Almost a citizen a few questions away please help

[Almost Citizen]

Hello everyone like my name says I could almost be a citizen but I have some questions,

I would like to apply next year for citizenship but let me explain my case and my story.

I was born in Mexico in 1982
I entered the US illegally in 1997
I attended high school
Then my parents applied for my residence
My step father is American and my mother became a resident because she is married to him for many years.
Somehow I got lucky after my parents applied and I became a resident in February 2001

Can I still become a citizen if I entered illegally without a passport but I am now a resident?

It has been over 5 years since I've been a resident

I have paid all my federal taxes for each year I was a resident

Here is a question do I have to have file all of my state taxes to be eligible to become a citizen? Please note I do not owe any money in back taxes I never made that much if anything I will be getting money back when I file. I live in New Jersey.

I have paid some of my state taxes not all. The reason is that I never made much money and my step dad said that if i made little money I did not have to file. Anyway I'm pretty sure this is not true after all and there are several years that he claimed me as a dependent. I have all my W2 forms thankfully so I will file what I'm missing. Some of the years I will have to trace under which I was filed as a dependent so I can file as a dependent so I don't end up filing as a independent and get a fine.

So in short my 3 questions are that I entered the USA illegally but I am now a resident do I have to worry if I get asked how did I enter the U.S. at first and have to answer that I entered illegally? Does that take away my chances for becoming a citizen automatically?

Question 2 do I need to go back and file the state taxes for the years I'm missing? or is filling federal taxes all that is needed?

Question 3 I have a mental illness so I needed to be hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital. Do I need a letter of some sort from a psychiatrist if I've been hospitalized less than a year ago? There is a question about mental competency where they want to know if you had to be hospitalized as an inpatient. How do I approach that question?

Thanks

P.S. I really need to file in 2010 because my resident card expires in early 2011

 

[Jackolantern]

Once you have a green card, when applying for citizenship it doesn't matter whether you entered the US illegally prior to the green card, as long as you were eligible for the green card under the rules at the time (including amnesty). But if they were not supposed to grant the green card due to your illegal entry (but then granted it by mistake), or you or your parents faked the documents to pretend as if you entered legally, your naturalization can be denied for that reason.

You need to file the state taxes for the years where you earned enough to be required to file. Note that although for Federal taxes you normally don't have to file if you make less than about $8000, in some states you still have to file a state tax return for income of less than $1000. You need to look up the rules for your state and figure out if you earned enough in each year to be required to file taxes.