INS May Waive Some Interviews for Citizenship

Seeking to reduce the massive backlog of citizenship applications, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service launched a major initiative Thursday that may eventually include waiving mandatory personal interviews in some cases.

Dispensing with some interviews is among the many alternatives being considered in an effort to streamline the naturalization process, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner confirmed during a visit to Los Angeles.

“In some cases, naturalization may be able to be done without a face-to-face interview,” Meissner told reporters after addressing about 3,500 new citizens at a ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The mandatory interviews have long been a target of immigrant advocates, who say the interrogations frighten off would-be citizens and worsen the application bottleneck by duplicating information already gathered. But some lawmakers are expected to resist any effort to limit interviews, insisting that the face-to-face sessions are needed to discourage fraud.

*

An unprecedented nationwide surge in citizenship applications--traceable in part to apprehension stoked by Proposition 187--has stretched the INS’ ability to process the demand, particularly in Los Angeles, the busiest site. Applications have nearly tripled nationwide since 1992, to almost 1 million anticipated this year.

The upturn means applicants must wait a year or more between applying for citizenship and taking the oath. Delays are expected to reach two years shortly. But by next summer, Meissner vowed, backlogs will be trimmed and lags shaved to six months.

“No one should wait two years to become a U.S. citizen,” said Meissner, who noted that applicants pay a $95 fee that is supposed to cover the processing costs.

Along with streamlined procedures, the newly unveiled “Citizenship USA” plan includes staff increases, expanded facilities, new technology and additional collaboration with community-based agencies. Congress has granted a $22-million increase for naturalization this year, Meissner said, boosting overall citizenship expenditures to $60 million--still a fraction of the INS’ $2 billion budget, most of which is spent on enforcement at the borders and elsewhere.

At the Los Angeles INS office, Meissner said the citizenship staff will be more than quadrupled by January, from 30 to 135 officers; overtime payments will be increased 10%. New offices for citizenship applications may be opened in El Monte and in the San Fernando Valley, said Richard K. Rogers, INS district director.

Now, citizenship applications are streaming into the Los Angeles office at the rate of 25,000 a month, a number that is expected to rise substantially next year.

Whatever new procedures are implemented, the commissioner emphasized that standards for citizenship would not be diluted and that an INS officer would still examine each application.

In general, foreign nationals seeking citizenship must have lived in the United States legally for five years, show a knowledge of the English language and U.S. government and demonstrate “good moral character.”

Reflecting the heated nature of the immigration debate, the public acknowledgment that waiving interviews is even being considered was sufficient to generate controversy.

*

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who heads the congressional Task Force on Immigration Reform, characterized the idea as “unconscionable”--and likely to increase fraud.

“Maybe we could just mail certificates out to those who were thinking of coming to the United States,” Gallegly said facetiously. “That would speed things up.”

But others argued that the interviews are largely a waste of INS resources, tying up examiners on duplicative reviews of information already contained on the application.