I have read nothing yet that gives a persuasive reason for making the checkboxes related to Citizenship / Felony and mental competence as optional for the applicant.  Here is what convinced me that the SBE is wrong in making the changes:  Under the new regulations, a potential fraudster can ignore the box about citizenship, sign the form, and then claim later that they believed they met all the Virginia requirements and didn’t realize that not being a citizen wasn’t one of them – no prosecutor is going to take that case. But by having them affirmatively check a box indicating they are a citizen when they aren’t, that’s more solid evidence that the fraudster intended to violate the law and gives prosecutors more substantial evidence to use in a potential criminal action.