USCIS Releases Projected Naturalization Times for Local Offices

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released today the projected times for local offices to complete processing of applications for citizenship from individuals who filed during the summer of 2007.

Last July, USCIS received 460,000 applications for naturalization. That was three times the record for any previous month. For the year, USCIS received 1.4 million naturalization applications, almost double the normal annual volume.

USCIS is hiring and training hundreds of additional immigration officers to adjudicate these cases. The agency is also conducting naturalization interviews on weekends, after normal business hours and in additional locations.

The processing times listed below provide a sense of how quickly a case may be processed if there are no complicating factors. Still, some cases will take longer to complete for such reasons as:

• an applicant has been asked to submit additional information and their case is pending until they comply, or
• an applicant fails the naturalization test and has 60 days to prepare before they are retested, or
• the FBI name check is still in progress.

Projected Local USCIS Office Processing Times at end of September 2008