Getting tougher for legal immigrants?

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Superstring

Registered Users (C)
There is an article in the Washington Post suggesting that the current administration is contemplating a proposal that would make it tougher for legal immigrants to gain U.S. citizenship.

Supposedly, the proposal is already drafted by USCIS and forwarded to appropriate desks and could be potentially adopted by Jan 1.

Among other things, the proposal contains the following provisions:

- doubling the application fees
- toughening the required civics and English exam
- allowing broader questioning about an applicant’s past such as “"Who is your current wife's ex-husband?"
Click to expand...

USCIS says that they need to pay increased administrative costs and standardize an application that is subjective and varies across DOs. In addition USCIS says that it will follow the course where the math takes them since they have to recoup the costs of processing citizenship applications.

The opponents of this new proposal say that this would create the “second wall”, a potential barrier now against legal immigration in addition to the “first wall” that should be built along the border with Mexico to protect against illegal immigration. In addition they emphasize that increased costs would discourage many lower income applicants to apply or would simply force them to become citizens much later on.

According to Washington Post, USCIS Director Emilio T. González commented regarding potential fee increases: "American citizenship is priceless. I think people will pay."

What do you think?
How this will change the process? And will this happen?
For me, it does not sound too bad, but I am missing or misreading something?

Link to the article
 
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With regard to the fee, I think that it is fair to ask the immigrant to bear the burden of the administrative costs of the naturalization process.

On the more probing questions: I think the IO can already ask fairly probing questions if he/she suspects something is awry. It seems to me that it is impossible to standardize a "more probing" questionaire because each immigrant presents a unique set of circumstances. Asking me about my wife's ex-husband is useless because I have never been married. Sounds like Election year politics to me.

DNA tests to prove paternity: Again, this sounds a little like Election year politics because the IO already has the power to ask for "additional evidence" and the burden is alwyas the immigrant's to satisfy. And also this won't apply to all N400 applicants.

All in all, it sounds like a "get tough" on immigration show for the election. But like I said, I think the increase in fee is fair if the adminsitrative costs of naturalization demand it.

Superstring said:
There is an article in the Washington Post suggesting that the current administration is contemplating a proposal that would make it tougher for legal immigrants to gain U.S. citizenship.

Supposedly, the proposal is already drafted by USCIS and forwarded to appropriate desks and could be potentially adopted by Jan 1.

[/B]
USCIS says that they need to pay increased administrative costs and standardize an application that is subjective and varies across DOs. In addition USCIS says that it will follow the course where the math takes them since they have to recoup the costs of processing citizenship applications.

The opponents of this new proposal say that this would create the “second wall”, a potential barrier now against legal immigration in addition to the “first wall” that should be built along the border with Mexico to protect against illegal immigration. In addition they emphasize that increased costs would discourage many lower income applicants to apply or would simply force them to become citizens much later on.

According to Washington Post, USCIS Director Emilio T. González commented regarding potential fee increases: "American citizenship is priceless. I think people will pay."

What do you think?
How this will change the process? And will this happen?
For me, it does not sound too bad, but I am missing or misreading something?

Link to the article
Click to expand...
 
Personally, I think the current English and Civics requirements are a joke and don't meet the statutory requirements ("Establish an attachment to the Constitution", "Have a knowledge of U.S. history and government" and "Demonstrate his or her ability to read/write/speak English".

"How many stripes on the flag" and "Who said 'Give me liberty or give me death'" don't really cut it to me. Nor does the sentence I had to write at my interview "She cooks for her friends."

Then again, my first language is English, so I have a bit of an advantage.

In any case, I'll be able to vote in a very short while (though not this pass), so I'll be able to have a *little* input
 
I would probably agree that this is a get tough before election gimmick. However, it is my personal opinion that making it tougher for people to gain citizenship by increasing fees and English and Civics tests is not good. I am of the opinion that someone can be a perfectly fine U.S. citizen without having to have a complete fluency in English and Civics. The only end that it would help is disenfranchise immigrants, and perversely help antiimmigrant groups by keeping them out of the voting pool. Next thing is that one should know the Bible pretty well to become a citizen, and vote Republican, please. I am for having diversity, and I am ok with a person having less than perfect English and knowledge of American History as long as they respect the basic principles of tolerance, democracy and freedom of expression among others.

By the way, I think Canadian immigrants pay 100 dollars Canadian to naturalize. I would think that $400 dollars should be more than enough to pay for naturalization here. I think they're getting too greedy. On any other service people wouldn't put up with such high fee for such horrendous service. I would be totally against another fee increase, it doesn't seem to make any sense, unless they made the service so much better, efficient and predictable (including name check).

My 2 cents.
 
Its also getting tougher for legal residents which is why I applied for citizenship in August after having a Green Card for eons. The laws constantly change and the gap between the status of legal residents and citizens is forever getting wider. So, at the end of the day, its well worth it.
 
Let me understand this correctly, the current administration wants to have the legal immigrants who have been part of this country at least 3 years where they have paid their taxes, pay more money. USCIS have already admitted that the immigration fees (as they are) are sufficient to cover all of the cost of USCIS operations.

