alect

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/wa...2EedLegntpEhIA


Ah, WTF? How does this make sense. Wouldn't it make more sense to apply this easing of the rules for citizenship since those applying for citizenship ahve already had the name checks done at least once during the process? I suppose the argument is that a greencard/visa can be revoked while citizenship cannot?

Ray

You answered your own question ..

The bottom line of the article is the reason why its come about

Rete

Why? Because those waiting for final adjudication on their AOS have no security or certainty in their lives. They are still in limbo and aren't tourists any longer and aren't permanent residents. They can't obtain student loans and some other benefits accorded to PR's and not pending PR's.

You are secure in your residency. So you are waiting for naturalization. BFD. No one is going to be booting you out of the country at this point. You will be naturalized eventually.

What would have been your argument if you weren't at this stage of the USCIS processing?

As someone once said: "You can't please all of the people all of the time"

Folinskyinla

Hi:

In regards to green cards, it has been noted withIN the government that the prior procedure did nothing to promote the security of the US -- the people were already in the US. [One Mohammad Atta had applied for a change of non-immigrant status when he was a severe security risk to the United States. However, by mid-morning of September 11, 2001 he ceased to be a security risk and his change of status was approved the following March. People were actually upset at the posthmous approval. But I digress].

On the citizenship end of things -- this used to be the standard. However, in the Citizenship 2000 campaign of 1995/6 for expedited process of naturalization, a very small percentage of people who were not eligible for citizenship got through. This was a BIG politcal hot potato and the former INS then went to a lot of effort to denaturalize people. Also, we need not mention the WWII Nazi war criminals. In the aftermath of WWII, the US started a program in 1980 to go after those people and there was a lot of litigation over those denaturalizations. [Get the DVD of "The Music Box." The character played by Frederic March was based upon my good friend, Bruce J. Einhorn, a recently retired immigration judge in LA].

And DEnaturalization ain't all that easy. You hit the reason on the head. I'm just giving you some background.

Chewin the Fat

Makes me laugh really, Went in and bought a weapon for home defense in november, guy in the store told me that I'd have to do a FBI background check, Asked him how long that would be, said "10 days" 10 days later I got my weapon and licence etc, how can it take months via the green card system?

meauxna

I think the FBI does their part in a timely fashion.. it's what happens to the results that takes so long.

Noorah101

Maybe the weapon store doesn't have such a huge backlog of name check results that need to be input into the system....

Rene

Ray

The check is run by the CA Dept of Justice .,. not the FBI

10 days is the standard wait period in CA

California - State law requires a 10-day waiting period for all gun sales. This 10-day period is used by law enforcement to run a criminal background check to make sure the gun buyer is not prohibited from acquiring firearms. The 10-days also serves as a "cooling off" period to help prevent crimes of passion.


In Florida the check is virtually instantaneous over the phone to the FDLE
and with my carry permit ..no wait time ..

alect

ISn't there a catch-all of "fraud" which invalidates your citizenship or at least makes it revocable if you did not disclose relevant matters or mis-stated them? Clearly a criminal or "terrorist" record would fit within that?

Given (as discussed in the other thread) that the % of undesirables applying for Perm Residence is miniscule, then the % of those further applying for naturalization would be even smaller. So the risk is infinitesimal. There are two main reasons I am naturalizing:

1. I want to vote - this year (voting is THE most important right of a citizen as the test states)
2. Given its history I do not trust this administration to "bestow" any rights on me given I am only a permanent resident and not a citizen. As you say, it seems revoking a green card is easier than de-naturalization, and I can just see this administration severly abrigating the rights of permanent residents and/or deporting them. Sure I am a little paranoid, but that doesn't mean they're not after me

I just would have thought the risk/benefit ratio would have been much lower for naturalization (we've already been through the checks and are now in the various systems/databases). I don't begrudge AOS'ers anything - been there myself.

Bottom line is USCIS sucks, is slow and inefficient. And we're all at its mercy.

Brit3964

I totally agree. While I think this latest announcement is a good thing for PR applicants, I'm afraid us Natz apps will get tossed to one side while they busily approve the PRs and maybe in a few months (more like years) time, they finally get round to the Natz ones. I tend to agree it's not the FBI that's the problem. The current backlog from the July filers and employment applicants was the USCIS's own fault in not anticipating for the huge volume increase