Indians Eager to Get US Citizenship before the Final Orders from the President

The immigration policies of President are Uncertain and there is a desire by the people to vote in the forthcoming elections in November 2020, which are forcing many immigrants who reside in the US to seek its citizenship.

8.34 lakh immigrants were bestowed American citizenship In the Fiscal Year 2019 that ended on Sep 30th, 2019. It is a record for eleven years registering 9.5% increase over the previous year. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services stated that 5.77 lakh persons were received lawful permanent residence through green cards which, is a sharp decrease of 47.4%. India-born individuals at 52,194, were the number two largest group to get US citizenship in 2018, as per a report of the US Homeland Security Department that provides data on the countries of birth.

They were 6.9% of the total new citizens having an increase of 2.7% compared to the previous year. The largest group was from Mexico recording 1.3 lakh. The USCIS report showed that the number of pending applications had dropped by 14% for green cards and 12%, for citizenship. 9.2 Lakh Indians had a green card backlog.

The green card holders can be naturalized through the process that confers citizenship in the USA to the foreign nationals; after being permanent residents for five years. The period is three years for spouses of US citizens.

There are factors that render green card holders to be vulnerable, and there is also a wish of voting in the elections. The maximum green cards, Indian-born people occupied the fourth slot with the total behind were given to Mexicans, Cubans and Chinese followed by Indians at 59,281 or 5.45% overall. The main reason for the negative growth in issuing was the increased vetting of applications.

The data of CATO, a think-tank, as per April 2018, states that 13.1 lakh Mexicans as much as 28% of the total backlog had a green card backlog in the family and employment category. Indians were at 9.2 lakh or at 19%.