Wave of immigrants could be at polls
1m citizenship forms processed
Most immigrants who applied for US citizenship during a tidal wave of applications last year should be sworn in and eligible to vote by the November elections, Federal immigration authorities said yesterday.
A fee hike last summer led to a surge in naturalization applications - 1.4 million by the budget year that ended in September 2007, nearly double the typical amount. The increase triggered delays in processing times, but federal officials said yesterday that they will have completed more than 1 million naturalization applications by September, including most of those filed last summer.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes applications, typically approves the vast majority of applicants, rejecting 12 percent to 15 percent a year.
The agency's Boston office has already finished most of last summer's applications.
"We're doing much better than we had anticipated in our original projections," said spokesman Bill Wright. "It's very good progress and we hope to do even better."
Federal officials said they reduced the backlog by adding personnel and working extended hours. But advocates for immigrants warned that thousands of people across the United States still will not become citizens in time to vote.
"We are still very concerned that there will be large numbers of persons who about a year ago filed to be naturalized and have yet to go through that process," said César Perales, president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, which sued the federal agency over the matter. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit last week, but the organization plans to appeal.
Citizenship and Immigration Services received a deluge of citizenship applications last year in part because the fee to apply rose from $400 to $675. Suddenly, the agency's national goal of processing applications in five months stretched to an estimated 16 months to 18 months.
Now officials estimate the processing time will be 10 months to 12 months nationally by September, from the time the application is filed until it is decided. In Boston, officials said processing will take nearly nine months.
The longest waits - more than 14 months - will be in Hartford, Charlotte, N.C., Charleston, S.C., and New Orleans.
To apply for US citizenship, immigrants generally must have been legal residents for five years, have a basic command of English, pass a US history and civics test, have good moral character, and adhere to the US Constitution. They also undergo background checks for security purposes.
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.
