H1B Visa Lawyer Blog

Under special provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), service members and certain veterans of the United States armed forces may apply for expedited citizenship . Qualifying military service is generally in one of the following branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and certain components of the National Guard and the Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve. Several of the requirements are provided below:

- A member of the U.S. armed forces must have good moral character; knowledge of
the English language; knowledge of U.S. government and history; and attachment to
the U.S. by taking an Oath of Allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.
- Qualified members are exempt from the naturalization requirements of residency
and physical presence in the U.S.
- A member who obtains U.S. citizenship, separates from the military under “other
than honorable conditions” before completing five years of honorable service may
have his/her citizenship revoked.
- A qualified member may be naturalized overseas, including eligible spouses of
members of the U.S. armed forces.

Discharged members of the U.S. armed forces may also qualify for naturalization. The requirements consist of serving honorably for at least one year, obtaining lawful permanent resident status, and having filed an application while still in the service or within six months of separation.

In 2002, President Bush signed the “Expedited Naturalization Executive Order” which called for the expedited naturalization of aliens and non-citizens serving on active duty in the U.S. armed forces during the War on Terrorism. A qualifying member under this order may immediately file for citizenship. The requirement of at least one year of honorable duty does not apply under the executive order. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has naturalized 42,981 members of the U.S. armed forces since the beginning of the War on Terrorism.

For more information on how to apply and the fingerprint requirements, please review the USCIS Fact Sheet.

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The prior edition of the N-400 Application for Naturalization expired on October 31, 2008. A new edition of the form has yet to be posted to the USCIS website. Until further notice, the USCIS has informed the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that applicants may continue to submit their applications on any useable edition of the form.

To clarify, applicants seeking naturalization may continue to file using Form N-400 found on the USCIS website until a new revised form is posted.

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The United States Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Ombudsman issued a press release informing the public about the status of FBI name checks and the projected processing times for applicants filing for Naturalization . The Ombudsman is an independent office of DHS which reports directly to the DHS Deputy Secretary. The Ombudsman is responsible for assisting individuals and employers in resolving problems with the USCIS and identifying areas in which individuals and employers have problems in dealing with the USCIS.

FBI name checks are just one of several security screening tools used by the USCIS for individuals seeking immigration benefits in the U.S. The USCIS Ombudsman had identified FBI name check delays at one of the major hurdles to improved customer service at USCIS in his 2008 and 2007 Annual Reports to Congress. Fortunately, Congress responded and provided the necessary funding for USCIS and the FBI to complete a larger percentage of FBI name checks in a timely manner. USCIS met its April 2, 2008 goal by processing all name checks pending more than two years by July 2008. As of August 12, 2008, there were 95,449 FBI name checks pending, compared to 269,943 name checks pending as of May 6, 2008. Additionally, there were 61,817 name checks pending more than six months, compared to 185,162 pending for more than six months as of May 6, 2008. Although there is a sufficient backlog still to be processed, the USCIS is significantly making progress in an effort to improve service for those seeking U.S. immigration benefits.

According to the USCIS, naturalization application processing will take an average of 10-12 months nationally by the end of this month. Previously, USCIS estimated processing times of 16-18 months, then 14-16, then later to 13-15 months. The delay in processing is due to the enormous amount of applications that were submitted during the summer of 2007. Three million naturalization applicants were submitted to the USCIS compared to the 1.8 million submitted the previous year. Overall, the USCIS seems to be making considerable progress compared to past years.

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The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently completed a multi-year redesign of the naturalization test. The major goal of the redesign process is to ensure that naturalization applicants have uniform, consistent testing experiences nationwide, and to provide a fair and meaningful naturalization process. The USCIS believes that the newly designed test will help encourage citizenship applicants to learn and identify with the basic values we all share as Americans.

To accomplish their goals, USCIS piloted a new test with an overhauled English reading and writing section, as well as new history and government questions in several sites across the country. The feedback from the pilot program was used to finalize testing procedures, reading and writing prompts and new history and government questions.

Naturalization applicants will begin taking the redesigned test on October 1, 2008. To determine whether you will take the current or redesigned test, please refer to the chart provided by the USCIS.

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In July of 2007, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received a record 460,000 applications for naturalization. Moreover, for 2007, the USCIS received 1.4 million naturalization applications. This is double the normal annual volume. As a result of the record volume of applications, the USCIS announced in April
of this year that depending on the region that an applicant’s citizenship application was filed, it was taking the USCIS at least five to fourteen months. As a result, over the past few months, the USCIS has increased the number of officers adjudicating naturalization applications. Moreover, USCIS just announced that it will centralize the initial naturalization processing. Hopefully, these changes speed up the process for the thousands of individuals who are waiting to become citizens.

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