessible and comprehensive guide on citizenship and naturalization in