Labor Immigration Law

USCIS has released a 16-minute video on the naturalization process including the eligibility requirements, application process, preliminary steps, interview, English tests and U.S. history and government test (civics).   The video also includes two simulated interviews.

USCIS Naturalization Interview and Test Video

This video should  be very helpful to naturalization applicants  to become familiar with the interview and test process and to get a better sense of what they should expect.

As our office continues to handle an increasing number of citizenship application, we thought it would be interesting to share some naturalization statistics, grouped by decade, for the past four decades.

According to numbers provided by USCIS, the period between 2001 and 2010 noted a slowdown in the number foreign nationals becoming U.S. citizens.  The number of naturalized Americans between 2001 and 2010 was 5.6 million, roughly the same as between 1991 and 2000.  By comparison, 1991 to 2000 doubled in comparison to 1981 to 1990.   Much of the slowdown during 2001 to 2010 period is attributed to increased scrutiny as a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks.  As the U.S. immigration authorities adjust their policy, we expect the growth to continue, although not so quickly.

The naturalization statistics, broken down by decade, are as follows:

2001-2010: During this decade, the United States welcomed more than 5.6 million new citizens, including more than 744,000 people during fiscal year 2009 and more than 138,000 in the current fiscal year.  Since September 2001, USCIS has assisted more than 55,000 members of the military to become naturalized U.S. citizens.

1991-2000: Approximately 5.6 million individuals became U.S. citizens during this period, doubling the number from the previous decade. The late 1990s also marked another shift in naturalization demographics, with those of Mexican decent yielding the most naturalized citizens, followed by Vietnamese and Filipinos.

1981-1990: Nearly 2.3 million people were naturalized during the 1980s, nearly half of whom came from Asia. Together, Canada and Mexico accounted for more than one quarter of the remaining new citizens.

1971-1980: The United States welcomed approximately 1.5 million new citizens during the 1970s. The Philippines, Cuba, and China were the leading countries of origin. This trend represented a shift from the 1960s, when the largest number of new citizens came from Europe. An estimated 66,000 members of the U.S. military were naturalized during this decade.

1908: The United States naturalized approximately 25,975 individuals.

1907: The United States naturalized approximately 7,941 individuals.

Our office handles many naturalization and citizenship applications every year.  Please contact us if we can provide you with an initial case consultation or if we can help you with your immigration process.

The nation (and particularly here in Washington, DC) is still abuzz with Senator Arlen Specter’s switch from Republican to Democrat (CNN news article).   The political implications are important – the U.S. Senate’s balance of power will be 59 in favor of the Democrats.

Filibuster Proof Majority?

With the very likely possibility that when Al Franken becomes Minnesota’s junior senator, the Democrats will have 60 Senate seats, which will give them a very strong filibuster-proof majority.

With Sen. Specter’s party switch, one of the immediate questions is how would that impact the possibility and the nature of a comprehensive immigration reform.  With 60 Senate seats in Democrat hands, passing a comprehensive immigration reform may be so much easier now because the Republicans would not be able to oppose and filibuster a proposal with which they do not agree.

Sen. Specter’s Immigration Record

Senator Specter’s record suggests that he would support many of the immigration proposals already circulating in Washington.  Sen. Specter supports “pathway to citizenship” and a “guest worker program” which some opponents call “amnesty.”  He introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, which was passed by the Senate on 25 May 2006 before reaching a stalemate in the House.

Additionally, Sen. Specter has supported a Guest Worker program (in 2006), has supported allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security (2006), and supported visas for skilled workers (1998).  He is considered to hold an open-border stance.

Conclusion

While it is very early to talk about immigration reform, Sen. Specter’s switch to the Democrat party makes it more likely that a comprehensive immigration reform will happen and that it would contain some favorable provisions to aliens already in the country and for skilled workers applying for immigration benefits.   We will continue to be part of Washington’s immigration reform dialogue and provide updates and analysis on the issue over the next months.   If you have not already done so, you can subscribe to our Newsletter to receive weekly updates on this and other related topics.

The Washington Post has a nice expose of a new source of delays for the naturalization proceedings for thousands of legal permanent residents.  The Post article quotes the report by the USCIS Ombudsman, dated December 16, 2008, which finds that while USCIS naturalized more than 1,000,000 new citizens in Fiscal Year 2008 and while there is a significant improvement on eliminating processing bottlenecks such as FBI security checks, there are some new and unexpected sources of delays – the U.S. federal courts.

For example, in one of the nation’s busiest courts (unnamed in the report), a judge’s delay caused nearly 2,000 people to not receive the oath in time to register for November’s general election.  There are four cities in the U.S. where the federal courts retain exclusive jurisdiction over naturalization cases – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit.  One of the examples cited in the report refers to an unnamed judge’s refusal to schedule more naturalization appointments or to allow USCIS to administer the oath to new citizens.

It  turns out that federal courts are being paid by USCIS for each naturalization ceremony they perform, and as a result federal judges are reluctant to give up their authority to do so.  The report urges USCIS and federal courts to work together and set rules on how each party handles ceremonies in order to “to ensure a consistent customer service ethic that safeguards the significance of the event for new citizens.”