Also, Military Naturalizations Drop Sharply
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three quarters of a million would-be new American citizens are waiting up to 20 months for citizenship because of lengthening backlogs.
As a National Immigration Forum blog post notes, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reported 753,352 pending applications as of March 31, halfway through fiscal year 2018 — a 44 percent increase in the 18 months since the end of fiscal year 2016.
Estimated processing times for citizenship applications vary by USCIS field office, but the agency’s current estimate in Houston, as one example, is 17.5 to 20 months. Advocates estimated a Texas state average of five to six months in 2016.
In addition, a new analysis shows that naturalizations in the military dropped by more than half in the first six months of the current fiscal year vs. the same period a year earlier. In this case, policy changes the Trump administration announced last October are behind the decrease.
“The administration and Congress have a responsibility to shorten the wait time for citizenship,” said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum. “Pending new American citizens, and all of us who work with and count on them, should not have to endure months or even years of uncertainty.
“Those who fight for the United States should not have to fight to become citizens of the United States,” he added.