Approximately 500 individuals who filed a citizenship application in Los Angeles and surrounding Southern California counties years ago stand to benefit from a legal settlement that was recently reached with USCIS immigration authorities. Under the settlement, the US government must complete processing of these citizenship applications within the next six months. Plaintiff citizenship applicants argued that a delay in the decision on their Los Angeles citizenship applications caused them to lose jobs and prevented them from exercising voting and immigration rights commonly enjoyed by US citizens.
After a citizenship application is filed, immigration officials send the applicant for fingerprinting so that an FBI background check can be conducted. The naturalization process cannot move forward until these name checks are complete; citizenship interviews are only scheduled once there has been a favorable background check. Several hundred citizenship applicants had been stuck for years waiting to complete the naturalization process because their name checks had not yet come back from the FBI. However, a federal court in Santa Ana, CA recently instructed the US government to make decisions on these Los Angeles citizenship applications within six months.
We represent Los Angeles citizenship applicants, as well as applicants from all 5o states. A citizenship lawyer can assist in the preparation of the N-400 citizenship application, as well as attend the citizenship interview. To begin the US citizenship naturalization process, contact us today at 800-989-6842.