Bill of Rights Day Naturalization Ceremony December 16
Press Release · Thursday, December 12, 2019

Washington, DC

To celebrate Bill of Rights Day (Dec. 15), 31 candidates from 16 nations will be sworn in as new U.S. citizens in front of the original “Charters of Freedom” (the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights) in the Rotunda of the National Archives Museum. The ceremony will take place on Monday, December 16, at 10 a.m.

NOTE TO MEDIA: The press is invited to cover the ceremony. RSVP to public.affairs@nara.gov. Approved media representatives should use the Constitution Avenue special events entrance, at 7th Street, NW, and set up by 9:45 a.m., as the ceremony begins promptly at 10 a.m.

This year marks the 228th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. See our National Archives News Bill of Rights Day page for related programs and online resources.

The ceremony will include a welcome from Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero, a recitation by an 8th grade class from District of Columbia International School, and remarks from several of the new citizens.

The Honorable Beryl A. Howell, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, will administer the Oath of Allegiance to the candidates for United States citizenship. The candidates are from 16 nations: Belgium, Colombia, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, and  the United Kingdom. 

The Use of Flash and Additional Lights is Prohibited in the Rotunda.

The National Archives Museum in the National Archives Building is located at Constitution Ave. and 7th Street, NW, in Washington. Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter station.

This program is presented in partnership with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the Department of Homeland Security U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Please note: due to the ceremony, the Rotunda and the National Archives Museum will open to the public at 11:30 a.m. and remain open until 5:30 p.m. Regular hours of 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m. resume on Dec. 17.

Follow the ceremony using the hashtag #newUScitizen!

Bill of Rights Day commemorates the ratification of the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution on December 15, 1791. In President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 proclamation , he asked that December 15 be “set apart as a day of mobilization for freedom and for human rights, a day of remembrance of the democratic and peaceful action by which these rights were gained, a day of reassessment of their present meaning and their living worth.” For 228 years, this landmark document has guaranteed our freedoms of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for redress of grievances.