N-400 Yes No Questions: All of Part 9 Explained for 2026

The N-400 yes no questions are the longest run of questions on the form and the ones people get wrong most often. Not because the answers are hard, but because the wording is precise and most applicants answer from memory.

Part 9 asks about claims to citizenship, about voting and taxes, about groups you joined and crimes, about your immigration history, about military service, and about the Oath of Allegiance. The officer reads them to you under oath at the interview.

The N-400 yes no questions live in Part 9 of the form. Saying yes is not automatically a problem. USCIS asks you to explain it in Part 14 and to bring evidence. Saying no to something that is really a yes is the expensive mistake. Reread your own filed answers before the interview.

What’s New in 2026 for the N-400 Yes No Questions

The 2025 change left Part 9 alone.

USCIS is implementing the 2025 naturalization civics test to align with Executive Order 14161. Applications filed before October 20, 2025 face up to 10 civics questions from a list of 100. Applications filed on or after that date face up to 20 from a bank of 128.

Neither the form nor its yes or no section changed. The officer asks the same Part 9 questions whichever civics version applies to you.

What can change is your own answer. If you have picked up a citation since you filed, or been arrested, or married, that answer needs updating at the interview, with a document behind it.

How the Yes No Questions Work

The instructions on the form set the rules before the questions start.

The word EVER is printed in capitals. When you see it, you must give information about anything you did anywhere in the world, at any time, unless the question says otherwise.

If you answer yes to any of the questions, you provide an explanation and any additional information in Part 14 of the form. That is where the detail goes, not in the yes or no box.

At the interview the officer reads the questions to you and checks your answers. You are under oath. Correcting yourself in the moment is normal. Leaving a false answer standing is not.

Claims to Citizenship, Voting and Taxes

The first four questions catch more people than the rest combined.

• Have you EVER claimed to be a U.S. citizen, in writing or any other way? Including on a job application form or a benefits form
• Have you EVER registered to vote or voted in any Federal, state, or local election in the United States? You may answer no if you lawfully voted only in a local election where noncitizens are eligible to vote
• Do you currently owe any overdue Federal, state, or local taxes in the United States? Overdue means late. A payment plan does not make the debt go away
• Since becoming a lawful permanent resident, have you called yourself a nonresident alien on a tax return, or decided not to file because you considered yourself a nonresident? This is about how you described yourself to the tax authority

USCIS takes voting before naturalizing seriously. Answer from records rather than memory. The same goes for tax: transcripts settle the question in a way recollection does not.

Group Membership and Acts of Violence

The middle of Part 9 covers association and conduct. Most people answer no to all of it.

• Have you EVER been a member of, involved in, or associated with any Communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?
• Have you EVER advocated opposition to all organized government, world communism, or a totalitarian dictatorship in the United States?
• Have you EVER used a weapon or explosive with intent to harm another person or damage property?
• Have you EVER taken part in kidnapping or assassination, or the hijacking or sabotage of a plane, a ship or a vehicle?
• Have you EVER threatened, attempted, conspired, planned, advocated for or encouraged others to commit any of those acts?
• Have you EVER taken part in torture or genocide, or in killing or trying to kill any person?
• Have you EVER severely injured or tried to injure any person on purpose?
• Have you EVER had sexual contact with a person who did not agree to it? The question covers anyone who could not agree, and anyone acting under force or threat
• Have you EVER stopped someone from practising their religion?
• Have you EVER caused harm or suffering to a person because of their race, religion, national origin, membership of a social group, or political opinion?
• Have you EVER served in, been a member of, helped or taken part in any military or police unit?
• Have you EVER been part of a group that used or threatened to use a weapon against any person?
• Have you EVER sold weapons that you knew would be used against another person? Providing or moving them counts as well
• Have you EVER received weapons training, paramilitary training or other military-type training?
• Have you EVER recruited or enlisted anyone under 15 years of age to serve in or help an armed group? The question also covers conscripting or using them
• Have you EVER used anyone under 15 years of age to take part in hostilities?

The military and police question surprises people. National service in another country counts. Saying yes to it is ordinary. Explain it in Part 14 and bring what documents you have.

Crimes, Arrests and Immigration History

This is the group where the vocabulary matters most.

