Articles Posted in Citizenship

USCIS published a notice announcing the revision of its Direct Mail Program so that certain filings of Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, will now be filed at a designated lockbox facility instead of a USCIS Service Center.

During the first 30 days after this notice takes affect, USCIS will forward incorrectly addressed Form N-400s to the proper address, rather than reject it. USCIS will forward any improperly addressed Form N-400s covered by this notice as follows:

Any Form N-400 from non-Armed Forces applicants will be forwarded to either the Dallas or Phoenix lockbox facilities.

As the year comes to an end, we wanted to update our local readers about the upcoming Oath ceremonies for 2009. This may be useful to people that are in the process of applying for Citizenship and may need to plan ahead.

FINAL HEARING DATES FOR GOLDEN HALL FOR 2009
1/20/09 New Americans Museum N-600 ceremony for children 18 and under
1/28/09 Children’s Primary School, sponsor, Golden Hall
2/18/09 San Diego DAR
3/18/09 American Legion, Sponsor, Golden Hall
4/22/09 Golden Hall
5/20/09 Golden Hall
5/21/09 Memorial Day all-military ceremony aboard USS MIDWAY MUSEUM,
6/17/09 Golden Hall
7//02/09 Independence Day all-military ceremony at the Cabrillo National Monument
7/22/09 La Jolla DAR/CAR, sponsor, Golden Hall
8/19/09 Golden Hall
9/17/09 Citizenship Day/Constitution Week all-military ceremony at Camp Pendleton
9/23/09 Golden Hall
10/21/09 Golden Hall
11/10/09 Veterans Day all-military ceremony aboard the USS MIDWAY Museum,
11/18/09 Golden Hall
12/16/09 Golden Hall
2009 Chula Vista Final Hearing Schedule
All dates at 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. at Chula Vista Field Office
January 28
February 25
March 25
April 29
May 27
June 24
July 29
August 26
September 30
October 28
November 18
December 16

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Defense Secretary Robert Gates has authorized the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to recruit certain legal residents whose critical medical and language skills are “vital to the national interest,” officials said, using for the first time a law passed three years ago.

Gates’ action enables the services to start a one-year pilot program to find up to 1,000 foreigners who have lived in the states legally for at least two years. The new recruits into the armed forces would get accelerated treatment in the process toward becoming U.S. citizens in return for military service in the United States or abroad.

This program could benefit large number of foreign born medical professionals, like Nurses, PT’s and dermatologists currently in the US waiting in line to become residents and Citizens. The government expects that among those who will be interested in the new effort are doctors with work visas who are employed at hospitals around the country.

Today is Veterans day, and I wanted to send warm wards of support to our Veterans and the active duty men and women fighting for our country day and night.

As it relates to immigration, On July 3, 2002, President George W. Bush signed an Executive Order allowing certain noncitizens to become Naturalized citizens of the United States if they served an in an active-duty status during the war on terrorism. (See Expedited Naturalization of Aliens & Noncitizen Nationals Serving in an Active-Duty Status During the War on Terrorism, 67 Fed. Reg. 45287 (7/8/02), Executive Order (President). Download file

Additionally,as a Gulf War veteran, one may be eligible for expedited Naturalization under Immigration and Nationality Act section 329, Naturalization through Active-Duty Service in the Armed Forces during World War I, World War II, Korean Hostilities, Vietnam Hostilities, or in other Periods of Military Hostilities. For example, if one performed active duty military service during the Persian Gulf (August 2, 1990 – April 11, 1991) or on or after September 11, 2001, one may be eligible for expedited Naturalization.

USCIS continues to make efforts in decreasing the N-400 Naturalization processing delays. Some applicants are waiting more than 2 years for cases to be adjudicated, but USCIS is really making an effort to make things better.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it continues

to make steady progress in reducing the significant number of naturalization applications it received last year. USCIS now anticipates naturalization application processing will average 10-12 months nationally by the end of September 2008 – a substantial improvement from its estimated average processing time of 16-18 months first announced last year.

We report on a recent Memo from Donald Neufeld, Acting Associate Director, Domestic Operations, to USCIS field offices on changes to the naturalization interview process. As you all N400 interviews are taking too long to schedule, and part of the problem is the time it takes to process such interviews at the local offices. USCIS officials hope that the new policy will improve things.

For example, one difference from current practice is the sequence – that the English and civics tests can be administered before the interview following the pre-examination check-in process, as opposed to during the actual interview. The tests must be administered by designated and trained personnel. The test questions, test administration, reasonable accommodation requirements and standards for passing remain unchanged.

We uploaded the actual internal Memo here so you can review all the up coming changes Download file

Per the USCIS announcement on June 5, 2008, USCIS is centralizing the processing of N-400’s at NBC, with one exception. Military naturalization applicants will continue to file with the Nebraska Service Center until further notice.

Movement of N-400 applications from the service centers to the National Benefits Center
(NBC) for centralized staging and subsequent processing will occur in an incremental
fashion. The Texas Service Center (TSC) will move forms from its office to the NBC
during the month of June. This movement will not involve all N-400 applications
received at the TSC, however. The TSC will only move those cases received and
accepted at their site after June 6th. Only those cases received after this date and found to
be correctly filed according to USCIS standards will be transferred to the NBC.

The California Service Center will follow suit during the month of July by transferring
only those cases meeting the above stated criteria after the specific date in July yet to be
determined and communicated. The Nebraska Service Center will be transferring its
cases received in August, in like fashion. The Vermont Service Center will conclude this
transition phase with the movement of its cases to the NBC within the month of
September. Only those cases receipted after the specific date set in September will be
moved from the VSC to the NBC.

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Thousands of Immigrants are facing sever processing delays due to Name Check and other security background checks delays. In some cases the delays is so severe, causing the applicants extreme hardship in every day life. I can say that every day we get calls from clients seeking assistance with the name check delays. In most cases I suggest to approach the issue on a case by case basis.

Here are a few suggestions on how to approach this problem:

Whether you have an attorney or you are following the case yourself, you must make consistent inquiries on the case with the USCIS. Inquiries can be done via email, in writing, or in person via infopass. No matter how you do it, keep a consistent log of all inquires on the case.

We all know that the recent fee hike, and other changes that happened in July created a massive backlog in application processing. Clients are waiting for months just to get receipts. Well now we may have a solution from Sen. Chuck Schumer – Immigration officials should rehire retirees to help clear a backlog of applications that could keep some people from becoming citizens, he said on Thursday:

“For waves of would-be citizens, bureaucratic incompetence is turning the American Dream into a dream deferred,” Schumer said in a news release.

Citizenship and Immigration Services last week announced that people wanting to become U.S. citizens will have to wait 15 months to 18 months, rather than the national average seven months, to naturalize.