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The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released its progress report for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 and the good news is that the number of naturalizations this year that is about to end reached 93 % of campaign goal #2Millionby2022, that is, 1.10.485 naturalizations, the largest annual number of citizens the agency has naturalized since 2008.
“Each immigration case entrusted to us represents an individual or family seeking to build a better life in the United States,” said the USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. “We have made measurable progress toward building a more humane immigration system thanks to the innovation and dedication of the USCIS task force. There is more work to be done, especially to reduce processing times for everyone we serve, and Congressional support is critical to achieving our ambitious backlog reduction goals in the coming year.”
Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) pointed out that the data shown by USCIS “show that, in the last two years, almost two million new citizens have acquired the right to vote and now have access to the benefits that naturalization entails, such as higher median earnings, employment and home ownership rates, the ability to apply for family members, and the ability to travel abroad more easily.”
“This data also shows that USCIS has answered the call of NPNA and our many campaign partners , to naturalize two million new citizens by the end of 2022. The Naturalize #2MillionBy2022 campaign has been a powerful messaging vehicle with events across the country that has expanded beyond our networks and reached advocates , organizations, government and, most importantly, to the people who are eligible to naturalize,” added Melaku.
To the good news of naturalizations is added that in the fiscal year 2021, in coordination with the Department of State, the agency used more than 281. employment-based visas, twice the typical statutory annual allowance. This was made possible by the large number of family sponsored visas that went unused in the AF 2022 due to the COVID-10.
In addition, USCIS expanded its existing humanitarian mission and responded to emerging priorities for the US government, such as Operation Welcome Allies, United for Ukraine, and the recently announced Process for Venezuelans.
The report also summarizes numerous steps USCIS has taken, including strengthening its fiscal stability, and the application of allotment efficiencies, policy measures, and arrears reduction efforts across the agency.
USCIS knows that there is still a lot to work on and in the coming months the agency plans to consolidate these advances through the application of urgent processing of all immigrant worker petitions (Form I-200) and certain applications for employment authorization (Form I-765) for students and exchange visitors; establishing a permanent biometric waiver for all applicants for nonimmigrant change of status and nonimmigrant extension of stay (Form I-539); and the simplification of several common forms, including applications for employment authorization (Form I-869), adjustment of status (Form I -400) and naturalization (form N-400).