• Have you EVER committed, agreed to commit, asked someone to commit, helped commit, or tried to commit a crime for which you were NOT arrested?
• Have you EVER been arrested by any law enforcement officer? The question also covers a citation, a detention or a confinement. It applies to police officers as well as military and immigration officials, and to any criminal charge
• If you received a suspended sentence, or probation, or parole, have you completed it?
• Have you EVER worked in prostitution, or received money from it?
• Have you EVER made or grown illegal drugs? The question also covers selling or distributing drugs, smuggling them, and dealing in drug paraphernalia
• Have you EVER been married to more than one person at the same time?
• Have you EVER married someone in order to obtain an immigration benefit?
• Have you EVER helped anyone enter, or try to enter, the United States illegally?
• Have you EVER gambled illegally or received income from illegal gambling?
• Have you EVER failed to support your dependents or to pay court-ordered alimony?
• Have you EVER made a misrepresentation to obtain a public benefit in the United States?
• Have you EVER given a U.S. Government official false information or documents? Fraudulent or misleading material counts too
• Have you EVER lied to a U.S. Government official to enter the United States or to gain an immigration benefit?
• Have you EVER been placed in removal proceedings, or rescission or deportation proceedings?
• Have you EVER been removed or deported from the United States?

The arrest question is the one that catches careful people. It covers a citation, which means a ticket. Plenty of applicants who have never been arrested answer yes to it. Bring the certified court disposition for anything you disclose. Dismissed cases need one too.

Selective Service and Military Service

Six questions cover the draft register and any service you have done.

• Are you a person born as a male who lived in the United States at any time between your 18th and 26th birthdays? Do not answer yes if you were a lawful nonimmigrant for that whole period
• If yes, did you register for the Selective Service? And if so, provide your registration details
• Have you EVER left the United States to avoid being drafted into the U.S. armed forces?
• Have you EVER applied for any kind of exemption from military service in the U.S. armed forces?
• Have you EVER served in the U.S. armed forces, and are you currently a member?
• Have you EVER been court-martialed or discharged as an alien, or deserted, or received a discharge that was other than honorable?

Selective Service trips up men who lived in the United States between 18 and 26 and never signed up. It does not end a case on its own. It does need an explanation, and often legal advice as well.

Titles, the Constitution and the Oath

The last group is short and the expected answers are known.

• Do you now have, or have you EVER had, a hereditary title or an order of nobility in any foreign country? If yes, are you willing to give it up at your ceremony
• Do you support the Constitution and form of Government of the United States? Expected answer: yes
• Do you understand the full Oath of Allegiance to the United States? Expected answer: yes, and you may be asked to explain it
• Are you unable to take the Oath because of a physical or developmental disability or mental impairment?
• Are you willing to take the full Oath of Allegiance to the United States? Expected answer: yes
• If the law requires it, are you willing to bear arms on behalf of the United States?
• If the law requires it, are you willing to perform noncombatant services in the armed forces?
• If the law requires it, are you willing to perform work of national importance under civilian direction?

You do not need to memorise the oath. You need to be able to say what it means, which is that you are promising loyalty to the United States and agreeing to follow its Constitution and laws.

How to Prepare for the Yes No Questions

Two sessions, both with your own filed form in front of you.

Session 1: read Part 9 against your answers. Go line by line. Mark any question where the wording changes what you would now answer.

Session 2: answer them out loud. Have someone read the questions at a normal pace while you answer. For every yes, prepare one sentence and name the document you would hand over.

Do not skip the second session. The interview is spoken, and reading a legal question silently is easier than hearing it and answering on the spot.

Do your answers include an arrest, late tax, or a Selective Service problem? Speak to an immigration attorney before the appointment. Those cases draw a longer interview, and advice beforehand is worth far more than advice afterwards.

FAQ

How many yes no questions are on Form N-400?

Part 9 runs to several dozen questions and sub-questions, covering claims to citizenship, voting, taxes, group membership, violent acts, crimes, immigration history, Selective Service, and the Oath of Allegiance.

Is answering yes to a Part 9 question bad?

Not automatically. USCIS expects an explanation in Part 14 and supporting evidence. Many yes answers are ordinary, such as compulsory military service abroad or an old traffic citation. A false no is far more damaging.

Does a traffic ticket count on the arrest question?

Yes. The question covers being arrested, cited, detained or confined, and a citation is a ticket. That is why applicants who have never been arrested still answer yes to it.

What if I answered a question wrong on my filed form?

Tell the officer at the interview and correct it. You are under oath, and an honest correction made in the moment is treated very differently from an error the officer discovers later.

Do I have to answer the Selective Service question?

Yes, if it applies to you. It asks about men who lived in the United States between their 18th and 26th birthdays. Not registering does not end a case on its own, but it needs an explanation and often legal advice.

Verdict: Getting the N-400 Yes No Questions Right

The N-400 yes no questions are the part of the interview where preparation is cheapest and most often skipped. Every question is printed on a form you already filled in, and you can read them all in twenty minutes.

Do exactly that. Read Part 9 against your own filed answers, mark anything the wording changes, and prepare one sentence plus one document for every yes. Then have somebody read them to you out loud.

Yes answers get explained. No answers that turn out to be untrue get investigated. That is the whole difference.