http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/current/politics/stories/immigration.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has announced the launch of a major new plan to speed up the processing of applications for citizenship.
The new program, Citizenship USA, aims at eliminating a backlog of citizenship applications by summer 1996, making the time from application to citizenship six months or less.
INS Commissioner Doris Meissner announced the program in Los Angeles, the first city where it will be implemented, saying it followed an unprecedented increase in the number of people applying to become U.S. citizens.
Applications are up from an average of 300,000 per year in recent years to almost one million in fiscal year 1995.
Processing an application now takes about one year in several large cities and could take up to two years without the new initiative.
``INS will substantially increase its staff, expand its facilities, introduce new technology, streamline procedures and create new and better partnerships with community organizations,'' Meissner said in a statement. ``No one should wait two years to become a U.S. citizen. Our new efforts will ensure that they don't.''
INS said Citizenship USA would begin immediately in Los Angeles, to be followed by similar efforts in Miami, New York, Chicago and San Francisco, cities that represent more than 75 percent of all pending applications.
Los Angeles was selected as the starting point for the initiative because it leads the natin in the number of applications.
Meissner said he program would be financed by funds approved by Congress this summer, but the agency would seek additional money to support the initiative in 1996.