New Biden admin immigration directive on naturalization

[EternalForeigner 57]

From the White House website:

 

Quote

Sec. 5.  Promoting Naturalization. 
     (a)  Improving the naturalization process.  The Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, within 60 days of the date of this order, develop a plan describing any agency actions, in furtherance of the policy set forth in section 1 of this order, that they will take to:
(i)    eliminate barriers in and otherwise improve the existing naturalization process, including by conducting a comprehensive review of that process with particular emphasis on the N-400 application, fingerprinting, background and security checks, interviews, civics and English language tests, and the oath of allegiance;
(ii)   substantially reduce current naturalization processing times;
(iii)  make the naturalization process more accessible to all eligible individuals, including through a potential reduction of the naturalization fee and restoration of the fee waiver process;
(iv)   facilitate naturalization for eligible candidates born abroad and members of the military, in consultation with the Department of Defense; and
(v)    review policies and practices regarding denaturalization and passport revocation to ensure that these authorities are not used excessively or inappropriately.
(b)  Implementing improvements to the naturalization process.  Within 180 days of the issuance of the plan developed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall each submit a report to the President describing the progress in implementing the plan, any barriers to implementing the plan, and any additional areas of concern that should be addressed to ensure that eligible individuals are able to apply for naturalization in a fair and efficient manner.
(c)  Strategy to promote naturalization.  There is established an Interagency Working Group on Promoting Naturalization (Naturalization Working Group) to develop a national strategy to promote naturalization.  The Naturalization Working Group shall be chaired by the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Secretary’s designee, and it shall include the heads of the following agencies, or senior-level officials designated by the head of each agency:
(i)    the Secretary of Labor;
(ii)   the Secretary of Health and Human Services;
(iii)  the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development;
(iv)   the Secretary of Education;
(v)    the Secretary of Homeland Security;
(vi)   the Commissioner of Social Security; and
(vii)  the heads of other agencies invited to participate by the Working Group chair.
(d)  Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Naturalization Working Group shall submit a strategy to the President outlining steps the Federal Government should take to promote naturalization, including the potential development of a public awareness campaign.

 

[millefleur 5,035]

34 minutes ago, EternalForeigner said:

(d)  Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Naturalization Working Group shall submit a strategy to the President outlining steps the Federal Government should take to promote naturalization, including the potential development of a public awareness campaign.

Huh. Is it really so unpopular for people to not know about or want to naturalize? At least based on VJ activity, seems like the overwhelming majority of people who qualify cannot wait to get their US citizenship

 

37 minutes ago, EternalForeigner said:

(ii)   substantially reduce current naturalization processing times;

I'm pretty sure absolutely everyone here can get behind that one!

 

36 minutes ago, EternalForeigner said:

(v)    review policies and practices regarding denaturalization and passport revocation to ensure that these authorities are not used excessively or inappropriately.

Curious about that one too. Are they going to make it harder for people to renounce US citizenship?

[EternalForeigner 57]

16 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Huh. Is it really so unpopular for people to not know about or want to naturalize? At least based on VJ activity, seems like the overwhelming majority of people who qualify cannot wait to get their US citizenship

I don't know how many LPRs are eligible to apply but just didn't do it for one reason or another, but I believe part of it is to block past GOP efforts to curb immigration and naturalization since it benefits them to have fewer naturalized voters (who tend to lean Democratic). Let's also not forget that they tried to raise the application fee to over $1,000. So in turn the new admin wants to go the extra mile by actually getting more people to naturalize through a number of ways, including fee waiver processes and possibly reducing the current fees.

Edited February 3, 2021 by EternalForeigner

[millefleur 5,035]

33 minutes ago, EternalForeigner said:

Let's also not forget that they tried to raise the application fee to over $1,000.

Good point, I wasn't even aware that the application fee had not gone up until I saw someone point it out here. Although it does make me wonder how USCIS intends to close their perpetual budget gap without eventually raising fees.

