Lawsuit won against USCIS for long delays

[perfect 39]

http://www.ocregister.com/news/application...itizenship.html

Hundreds of immigrants in Southern California will soon become Americans after a lawsuit settlement between immigration officials and a host of immigrant rights groups, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California announced today.

Immigrants from Santa Ana, Los Angeles and San Bernardino who waited years for the U.S. citizenship applications to be processed because of backlogs will become naturalized within six months, under the terms of a settlement among U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the National Immigration Law Center, the ACLU of Southern California, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

"The backlog fundamentally altered the lives of tens of thousands of permanent residents whose citizenship applications disappeared into an administrative black hole," said Linton Joaquin, general counsel for the National Immigration Law Center, in a written statement. "Thousands of individuals were kept in the dark for years about the reason for the delay and were unable to push their applications through to adjudication."

The settlement puts an end to indefinite delays in processing naturalization applications, the written statement reported.

Also, the settlement requires the federal government to provide naturalization data from the Los Angeles area to the legal groups who filed the lawsuit.

The class action lawsuit was filed in 2007 in reaction to years-long bottlenecks in processing citizenship applications caused by routine FBI background checks, according to the lawsuit.

The checks clogged the system despite federal laws that require the agency to process applications within six months of submission.

As a result of the lawsuit, the FBI, under court supervision, ultimately ran the background checks on thousands of people who were stuck in the backlog.

[antda 13]

Thanks for sharing this article here on vj, perfect.

...lol....I guess that's what it takes for the USCIS to get things done in a timely manner!

Anyone else for a lawsuit against them too (just kidding..though tempting...)

Glad to hear those people won their lawsuits for citizenship!

Definitely unfair of them to have to wait so long, indeed...

Ant

http://www.ocregister.com/news/application...itizenship.html

Hundreds of immigrants in Southern California will soon become Americans after a lawsuit settlement between immigration officials and a host of immigrant rights groups, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California announced today.

Immigrants from Santa Ana, Los Angeles and San Bernardino who waited years for the U.S. citizenship applications to be processed because of backlogs will become naturalized within six months, under the terms of a settlement among U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the National Immigration Law Center, the ACLU of Southern California, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

"The backlog fundamentally altered the lives of tens of thousands of permanent residents whose citizenship applications disappeared into an administrative black hole," said Linton Joaquin, general counsel for the National Immigration Law Center, in a written statement. "Thousands of individuals were kept in the dark for years about the reason for the delay and were unable to push their applications through to adjudication."

The settlement puts an end to indefinite delays in processing naturalization applications, the written statement reported.

Also, the settlement requires the federal government to provide naturalization data from the Los Angeles area to the legal groups who filed the lawsuit.

The class action lawsuit was filed in 2007 in reaction to years-long bottlenecks in processing citizenship applications caused by routine FBI background checks, according to the lawsuit.

The checks clogged the system despite federal laws that require the agency to process applications within six months of submission.

As a result of the lawsuit, the FBI, under court supervision, ultimately ran the background checks on thousands of people who were stuck in the backlog.

Edited November 10, 2009 by Ant+D+A

[NickD 203]

Wonder if that is the same California Service Center that misplaced our I-751 application for seven months after the processing date, maybe a lot longer if I didn't get Sen. Feingolds' office after them. Seems like they need a kick in the butt now and then, sounds like they got a good one this time.