Dallas-Fort Worth Immigration Lawyer

This has become an old story by now, but as we get nearer to the November election (will it ever get here?) the story is taking on more urgency. USCIS is not able to process citizenship applications quickly enough, and as a result there is a very good chance that thousands of would-be U.S. citizens will not be able to vote for their next president.

An unprecedented surge in U.S. citizenship applications has applicants waiting more than twice as long as normal for approval. According to the USCIS, the Dallas office was working in mid-June on naturalization petitions filed 11 months earlier. Other offices take as long as 14 months.

Conspiracy theorists say that the current Republican administration is deliberately delaying citizenship for immigrants they fear will vote Democratic in the next election. It's possible there's some truth to that, but I think the larger problem is that USCIS simply doesn't have the resources to handle this flood of applications.
Still, it's going to be a shame if we have to tell these law-abiding people trying to do the right thing and participate in their chosen country's political process that government red tape will prevent them from voting.

Posted by Bob Kraft at 02:37 PM | Permalink

According to a New York Times article, a lawsuit filed this month in a federal court in New York by Latino immigrants seeks to force immigration authorities to complete hundreds of thousands of stalled naturalization petitions in time for the new citizens to vote in November. Here are excerpts from the article:

The class-action suit was brought by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund on behalf of legal Hispanic immigrants in the New York City area who are eager to vote and have been waiting for years for the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services agency to finish their applications. The suit demands that the agency meet a nationwide deadline of Sept. 22 to complete any naturalization petitions filed by March 26.

Latino groups hope to summon the clout of the federal courts to compel the Bush administration to reduce a backlog of citizenship applications that swelled last year. According to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, more than one million citizenship petitions were backed up in the pipeline by the end of December, the majority from Latino immigrants.

Despite protests over the delays from lawmakers, Latino groups and immigrant advocates, the immigration agency is currently projecting wait times of 16 months to 18 months to process the petitions.

“The reality is that large numbers of Latinos will not be able to vote in the elections because of these delays,” said Cesar A. Perales, president of the defense fund. “Now the world will know that the Latino community expects the Bush administration to get this done on time.” 

The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, asserts that the agency violated immigrants’ due process rights by routinely failing to finish their applications within a 180-day time period that Congress has set as a standard. It also asserts that the Bush administration did not follow regulatory procedures in November 2002 when it ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to deepen its background checks of citizenship applicants. 

A fee increase, raising naturalization costs 80 percent to $595, went into effect on July 30. Legal immigrants were also spurred to seek citizenship by worries about the divisive debate over immigration and by citizenship campaigns by Latino groups.

“It is astonishing the government should be so unresponsive to immigrants who have enthusiastically taken all the steps to become Americans,” said Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino group that supported the suit.

Posted by Bob Kraft at 05:52 AM | Permalink

A spouse of a deceased US citizen may file a petition on his/her behalf and qualify as an immediate relative. Certain eligibility requirements must be met before filing the petition:

The widow was married to the US citizen for at least two years;
The deceased spouse must have been a US citizen at the time of death;
The US citizen and widower were not separated at the time of the citizen's death;
The widow has not remarried at the time of filing.

The widower must self-petition on Form I-360, and submit supporting documentation establishing the deceased spouse's citizenship, and evidence illustrating the relationship between the deceased spouse and widower. This may include a marriage certificate, divorce decrees of earlier spouses, the US citizen's birth certificate or naturalization certificate and death certificate.

The widower need not be residing in the United States to file the petition. If the widower is outside the U.S., the petition will be filed at the Immigration Service's overseas offices or at the U.S. consulate with jurisdiction over the alien's place of residence.

To learn more please call us at 214-999-9999.

Posted by Bob Kraft at 06:44 PM | Permalink

Generally, Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR's) may be eligible for naturalization upon meeting the naturalization criteria. In order to qualify, an individual must satisfy the following:

1. Must be an LPR;
2. Must be over 18 years of age;
3. After becoming an LPR, must have continuously resided in the U.S. for five years;
4. Must maintain residence for three months in the state where the application is filed;
5. Must have basic English language skills and knowledge of U.S. history and government.

If an LPR does not want to wait five years to apply for naturalization, the LPR may apply for naturalization after three years if he or she is married to a U.S. citizen. If the LPR is married to a U.S. citizen, the continuous residence requirement is three years only if the U.S. citizen spouse has been a citizen for three years and the parties have been married for three years and continue to be married at the time of naturalization. An LPR need not be living with the U.S. citizen spouse after filing the naturalization application, but must continue to be married at the time of naturalization.

Although the continuous residence requirement may be changed from five years to three years (if married to a U.S. citizen), the other requirements must still be met to qualify for naturalization.

If you want to learn more about naturalization and the continuous residence requirement based on marriage to a U.S. citizen, please call us at 214-999-9999.

Posted by Bob Kraft at 04:03 PM | Permalink

Did you know that you may claim citizenship if you are under the age of 18, and either of your parents are U.S. citizens, but you were born abroad? You may apply to the Immigration Service for a certificate of citizenship. In order to be issued a certificate of citizenship the following requirements must be met:

1. At least one parent is a U.S. citizen either by birth (acquired citizenship) or naturalization (derivative citizenship);

2. The child must be under 18 years of age;

3. The child is in the United States pursuant to a lawful admission, or outside of the U.S in the legal and physical custody of the citizen parent and is temporarily present in the U.S. pursuant to a lawful admission and is maintaining lawful status; and

4. The U.S. citizen parent must have been physically present in the United States for at least five years (at least two years of which were after the parent reached 14 years of age); or the child's grandparent must meet the five year physical presence requirement.

If you meet these requirements before your 18th birthday, call us at 214-999-9999 to learn more about how to apply for a certificate of citizenship.

Posted by Bob Kraft at 03:02 PM | Permalink