Is getting my grandmother citizenship worth it?

For reasons too numerous to recount in this forum, it is infinitely wiser for your grandmother to become a US citizen. Second, unless there are issues such as previous criminal conviction in her past, she will not lose her green card just because she filed for citizenship. Third, CIS provides opportunities for aliens who are of advanced age or with medical challenges to be interviewed in their native language. In fact, for those individuals whose medical issues makes it difficult to pass the citizenship interview, such individuals may be able to avoid the citizenship test altogether and still become US citizens. You should consult with an experienced immigration lawyer to help your grandmother attain her wish to become a senior US citizen.

Its much better to have citizenship compared to residence and if you apply and don't get it, you still keep your residence. As an older person, your grandmother may be able to qualify for more benefits when she needs them from social security and medicare too that she could not get if she were only a resident. Plus, she can vote and in addition, she could make petitions for her adult married children that are not possible if she is a resident. There is no downside to applying for citizenship, that I can see. She may be able to take a shorter examination if she has been here a long time.

First of all, if your grandmother takes the test and fails it, she will not lose her current status or anything else (except the filing fees and time). Second, she might be eligible for a waiver of examination due to her age and health; if not, and if she has been a permanent resident for 20 years, she can be given a very light version of the exam in her native language. Third, as a citizen, she would become eligible for Medicare and other benefits not available to residents. Fourth, in the recent years there were numerous reports that elderly permanent residents are getting their Medicaid and SSI cancelled if they do not become citizens within 7 years from getting green cards. The law allows this to happen; and the federal and state agencies, looking to save money for more important purposes, take away support from the old people who cannot vote, don't speak English well enough and loud enough to make themselves heard, and cannot afford to hire someone else to speak for them. Fifth, your mother is right: if she becomes a citizen, your grandmother could file petitions for her married children; and her petitions would give your uncles and aunts green cards much sooner than they could get through petitions by your mother. So, taking all this into consideration, do you think your mother should try becoming a citizen?

If your grandmother can pass the citizenship test or obtain a waiver thereof based on her medical and/or mental condition, then she can go ahead with it. No one can tell you whether it is worthwhile or not since no one else can know the extent of the reasons why you want your grandmother to become naturalized.

She may be exempt from the test requirement. When did she become a permanent resident? Yes, as a citizen she can petition for her adult children and the wait times are substantially shorter.