Fewer seek citizenship after application fee increase

By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY
Immigrants are getting priced out of citizenship because they can't afford higher application fees that kicked in last year, according to a report out today.
Citizenship applications plummeted after the fee rose from $400 to $675 on July 30, 2007, says an analysis by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, an immigrant-advocate group.

In the first six months of this year, an average of 46,866 immigrants applied for citizenship each month — a 59% decrease from last year, when an average of 114,469 people applied monthly during the same period.

"The expense has shut the door on many hard-working immigrant families," says report author Flavia Jimenez.

Officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) believe applications are down because so many people rushed to apply before the fees went up. The agency received about 650,000 more applications last year than in 2006, acting deputy director Mike Aytes says.

"We saw a lot of people who chose to file earlier than otherwise," Aytes says. "We do see the numbers starting to come back up."

Still, he acknowledges that this year's numbers are below a typical year.

The agency allows citizenship applicants to apply for waivers if they can't afford the fee and generally approves about two-thirds of the requests, Aytes says. In July, USCIS granted 1,052 fee waivers out of 1,578 requests from citizenship applicants.

Application fees cover most of USCIS' operating and processing costs. The agency increased fees to cover costs and improve services, he says.

The coalition says it's unfair that fees pay for more than the cost of processing applications, such as the agency's administrative expenses.

In the report, the group recommends that the citizenship application fee be tied to the federal minimum wage and calls on Congress to provide funding.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., has proposed legislation that would, in part, allow for increased congressional appropriations. "Citizenship shouldn't be for the wealthy," he says.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which calls for reduced immigration, often finds himself at odds with immigrant advocates. Yet he agrees the fees are "probably too high" and should reflect only processing costs.

"Once you've admitted people to legally reside in the United States, we want them to naturalize," he says. "If they're not, that's a problem."

Azad Ahmed Siddiqui, 62, didn't apply for citizenship with his wife a few years ago because he couldn't afford the fee, says the unemployed Chicago resident. His wife makes minimum wage as a child-care worker.

Siddiqui is saving money for the application by scrimping on food and other household expenses. "We are trying any way possible, but it has been hard for us to get the funds," he says.








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