U.S. Citizenship & Naturalization Information, News & Issues

Citizen for Us - A Handbook on Naturalization & Citizenship

2011-08-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

http://cliniclegal.org/resources/citizenship-us-handbook

Birth Citizenship and Republican view

2010-08-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/us/politics/07fourteenth.html?ref=citizenship

Becoming a Citizen

2010-08-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/nyregion/04critic.html?ref=citizenship

Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants’ Children

2010-08-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/08/01/kyl-questions-citizenship-for-illegal-immigrants-children/?KEYWORDS=immigration

Online Citizenship Test Study Guide

2009-03-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

A link to Frederick Vallaey's online citizenship test study guide.

http://www.immigrationquiz.com

First Child Becomes a U.S. Citizen Overseas; USCIS Naturalization Ceremony Held in Japan

2009-03-06T14:33:00.000-08:00

YOKOSUKA NAVAL STATION, JAPAN – Martin Miles Ulsano, age 7, the child of a member of the U.S. Navy, today recited the Oath of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony held here in the Chapel of Hope. In doing so, he became the newest citizen of the United States, and the first child naturalized overseas.

Martin, who was born and raised in Japan, is the son of Eugeline and Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Caesar Ulsano. Caesar, who is originally from the Philippines, became a naturalized citizen in 2004 in Hawaii.

“The successful first naturalization of a child overseas reflects the exemplary work of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees in Korea and the military unit at our Nebraska Service Center,” said Mike Aytes, USCIS Acting Deputy Director. This also reflects the great teamwork between USCIS’ domestic and international operations divisions.

James Zumwalt, the Charge D'Affaires from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, delivered the keynote speech. Kenneth Sherman, Director of USCIS’ field office in Seoul, Korea, presided over the ceremony and administered the Oath of Allegiance to Ulsano and the 62 active duty service members and nine military spouses stationed in the Pacific, who also became new citizens.

The new citizens come from diverse backgrounds, hailing from China, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, France, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Romania, and Vietnam.

The National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2008 permits children of U.S service members to receive their citizenship overseas where their parent is stationed even though the child may never have been in the United States. Previous immigration law required these children to be physically present within the United States to naturalize.

Please refer to the fact sheet: “Overseas Naturalization Eligibility for Certain Children of U.S. Armed Forces Members," accessible from the Related Links section of this page, for filing instructions and additional information.

New Naturalization Test: Civics (History and Government) Questions (Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnames Versions)

2009-01-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q_chinese.pdf

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q_spanish.pdf

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q_Tagalog.pdf

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q_Vietnamese.pd

New Naturalization Test: Civics (History & Government) Questions (English Version)

