Military Naturalizations: USCIS Generally Met Mandated Processing Deadlines, but Processing Applicants Deployed Overseas Is a Challenge
GAO-10-865
Published: Jul 29, 2010. Publicly Released: Jul 29, 2010.
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Highlights
From September 2001 to March 2009, approximately 47,000 noncitizen members of the U.S. military became naturalized U.S. citizens. The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have taken steps to assist noncitizens with applying for naturalization. The Kendell Frederick Citizenship Assistance Act (Kendell Frederick Act) and the Military Personnel Citizenship Processing Act (MPCPA), enacted in 2008 to expedite application processing, each directed GAO to report on implementation of the acts. This report addresses (1) the extent to which USCIS met the processing deadlines established in the acts and (2) actions USCIS has taken to expedite the processing of applications, and any challenges it has faced. GAO reviewed relevant legislation and DHS reports and guidance related to processing applications; reviewed several generalizable samples of applicants' case files (A-files); and interviewed USCIS officials.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| United States Citizenship and Immigration Services | To enhance efforts to expedite application processing and ensure that actions taken by USCIS personnel fully comply with the notification requirements of the MPCPA and USCIS's guidance for closing cases, the Director of USCIS should develop procedures to help ensure that available deployment information is proactively and systematically collected from all military naturalization applicants at the time they file their naturalization applications. |
We found that USCIS could not identify all deploying service members because it does not have procedures for ensuring that available deployment information is collected from all applicants when they file the application. As a result, we recommended USCIS develop procedures to help ensure that available deployment information is proactively and systematically collected from all military naturalization applicants at the time they file their naturalization applications. USCIS concurred with our recommendation. In response, USCIS revised Form N-400, the Application for Naturalization. In February 2014, USCIS reported that the revised form is available to the public.
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| United States Citizenship and Immigration Services | To enhance efforts to expedite application processing and ensure that actions taken by USCIS personnel fully comply with the notification requirements of the MPCPA and USCIS's guidance for closing cases, the Director of USCIS should, for cases where USCIS is unable to adjudicate a military naturalization application within 6 months of receipt, institute quality assurance measures to help ensure that applicants' A-files contain a copy of the letter notifying the applicant of the reasons for the delay and an estimated adjudication date. | In our report on military naturalizations, we found that for cases where USCIS did not adjudicate an application within 6 months of receipt, USCIS did not always provide applicants the reasons for the delay and an estimated adjudication date, as required by law. We recommended that USCIS institute quality assurance measures to help ensure that applicants' A-files contain a copy of the letter notifying the applicant of the reasons for the delay and an estimated adjudication date. USCIS concurred with our recommendation and on October 31, 2011, issued a revised Form N-650A as part of its implementation of revised Naturalization Quality Procedures. The Form N-650A requires documentation...
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| United States Citizenship and Immigration Services | To enhance efforts to expedite application processing and ensure that actions taken by USCIS personnel fully comply with the notification requirements of the MPCPA and USCIS's guidance for closing cases, the Director of USCIS should, for cases that are administratively closed or denied, institute quality assurance measures to help ensure that all actions taken under USCIS' April 2009 guidance are documented in applicants' A-files. | In our report on military naturalizations, we stated that some alien files (A-files) did not contain documentation enabling us to confirm that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) was consistently following its April 2009 guidance for administratively closing or denying a case when an applicant fails to appear for an interview or respond to a request for evidence. We recommended that for these cases, USCIS institute quality assurance measures to help ensure that all actions taken under USCIS' April 2009 guidance are documented in applicants' A-files. USCIS concurred with our recommendation and on October 31, 2011, instituted revised Naturalization Quality Procedures, which...
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