High School-Age Young People to be Presented U.S. Citizenship Certificates at Caltech on Wednesday

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will present U.S. citizenship certificates to 80 mostly high school-age young people on Wednesday, Aug. 26, at 12 p.m. during a ceremony at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

This type of ceremony – a citizenship ceremony, rather than a naturalization ceremony – recognizes young people who obtained citizenship through their parents. Some were adopted by U.S. citizen parents; others derived citizenship when their immigrant parents became naturalized citizens.

Most of those at this event are at the point in their lives where they may be considering college.

USCIS Los Angeles District Director Susan M. Curda will deliver keynote remarks and lead the young people in saying the Oath of Allegiance.

Naturalized U.S. citizen and Caltech Vice Provost Morteza Gharib, the Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Professor of Bio-Inspired Engineering, will be the guest speaker. His contributions to a wide array of research topics range from the fundamental analysis of biological flows to the development of bio-inspired medical devices, to advanced flow visualization techniques. He will share his own naturalization story in his remarks.

USCIS encourages new citizens and their families and friends to share ceremony experiences and photos on social media using the hashtag #newUScitizen.

USCIS is the federal agency which oversees lawful immigration to the United States. USCIS District 23 Los Angeles covers the seven counties of Los Angeles including: Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.