2009-01-23T10:31:00.001-08:00

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q.pdf

Perfectly Legal Immigrants, Until They Applied for Citizenship

2009-01-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

By JULIA PRESTON
SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Dr. Pedro Servano always believed that his journey from his native Philippines to the life of a community doctor in Pennsylvania would lead to American citizenship.
But the doctor, who has tended to patients here in the Susquehanna Valley for more than a decade, is instead battling a deportation order along with his wife.
The Servanos are among a growing group of legal immigrants who reach for the prize and permanence of citizenship, only to run afoul of highly technical immigration statutes that carry the severe penalty of expulsion from the country. For the Servanos, the problem has been a legal hitch involving their marital status when they came from the Philippines some 25 years ago.
Largely overlooked in the charged debate over illegal immigration, many of these are long-term legal immigrants in the United States who were confident of success when they applied for naturalization, and would have continued to live here legally had they not sought to become citizens.
As applications for naturalization have surged, overburdened federal examiners, under pressure to make quick decisions and also weed out any security risks, prefer to err on the side of rejection, immigration lawyers and independent researchers said. In 2007, 89,683 applications for naturalization were denied, about 12 percent of those presented.
In the last 12 years, denial rates have been consistently higher than at any time since the 1920s.
Though precise figures are not available, an increasing number of these denials involve immigrants who believed they were in good legal standing, according to lawyers and researchers. Under the law, a number of grounds for naturalization denial can lead to an order of deportation, and appeals are more limited than in criminal cases.
“It’s no wonder there are so many illegal immigrants,” said Brad Darnell, an electrical engineer from Canada living in California who applied for citizenship but is also now fighting deportation. “The legal method is so intolerant and confusing.”
A legal immigrant since 1991, Mr. Darnell is married to an American and has two American-born sons. But after he presented his naturalization application last year, Mr. Darnell discovered that a 10-year-old conviction for domestic violence involving a former girlfriend, even though it had been reduced to a misdemeanor and erased from his public record, made him ineligible to become a citizen — or even to continue living in the United States.
Since 1996, when an immigration law overhaul first brought intensified scrutiny of citizenship applications, at least 85,000 naturalizations have been turned down each year.
The record year was 2000, when 399,670 applications were denied, one-third of those presented, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization. More recent denial rates remain high, but have fallen from the peak because more immigrants have prepared with civics classes and immigrant advocates before applying to become citizens, researchers said.
In three recent cases in Florida, aspiring citizens thought their green cards entitled them to vote or register to vote before they were sworn in as Americans. When the immigrants reported their elections activities on their applications, not only were their naturalizations rejected, but they were also ordered to leave the country, according to their lawyer, Jeffrey Brauwerman.
In a current Florida case, a British-born businessman saw his naturalization derailed and was detained for deportation because he forgot to update his home address with the immigration agency, Mr. Brauwerman said. He was charged with ignoring a notice in which immigration examiners mistakenly accused him of a felony he had never committed.
In a case that drew Congressional attention this year in Illinois, Marin Turcinovic, an immigrant from Croatia, was twice denied citizenship because he did not show up at the immigration office to be fingerprinted. As his lawyer explained to no avail, Mr. Turcinovic was a quadriplegic, dependent on a ventilator and unable to leave his home.
Mr. Turcinovic died in April 2004 without becoming a citizen, creating an immigration crisis for his French widow, Corina, who had taken care of him. In January Representative Daniel Lipinski, Democrat of Illinois, presented a bill that halted her deportation.
Immigration officials say denials have increased in the last decade because naturalization applications are increasing. They note that approvals are rising as well. In 1996 naturalizations soared for the first time to more than one million, and they remained above 450,000 each year through 2007.
“Whenever we see a period when large numbers decide to apply, there tend to be larger numbers of people who are not ready or might not meet the requirements,” said Chris Rhatigan, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Officials said the majority of denials went to applicants who failed a required civics and English language test or fell short of residency requirements. Those immigrants generally can try again.
But as the case of the Servano family illustrates, some denials come as a shock to both the applicants and the communities they call home.
Dr. Servano’s mother, five siblings and eight of his wife’s siblings became naturalized citizens, including one brother and two brothers-in-law who made careers in the Navy. His four children are Americans by virtue of being born here. He has been a legal immigrant in the United States for 25 years.
Following an outcry from neighbors, patients and local officials, Department of Homeland Security officials in December temporarily suspended the Servanos’ deportation. The Servanos and their supporters, including Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, are using the unusual reprieve to pursue new legal efforts to resolve the couple’s case.
For the federal government and for many Americans, naturalizations — the legal process by which legal immigrants become citizens — are a measure of immigrants’ willingness to join the society and embrace its civic values.
To become a citizen, a legal permanent resident must have lived in the United States more or less continuously for five years, or three years for the spouse of a citizen. The immigrant must demonstrate good moral character and allegiance to the Constitution, and pass a test of English ability and civics. Since 2002, citizenship applicants also undergo an extensive background check by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Applicants fail the moral character standard if they have been convicted of certain sex, drug or gambling charges or are “habitual drunkards.” They also can fail if they give “false testimony,” a term immigration lawyers say is subject to broad interpretation.
Dr. Servano and his wife, Salvacion, lived for years in the United States with no inkling they might have violated the law. They met in the Philippines when she was a nurse and he was a young traveling doctor. Her strict father insisted she marry, they said, but his family wanted him to wait.
In the early 1980s, their mothers came separately to the United States as legal immigrants and petitioned for residence visas, known as green cards, for Pedro and Salvacion under the category of unmarried children. But between the time the visas were requested and when they were issued in 1985, Pedro and Salvacion, hoping to escape conflicting parental demands, secretly married in the Philippines.
Unaware that their marriage could have violated the terms of their green cards, the Servanos settled in the United States. He completed a second medical residency here and began to practice in blue-collar towns where he made house calls and was known for attention to everyday ills. He and Salvacion married in New Jersey in 1987. They renewed their green cards punctually.
“My goal is to be fully functional and integrated into the society,” Dr. Servano said. They presented their 1991 naturalization applications without seeking a lawyer.
Immigration inspectors reviewing their applications discovered a record of their Philippine marriage. Accused of lying, they were ordered deported. In years of immigration court appeals, the Servanos had no opportunity to present broader evidence of their character, their lawyers said.
People in Selinsgrove and nearby Sunbury, Susquehanna Valley towns where Dr. Servano practices, were surprised to hear in October that the couple had received a final order with a November date for their deportation. Aside from his medical work, he and his wife had bought two blighted buildings on the square in Sunbury, refurbishing them with apartments and offices. Mrs. Servano opened a store, selling lottery tickets, homemade Filipino bread and DVDs in Tagalog, a Philippine language.
In November, more than 100 residents gathered in the Sunbury square for a candlelight vigil on behalf of the Servanos. Thousands of Filipinos in the United States have signed petitions supporting them.
“The fact that they want to displace and get rid of people we here feel are exceptionally good citizens quite frankly just doesn’t make any sense,” said Mayor Jesse C. Woodring of Sunbury.
The Servanos, huddled on the couch in their home in a Selinsgrove development, seemed numb at the prospect of returning to the Philippines.
“I live here, so I like America now,” Mrs. Servano said. “For 25 years we’ve been here; we didn’t even visit the Philippines. So it’s really hard.”
Their son, Peter, 16, an American, expressed his siblings’ anguish about being forced to separate either from their parents or from the only home they know.
“I want to stay here because all my friends are here, and I’ve grown up here, so it would be hard to leave,” Peter said. “But it would be hard not to go.”
Michael Gilhooly, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which handles deportations, said the Servanos’ removal had been suspended based on new information from Mr. Specter about their humanitarian role. Other immigration officials said the Servanos could recover their legal status by applying for new green cards as parents of citizen children.