Now at the same time the government wants to give amnesty to millions of illegals, is it just me or does everyone here feel that we are getting thrown under the bus?

Besides what does that do for the country? some immigrants who came to this country and fathered some law makers in Washington did not have a pot to pi%^ in when they came here. A congressman or the senator could not be where he is now if that policy was applied then.

what is dumber than that is the comment from the head of the USCIS that the applicants should pay what we ask since it is priceless. Did he forget about all of the Mexicans here who work hard and been here legally. So much loyalty for someone is an immigrant from Cuba.

I guess the truth is that the government spending so much money on things that they shouldn't have and pass the tap to the new Americans, Nice welcome, don’t you think. It is time for a new direction in Washington where people really care about immigrants. After all everyone in this country is an immigrant or a descendant of one, unless you are an Indian.

People forget their past very quickly, don’t you guys agree.
 
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if we get a better service, why not

we live in a country that majority of the people do not understand newspapers,or do not know who the vice president is . I don't think they can expect to much from immigrants.

regarding the fee increases, i am all for it if they will expedite the process, train the employees etc.

I am waiting on name check clearence since april 06 and ready to pay the extra amount to get security check cleared asap. somehow i am gonna be spending that money on suing the government anyway.
 
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As you saw in the article, there is no intention of enhancing their customer service. USCIS does not need more money to teach their officers how to be polite to customers and how to give them accurate information.

Yes I agree if the fee will make them better people and more efficient. The issue with the background check is not in the hands of USCIS or DHS, it is in the hands of the FBI. Everyone knows that the FBI is very well funded organization, so the question is where would that money go?

You can’t give money to people and ask them to act professionally when their problem is merely arrogance and bluntly rude, no money in the world will solve that. So keep you money.
 
Fee increases coming

Fee increases coming whether or not we like it. And for sure nothing is free. FBI is getting some part of our application fees since they are calling USCIS the customer agency. I wouldn't hesitate a bit to pay the fee, if we get one of these expedited services for name check nightmare. I copied some part of the press release from USCIS website.

USCIS TO EXPAND PREMIUM PROCESSING SERVICE
Additional Employment-Based Immigrant Visa Category Available
Starting November 13, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced the
addition of a new visa category – the EB-1 Aliens with Extraordinary Ability, now available for
requesting Premium Processing Service. Premium Processing Service allows U.S. businesses to pay a
$1,000 Premium Processing fee in exchange for 15-calendar-day processing of their case.
Beginning November 13, 2006, .......
 
About half of the american born citizens might know who the president is but ask them who is the vice president or ask them their pledge or ask them to sing the star spangled banner they have not a clue.
However, to become a naturalized citizen you need to pay these ridiculous fees and then you need a lawyer because the INS has all these contradictory rules and regulations that they themselves cannot even understand and then they want you to know everything about the USA. If they make it any more difficult to obtain citizenship the older people who paid taxes and social security when it is time to retire if there is any social security left they can't get any as you need to be a citizen to qualify.
It amazes me.
 
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The increase in fees is sending strange signals for me. As everyone here can atest, the INS (USCIS) have increased fees throught the years to "improve service, times, blah blah,..." and this has never occured. In fact, with the line of thinking by Gonzalez that citizenship is priceless, well, I can think of a few reasons NOT to acquire it.

1. Did you know that if you leave the US to live elsewhere as a USC, you still have to pay taxes to the IRS? You are also taxed on worldwide income. So, if you retire at 55 to Turks and Cacaos, you will still pay tax to the IRS. Want to renounce the USC? You will likely have to pay a "renunciation tax" because the US is losing the ability to tax you.

There are a few others. Any other thoughts?

Rafiq
 
Here is a good article that sums up a few arguments agains these changes:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/477397p-401647c.html

Now that I have some more time to digest this. I think I am opposed to the fee increase no matter what, even if they promised to speed up the name check. Because the fee increase is immediate and automatic, and the improvement in service is just a promise that they can forget very quickly. They should spend their time trying to figure out ways to improve their processes and to do more with the same amount of money. Most companies do that if they want to stay competitive. For USCIS is very easy to get away with whatever they do because they have a monopoly and a vulnerable customer base.

This priceless quote is to me just a marketting gimmick and a regrettable comment. It makes it sound like U.S. citizenship is a good for sale. What they are actually providing is a service (bureaucratic) to make sure that the immigrants qualify to obtain citizenship, and that type of service definitely has a finite price. For me four hundred dollars to process the application is plenty of money. They should find ways of becoming more efficient and be able to do the job with this amount of money. Just imagine that a cell phone company would charge you four hundred dollars to activate their service, or even a driver's license. Even with the expense of the interview and FBI checks the current amount of money seems good enough for me.

Other than that the changes if implemented are going to mean that fewer immigrants will naturalize. I haven't seen them tackling this question.

My 2 cents.
 
Hi,
In my opinion they should implement a two-tier N-400 service. $400 for normal processing. $1000 for premium processing with decisions guranteed in 90 days, including resolution for cases for those which get a "hit" on the namecheck.
 
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