Changes in citizenship process cutting backlog, director say
Changes in citizenship process cutting backlog, director says
By Christopher Sanchez
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 08/01/2008 12:32:58 AM MDT
He had heard the stories before: Waiting. Lots of waiting. It could take five, six years to get that application processed for citizenship.
Steven Jones, born in Canada, lucked out. It took him six months. Maybe because he has been a permanent resident since 1982, he said.
"I'm kind of Americanized because I've lived here for so long," he said. "This is home."
Jones became fully Americanized on Thursday when he was sworn in as a citizen at the Teikyo Loretto Heights Theater along with 201 others from 58 countries.
Applying for citizenship is something the U.S. government acknowledges can be a long, arduous process. Just as Jones pointed out, it could take five to six years to wade through the application process.
Jonathan Scharfen, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said there has been a backlog in processing citizenship applications since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. There are a number of reasons to point to, but it comes down to FBI name-checking, he said.
It's something that will soon change, Scharfen said. His department this year started spending $28 million to eliminate the FBI name-checking backlog.
It has already had some effects: Last year's waiting list was cut in half to 200,000. Ten thousand of those were names on citizenship applications that were submitted more than three years ago.
Scharfen said the FBI name-checking problem will nearly disappear by next June.
He said the new system will be more effective, and it will fortify national security. He said that out of the names the FBI checks on citizenship applications, just 1 percent don't clear.
In the Denver area, it takes on average eight months for the government to process an application. But by next year it will be down to four to five months.
"It's a good work plan. It's proven," Scharfen said. "It's going to work."
Christopher Sanchez: 303-954-1698 or csanchez@denverpost.com
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10061457
