Name one reason why the Americans declared independence from Britain.

Why this is the answer

USCIS accepts ten answers here, and they sort into two groups. Four are broad causes: high taxes, taxation without representation, British soldiers staying in Americans' houses (boarding or quartering), and the colonists' lack of self-government. The other six are specific laws and events you can name directly: the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party (or the Tea Act behind it), and the Intolerable Acts, also called the Coercive Acts. The study guide puts self-government at the root of the break. Each colony had a colonial congress that made its laws, and Britain allowed that only while the colonists paid British taxes, followed British laws and supplied raw materials. In the 1760s Britain needed money for a war it was fighting in Europe and North America, so it raised taxes on the colonies. No one from the colonies had a vote on those taxes, and protests spread under the banner of taxation without representation. Britain answered with laws meant to punish the colonists. It imposed still more taxes and made the colonial congresses illegal, and many colonists decided they no longer wanted to be part of Great Britain at all. When Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, these complaints went into the text as charges against the King. It charges him with keeping standing armies among the colonists in peacetime without the consent of their legislatures, and with approving acts that quartered large bodies of armed troops among them, imposed taxes without their consent and suspended their own legislatures. One charge stands out for anyone preparing for a naturalization interview: the King was accused of obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners. The quartering grievance left a mark on the Constitution too. The Third Amendment says no soldier may be quartered in a house in peacetime without the owner's consent. At the interview, give one answer in the words of the list. "Taxation without representation" is the classic, and "high taxes" is the shortest. A general complaint such as "the King was unfair" is not one of the ten, so turn it into a specific grievance before you say it.