NIJC client Rodrigo Alvear would be a model citizen. For 30 years he has served the U.S. government, first in the U.S. Army and then as an employee of the U.S. Postal Service. He is active in his church, and dreams of doing missionary work abroad. He is the type of person many Americans would be proud to call their own. But his quest to naturalize has been stymied by government delays. Five years after passing his citizenship exams and interview, he is still waiting for a final decision from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

 

Alvear's story was featured in today's Chicago Tribune.

After going through an initial citizenship interview in 2003, "the lady that gave me the interview told me I would hear from them within, like, three months and the next step would be to get my swearing-in ceremony," Alvear said. "But, to this day, we're still waiting to hear back."

Alvear is one of hundreds of thousands of permanent residents in the United States who have faced unreasonable delays in the naturalization process, largely due to government inefficiency in completing background checks.

 

In September, the Los Angeles Times reported that more than 152,000 people had waited more than six months for their background checks to be completed.