Federal immigration authorities said today that most immigrants who applied for US citizenship during a tidal wave of applications last fiscal year should be sworn in and eligible to vote by the November elections.
A fee hike last year led to a surge in naturalization applications – 1.4 million by September 2007, nearly double the typical amount, triggering concerns that thousands of immigrants wouldn’t obtain citizenship in time to vote.
But US Citizenship and Immigration Services added personnel and extended its hours to speed processing. Now officials say that more than 1 million naturalization applications should be completed by September, including most of those filed last summer. The agency typically approves the vast majority of applicants, rejecting 12 percent to 15 percent a year. [read more]
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