Military Personnel Citizenship Processing Act passed into law
Being situated in Benica, CA, between Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield and the old Mare Island Shipyard in Vallejo, I receive many questions from people in the military or who were formerly in the military. Due to the current war in Iraq, Congress has passed a few items of legislation that benefit people in the armed forces and their ability to naturalize. United States and Immigration Services ("USCIS") has also created fact sheets which describe services and benefits for persons in the military. You may access the information here: http://www.uscis.gov/military
Recently Congress passed a new law that will help members of the Armed Forces to become citizens. On October 9, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Military Personnel Citizenship Processing Act (Military Personnel Citizenship Processing Act) This new law requires that USCIS process and issue a citizenship decision within six months of receiving an application from a current member of the armed forces, by a spouse of such a person or by a surviving spouse or child of such a member. If a decision is not made within that time frame, USCIS is required to explain the delay and provide a new decision target date.
The law also establishes a FBI liaison office inside USCIS. The office of the FBI liaison will monitor the progress of the FBI in completing the necessary background checks.
While this seems like a a good law and it makes sense to ensure that naturalization applications filed by members of the Armed forces are processed expeditiously, it will only be effective if CIS really does process these applications within six months. If applicants applying pursuant to this law receive the same kind of standard answer about delays in processing that everyone else receives from USCIS, this law might as well not exist.
It is interesting to note that this law sunsets in five years. Is Congress expecting the war to be over then?
