Atlanta gets new Immigration/Citizenship building and location-

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Citizenship service officially opens new building

DeKalb site can serve up to 500 people daily

By MARY LOU PICKEL

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 04/04/07

With her head covered in a glittering head scarf, Mahnaz Beihaghi waited patiently with hundreds of other immigrants for permission to enter Atlanta's new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building Tuesday to become a citizen.

The federal agency has recently moved its headquarters from the 1930s-era Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building downtown to an office park in DeKalb County's Northlake area.

(photo: Kodjo Ossei of Ghana, who has lived in Atlanta for 14 years, takes the oath of citizenship Tuesday in the new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in the Northlake area of DeKalb County.

Photo:Immigrants headed to the citizenship ceremony received flags as they checked in.)

The new building has more space, better technology and larger rooms for citizenship ceremonies. It's part of a nationwide effort to modernize what used to be the Immigration and Naturalization Service and process applications more efficiently.

The government held a grand opening Tuesday for the building. Emilio Gonzalez, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services flew down from Washington to address employees and cut the ribbon for the new building. He also read the oath of citizenship to the country's newest citizens.

Beihaghi, originally of Iran, was one of them, joining 101 others from 46 countries to adopt the United States as her country Tuesday.

"I'm very excited to be accepted, and to be an American and to be living in a land of freedom," the 59-year-old grandmother said. She came from Marietta with her daughter and grandson and shed a few tears because her husband died of cancer four years ago and was not there to share the day.

"It's a long process," Beihaghi's daughter, Sonny Gholami, 40, explained of citizenship. "But at the end, it's so worth it."

Last fiscal year, the Atlanta office handled 15,897 citizenship applications and this fiscal year it has already processed 10,196 applications. The new space, located at 2150 Parklake Drive, will accommodate as many as 500 customers a day. The government also is working to modernize record-keeping and move from paper files to electronic databases, officials said.

The agency set aside extra space in the new building in case Congress passes a guest worker program and immigration officials have a new process — and more paperwork — to handle.

"If we get a reform, I think the greatest growth will be in the Southeast, from Virginia on down," Gonzalez said.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dek...metcitizen.html