--NY Times--

Vocabulary List for the New Naturalization Test

2009-01-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

A compilation of the two separate vocabulary lists released by USCIS for the reading and writing sections of the Naturalization test.

People:
Adams
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington

Civics:
American flag
American Indians
Bill of Rights
capital
citizens
city
Civil war
Congress
Father of Our Country
flag
free
freedom of speech
government
President
right
Senators
state/states
White House

Places:
Alaska
America
California
Canada
Delaware
Mexico
New York City
United States
Washington
Washington, D.C.

Months:
February
May
June
July
September
October November

Holidays:
Presidents' Day
Memorial Day
Flag Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Thanksgiving Day

Question Words:
How?
What?
When?
Where?
Who?
Why?

Verbs:
can
come
do/does
elect
have/has
is/are/was/be
lives/lived
meets/meet
name
pay
vote
want

Other (function)
a
and
during
for
here
in
of
on
the
to
we

Other (content)
blue
colors
dollar bill
fifty/50
first
largest
many
most
north
one
one hundred/100
people
red
second
south
taxes
white

The Naturalization Process

2009-01-15T14:32:00.001-08:00

An overview of the complete naturalization process. The steps to take to become a U.S. citizen.

Becoming a U.S. Citizen: An Overview of the Naturalization Process

From: USCIS

Civics Flash Cards

2009-01-15T14:24:00.000-08:00

This is a direct link to civics flash cards for the new naturalization test. A great study tool!

Civics Flash Cards for the New Naturalization Test (7523KB PDF)

A Long Time for Citizenship Interviews!

2008-06-23T17:02:00.001-07:00

In D.C. Area, Citizenship Test Is One Of Patience
Local Immigrants Face Longest Wait

By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 3, 2008

Eager to become an American citizen? Don't move to the Washington region. Try Omaha.

The federal agency that handles immigration paperwork has been rolling out tidbits of good -- or less bad -- news about last summer's deluge of naturalization applications, which created a backlog that might prevent hundreds of thousands of would-be citizens from voting in November.

Early last month, the agency announced that it would take an average of 13 to 15 months to process the petitions, not as long as previously predicted but longer than the pre-influx average of seven months.

Then last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services projected what the processing times would be at the end of September at 70 offices across the country. There was more good news -- for folks in places such as Omaha, that is, where citizenship paperwork is expected to be polished off in 5.8 months.

Washington area applicants will need to preserve their patience.

Maryland petitioners, whose papers go to Baltimore, can expect a 14-month wait, the agency said. Applicants in Southern Virginia, who file in Norfolk, will probably have the second-longest wait in the nation -- 14.6 months.

Those in Northern Virginia and the District? They will face the nation's longest delay -- 14.7 months.

"You would think that D.C. has an inside track," said William Ramos, head of the Washington office of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

"I'll vote next time, if I'm alive," said Reston retiree Apolonio Marin, 69, a Nicaraguan native who applied for citizenship last summer. He is still waiting.

Those comments and the agency's projections underscore a problem that has long frustrated critics of the bureaucratic and sluggish U.S. immigration system: How long applicants wait depends on where they live. And in this election year, some say, the variations are more important and unfair than ever.

"One of the benefits of becoming a citizen is to be able to vote," said Parastoo Zahedi, a Vienna lawyer who heads the Washington area chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "Why should their cousin who lives in a jurisdiction that processes their application faster get to vote and those who live in Virginia have to skip the vote?"

Officials with USCIS, which is funded by fees, stop short of saying they need more money. Places with more immigrants are bound to have longer waits, they say.

"It does seem unfair if someone's applying in a small area of the country versus someone applying in Los Angeles or Washington or Detroit or Dallas. And it is unfair," said Bill Wright, a USCIS spokesman. "But if we have more in Washington, D.C., there's really not a whole lot we can do about it. It's based on the demand. It's based on the resources available to us."

