Citizenship path sometimes rocky

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, February, 2008 | by Michael Matza Inquirer Staff Writer

Many foreigners who seek U.S. citizenship accomplish it smoothly. They get visas and green cards connoting legal residency, become eligible for naturalization after five years, and, within months of successful application interviews and FBI fingerprints and name checks, are sworn in as new Americans.

Not so for about 1 percent of applicants. For them the process stalls, seemingly forever. The roadblock, critics say, derives from what they describe as an excessively redundant name-check process in which the FBI is asked to comb its records for any mention of the applicant. Amid a growing backlog of these cases in limbo - a backlog made worse by heightened security concerns after 9/11 - and another surge in applications last year ahead of a filing-fee increase, U.S. District...