APCC Citizenship Preparation Program

What Services Do We Offer?*

Our citizenship program prepares Lawful Permanent Residents to take their Naturalization Interview Exams. In our citizenship classes, we focus on the three areas critical to applicant success:

Navigating the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (USCIS’s) legal path to citizenship.
Learning the 100 US History and Civics questions applicants will face.

Working on the necessary English language skills for the Exam, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Our citizenship program also supports our other Adult-Education classes by providing our students important opportunities for civic engagement. In both 2004 and 2008, for example, we were honored to receive a national award for our mock election and voter registration efforts. We also provide referrals for citizenship and immigration legal services, and coordinate outreach efforts on citizenship topics with Agency partners.

About our students…

Gaining the appropriate level of English language skills is the biggest challenge our students face, though most are initially more concerned about the requisite history/civics questions.

24 countries are represented in our current student population.

Over 90% of our students pass their Naturalization Exams.

Albany Park Community Center’s Citizenship Preparation Program is funded by the State of Illinois Refugee and Immigrant Citizenship Initiative (RICI)

*Most services are offered at no cost to participants

APCC Management, Adult-Ed Students, and IL 5th District US Representative Mike Quigley

“As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end.” – Adlai Stevenson, former governor of Illinois