Despite delays imposed by the covid-19 pandemic, the US government resumed issuing immigrant visas for hundreds of thousands of foreigners, while the number of people who obtained citizenship was the highest in more than a decade
Text: Salome Ramirez Vargas
Nearly one million immigrants obtained US citizenship in 2022, becoming the highest number of people naturalized in the last 15 years, according to data revealed by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). .
About 1.1 million applications were reviewed by the agency, which issued US passports to 1,023,200 migrants. The top five countries of birth for those who received US citizenship were Mexico, India, the Philippines, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
This number contrasts with the 2.3 million migrants who were intercepted in 2022 by the Border Patrol at the crossing between Mexico and the US, for entering the country irregularly. In October, the highest number of interventions recorded in a month was recorded, with 205,735 Latino migrants detained.
“Obtaining a regular status in the United States is the foundation of having better access to services, but also social and economic integration in the country. The more people have access to citizenship, the more of them will be able to have and help other people to access those services and rights,” Ariel Ruiz Soto, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, told Voice of America.
Generally, immigrants are eligible to receive citizenship if they are at least 18 years old, legal permanent residents, and have lived in the US for at least five years, or three years if married to a US citizen.
The covid-19 pandemic caused a jam in the visa and citizenship application process due to the closure of immigration offices, however, the revealed data would demonstrate a recovery in the US system that led to the highest number of annual naturalizations since 2008, according to the Pew Research Center think tank.
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Mexicans and Central Americans for the US
The countries with the lowest proportion of legal immigrants who are US citizens are El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, says a report from the center.
The State Department issued in fiscal year 2022, which ended last September, a total of 493,000 immigrant visas. Among them, 212,000 immediate relatives of US citizens, according to data provided by the agency to VOA.
Nationals of Latin American countries are among the largest beneficiaries, with Mexico and the Dominican Republic in the first two places for immigrant visas granted. Cuba was in fifth place and El Salvador in eighth.
“It is good news to understand and see that more people, Mexican and other Latin American countries in the US, now have better options and reach, for example, lawyers to help them walk through this process that is not easy and is also expensive” added Ruiz Soto.
In the case of student or work visas, the average wait time for an appointment at embassies in the region is no more than a week, according to the State Department. However, for visitor visas, the interviews would be scheduled with more than a year of waiting. In Bogotá, Colombia, the wait would be 769 days; in Matamoros, Mexico, it is 645 days.
“While much work remains to be done to provide timely decisions to all clients, Uscis continues to apply every workforce, policy, and operational tool at its disposal to reduce delays and processing times,” the agency stated in its annual report.
In November, the number of people still waiting for an embassy appointment for an immigrant visa interview was 384,760, a drop from the over 439,373 cases that were pending in January.
“Having better access to regulation is always the most important foundation for a safer and faster integration,” concluded Ruiz Soto.
More than 10.3 million undocumented people reside in the US, according to the New York Center for Migration Studies. About 800,000 are South Americans and more than 1.9 million are Central Americans.
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