Slow Road To Citizenship It’s Bumper-To-Bumper As Thousands Of Immigrants, Nationally And Regionally, Seek New Home

Immigration offices are swamped, and civics and language classes are becoming cottage industries as waves of newcomers seek to become naturalized U.S. citizens.

At the Seattle office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, applicants must wait six months after submitting applications before they can be interviewed and given citizenship tests.

In March, the wait was four months.

“People have to work and work furiously to keep up,” INS spokeswoman Irene Mortensen said.

Nationwide, filings for citizenship are expected to climb to 760,000 this fiscal year, more than triple the number in 1989.

In Seattle, citizenship applications have risen from about 300 a month in October to 1,400 in May.

The office is on a pace to equal or surpass its record of 10,962 citizenship application filings in 1993, Thomas Simmons, deputy district director, said.

INS officials and those who work with immigrants cite two reasons for the boom:

Many of the nearly 3 million onceillegal residents who were granted legal residency under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act are becoming eligible for citizenship this year. In Washington state, roughly 35,500 sought amnesty under the act, including about 33,000 from Mexico, mostly farm workers.

One million permanent residents with green cards issued before 1979 must get new identification cards. Instead of paying $75 for a card, which must be renewed every 10 years, many pay the $95 fee for a citizenship application.

There also is concern that Congress might cut immigration levels and deny many public programs to legal immigrants who have yet to obtain citizenship.

Social agencies which help immigrants complete applications say they also are feeling the crunch.

“I get maybe five or 10 calls a week about citizenship,” said Maite Marino, outreach manager at Centro Latino SER in Tacoma. “Last year, maybe one or two a week.”

To be eligible for naturalization, immigrants generally must have been permanent legal residents for five continuous years or three years if they are married to a citizen. They must be at least 18 and “of good moral character.”

Applicants also must pass a 16-question test on the basics of U.S. history and civics and must prove they can read and speak English and write a simple sentence.

At Tacoma Community College, more than 50 students were accepted for a spring citizenship class which was designed for 30, said Tess Hartwell, associate dean for learning resources.

At South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, 25 students were on the waiting list for a citizenship class this summer, said Marilyn First, who coordinates the college’s international education program.

Tacoma Community House added two English-as-a-second-language classes in the past year. It has 14 classes serving 400 students, and 50 people are on a waiting list, said coordinator Kathy Kardok.