Woman Loses Citizenship Docs, Shocked By Copy Cost Replacing Papers Costs $345

LINDSAY WATTS, Reporter
Twitter: @LindsayWatts
POSTED: 11:00 pm MST December 22, 2010
UPDATED: 11:11 am MST December 23, 2010

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Colorado Springs woman has a simple wish this Christmas: to get a copy of her citizenship papers. Tamy Gosselin lost the documents and thought it would be easy to replace them until she found out about the $345 cost.

"I just don't think it's fair," said Gosselin.

Her family immigrated from South Bavaria in the 1950s, and Gosselin has been a citizen for more than 30 years. She has a license, passport and visa, but to get Social Security benefits, she needs her naturalization papers.

"After having, of course, lived in this country, worked here, paid into Social Security and taxes," Gosselin said.

She said that the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration told her that her information is in a government computer database, so she was shocked by the high cost and up to six month wait time for the papers.

"If it's all on a computer, it shouldn't take six months to get," she said. "If it's all on computer, it shouldn't take a staff --a huge staff--to handle."

A spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Services told KRDO NEWSCHANNEL13 that the fee for every application is based on the actual cost it takes the agency to process it.

"Every two years, we must take a look at the cost for processing and doing all the research," said Sharon Rummery, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

She said the fees are adjusted accordingly, and that the agency doesn't make any profit. Rummery also told us that the agency has just started allowing people with financial hardships to waive the fees for documents.

Gosselin said that no one she has spoken to has mentioned that, and she hopes she'll be eligible to waive the fee. If not, she said she'll have to wait until she can come up with the $345.

"As a citizen, I feel that the government is supposed to be working for the people," she said. "In this case, I think it's working against us, and I just don't think that's right."

http://www.krdo.com/news/26253733/detail.html