[JFH 12,189]

1 hour ago, millefleur said:

 

I'm pretty sure absolutely everyone here can get behind that one!

 

Yep! Although I’d like to think I am

done with the process by the time any of this comes to fruition. I’m now in month 18 of the N-400 saga.

[millefleur 5,035]

**One hijack post removed.**

 

VJ Moderation

[H.Angy 51]

Things should move faster for everyone, not just for N-400. AOS and ROC are the main steps before N-400. People can't wait for years to have their AOS/ROC done. They need to work, travel, set their lives. There are so many hard working undocumented workers who would contribute a lot by becoming legal.

[Diane and Chris 651]

It doesn’t sound like much to me. The things that should be addressed are faster processing times for visas and insure that all immigrants come here the legal way IMO. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Diane and Chris

[Mollie09 1,543]

11 hours ago, millefleur said:

Curious about that one too. Are they going to make it harder for people to renounce US citizenship?

Only mentions denaturalization and revocation, which are done TO US citizens. Doesn't mention renouncement.

[Cyberfx1024 7,978]

13 hours ago, millefleur said:

Curious about that one too. Are they going to make it harder for people to renounce US citizenship?

They want that tax money don't you know. You have to file for taxes as a USC no matter where you live in the world. So many people renounce their citizenship in order to stop having to worry about taxes

[Cyberfx1024 7,978]

13 hours ago, EternalForeigner said:

I don't know how many LPRs are eligible to apply but just didn't do it for one reason or another, but I believe part of it is to block past GOP efforts to curb immigration and naturalization since it benefits them to have fewer naturalized voters (who tend to lean Democratic). Let's also not forget that they tried to raise the application fee to over $1,000. So in turn the new admin wants to go the extra mile by actually getting more people to naturalize through a number of ways, including fee waiver processes and possibly reducing the current fees.

I say this is a even split to be honest with you. Most of the people I know who naturalized voted Republican the last election. You can already do the fee waiver if you file through paper. I really don't see them reducing current fees at all because USCIS is supposedly self funding by nature which is why they wanting the fees to be raised because they had a liquidity issue. 

Also to the GOP issue I found that be false. We wanted it done right that is all

Edited February 3, 2021 by Cyberfx1024

[millefleur 5,035]

12 hours ago, H.Angy said:

Things should move faster for everyone, not just for N-400. AOS and ROC are the main steps before N-400. People can't wait for years to have their AOS/ROC done.

Completely agree. The fact that the official USCIS processing times for AOS and ROC is up to 35 months is just off the charts insane. I don't get how they can see that number and think it's acceptable. I was always under the impression that naturalization was lower priority than AOS and ROC, but it seems a lot of N-400's get processed faster in many cases.

[EternalForeigner 57]

1 hour ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

I say this is a even split to be honest with you. Most of the people I know who naturalized voted Republican the last election.

What I mentioned is the result of research done by professionals, so I don't know if your limited anecdotal experience reflects an accurate picture. 😅

[millefleur 5,035]

1 hour ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

I say this is a even split to be honest with you. Most of the people I know who naturalized voted Republican the last election.

@EternalForeigner said that they lean Democratic, meaning that it's a close majority, not an overwhelming one. Obviously there are plenty of immigrant US citizens out there who vote Republican, Independent, or probably don't even vote at all.

 

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by millefleur

[Dashinka 23,235]

3 hours ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

I say this is a even split to be honest with you. Most of the people I know who naturalized voted Republican the last election. You can already do the fee waiver if you file through paper. I really don't see them reducing current fees at all because USCIS is supposedly self funding by nature which is why they wanting the fees to be raised because they had a liquidity issue. 

Also to the GOP issue I found that be false. We wanted it done right that is all

I will bet that at the end of 60 days, the recommendation is to raise fees so they can hire more people.  I am not sure what else they can do, eliminate background checks?  Eliminate biometrics?  I suppose they could re-use biometrics from either an AOS, or ROC, but what about those folks that came over on another IV that never dealt with USCIS directly.