USCIS officials say they were overwhelmed by last year's surge, which was triggered by a fee increase and bolstered by interest in the presidential election and tensions over immigration. The cost of an application, including fingerprinting fees, jumped from $410 to $675 on July 30. Between October 2006 and September 2007, USCIS received 1.4 million naturalization applications, nearly twice as many as in the previous 12-month period. Of those, 460,000 arrived in July.

Wright said it was "not appropriate" to estimate how many of the 1.4 million applications would be finalized by Election Day.

The influx did not hit all offices to the same degree, officials said.

In July, the Baltimore immigration office received 4,549 naturalization applications, up from 1,374 in the same month in 2006. Intake at the Washington office, which handles applications from the District and Northern Virginia, jumped from 1,453 in July 2006 to 7,192 last July. Each of those offices had 31 adjudication officers to process all types of applications. Norfolk received 1,590 naturalization petitions in July, a sixfold increase over July 2006. Seven employees were on staff to process them.

"A lot of this is the result of some grass-roots efforts on the ground to get folks to apply for citizenship, and the filings depended on where those efforts were," said Don Neufeld, acting associate director of domestic operations for USCIS. "Some offices were better situated to be able to absorb a surge."

USCIS officials say they are tackling the naturalization backlog by hiring employees and holding citizenship interviews during off hours. Six hundred adjudication officers have been hired nationally, and 637 are in the pipeline, officials said. The agency wants to bring the processing time for naturalization down to a five-month average by 2010.

In February, the Baltimore office began conducting citizenship interviews on one Saturday a month; Saturday interviews will begin this month in the Washington office, which is in Fairfax County. Washington and Baltimore have each added nine adjudication officers; Norfolk, three, officials said.

Surge aside, immigration processing times have long varied by location. It is a topic that generates angst on immigration-related Web sites and uproar among USCIS watchdogs. A report last year by the USCIS ombudsman singled out the variations as one example of the agency's "continued lack of standardization."

Critics say USCIS should be aware enough of immigrant settlement patterns to staff offices accordingly. They also say that delays are not always longest in immigrant-heavy regions: The recent projections put the processing time of Chicago at 8.6 months and that of Yakima, Wash., at 14.1 months.

Prakash Khatri, a District lawyer who served as the USCIS ombudsman from 2003 until the end of February, said his investigations revealed that planning at the national level does not always account for needs in offices such as the one in Norfolk, which Khatri said was already busy with applications from service members who qualify for expedited citizenship. Some offices focus on simple cases to meet "production quotas," Khatri said, then get backed up with complicated ones. Others, he said, are more efficient because of good management or interest from their congressional delegation.

"But there is no excuse for a five-month processing in one part of the country or a 15-month processing in another, when there is a national law that should be administered by the federal government fairly and equitably across the country," Khatri said, referring to the Immigration and Naturalization Act. "This does impact people's lives in terms of benefits and grants and in terms of jobs."

It's all a bit baffling for immigrant applicants.

Marin, the Nicaraguan native who lives in Reston, said he hopes to be able to vote for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in November. He applied for citizenship with his wife and son in June. His daughter applied later and has taken her citizenship test. She must be lucky: She applied in Norfolk.

"I belong to here now," said Marin, who teaches English at Hogar Hispano, a Falls Church program run by Catholic Charities. He has lived in the United States for two decades. "I was trying to vote, that's my biggest concern. For this reason, I'm disappointed."

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Attempts to Deport Navy Airman with pending Citizenship Application!

2008-06-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

Amazing what ICE (U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement) does!

DHS tries to deport Navy airman, applicant for citizenship

"At the hearing I was fortunate to be represented by pro bono counsel who had helped me file my original paperwork for residency. The counsel asked the judge to terminate the proceeding based on the Forman Memo put out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement which states that ICE should not initiate removal proceedings against military members who are eligible for naturalization under sections 328 or 329 of the INA. Despite the fact that I had an N-400 application pending based on my military service, ICE objected to the termination and the judge would only grant the motion written by Navy Legal Service Office Mid Atlantic to change venue to Arlington. I have a new hearing date set for July 1, 2008 in Arlington." House testimony of Karla Arambula de Rivera, May 20, 2008.

See www.bibdaily.com for 5 pages of testimony by Karla Arambula de Rivera.

Derivative Citizenship Case

2008-06-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

Unpublished BIA (Board of Immigration Appeals) decision on legal custody, derivative citizenship

"We find that the award of "joint legal custody" in this case satisfies the statutory term under section 321(a)(3) of the Act." Matter of Del Cid, A35-235-281 - Dallas, May 3, 2006.

See www.bibdaily.com for 3 page case decision.