The naturalization process at Trump lasts 2-3 times longer than before

Immigrant advocacy groups are calling on legal US citizens who have the right to citizenship to apply now, because the policy of the Donald Trump administration has delayed the naturalization process in many parts of the country, and this trend may intensify, therefore many immigrants will not have time to get the right to vote 2020 election year.

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The national partnership for new Americans, a coalition of 39 immigrant protection groups, issued a warning on 29 in May, launching the “Naturalization Now” campaign, writes NBC News.

Diego Inguez-Lopez, the coalition's policy and campaigns manager, said that before the 2016 election, processing times for naturalization applications ranged from seven months to a year. Currently, some Citizenship and Immigration Services offices take 13 to 23 months to complete the process, others take more than 20 months, and some take more than 30 months.

“We're calling on the immigrant community to get your citizenship and once you get it, vote,” Iñiguez-Lopez said.

On the subject: How I became a citizen of America: the process of naturalization from A to Z

The group also reminded legal residents of the United States that citizenship would provide them with access to better work, the opportunity to travel without additional difficulties, and protection for them and their families.

Isabel Sanchez, an activist for the Los Angeles Immigrant Rights Coalition, noted that the group’s message was directed to the 9 of millions of legal residents of the United States eligible for citizenship, because “we see this administration trying to limit and lengthen the time it takes to get citizenship ".

The coalition plans to provide grants totaling 60 000 dollars to help 1 million US legal residents apply for citizenship in the hope that they will be able to vote in the 2020 election of the year.

The coalition also plans to call for naturalization through radio announcements in Spanish, informational seminars in churches, community groups, and other channels.

Such campaigns have become commonplace on the eve of presidential elections.

But drastic immigration policy revisions by the administration of President Donald Trump, by rewriting rules and policy changes, slow down the path to citizenship and threaten to make it almost impossible for some immigrants, especially for those who have low incomes.

On the subject: The US Migration Service told who more often began to refuse naturalization

Before the elections, about 18 months are left, and in some parts of the United States, judging by the speed of processing at the moment, applications for citizenship submitted now will not be fulfilled until election day.

Interviews for citizenship must be conducted at USCIS field offices. And if in Cleveland and Buffalo the waiting time is rather short, then the field offices in St. Paul over the past two years are overloaded and process applications for a long period.

The Trump administration has proposed at least three changes to the forms that immigrants must complete in the process of obtaining citizenship, changes that will make it difficult to obtain the necessary documents and require answers to more complex questions. The exceptions for fingerprinting for people older than 75 have been lifted for years, and people with disabilities are being studied more thoroughly than before.

In addition, the immigration service is preparing for a significant increase in fees for citizenship and other immigration services, as well as for the potential elimination of the abolition of fees that are provided to poor immigrants.

On the subject: 9 links to help prepare for the naturalization test

Jessica Collins, a spokeswoman for the Citizenship and Immigration Services, noted that the waiting period for consideration of applications depends more on higher rates of their receipt than on slow processing. According to her, the agency added more employees, introduced the process and operational reforms, which allowed it to complete the five-year period, achieving a new record in the number of processed applications.

Delays in processing occurred during other election cycles. In 2016, additional staff were transferred to offices with long delays, but with Trump, the waiting time in February 2019 almost doubled compared to two years earlier.

One of the biggest delays occurred during the administration of George W. Bush, as many immigrants rushed en masse to apply before a sharp increase in fees for their filing in the 2007 year.

The national partnership for new Americans sued the Trump administration for the backlog of applications, demanding that the agency make public documents explaining the reason for the longer waiting times.

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