Each year millions of immigration applications are submitted to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Under President Trump’s, immigration application denial rates have increased by 37%. This includes travel documents, work permits, green cards, worker petitions, and citizenship applications. Wait times for citizenship have doubled over the last year. These delays and denials to changes made in the past 4 years to the immigration process, including reducing processing staff and increasing application requirements and scrutiny.
In 2019, USCIS denied hundreds of thousands of immigration applications, including:
• 96,965 Citizenship Denials
• 73,118 Family Based Visa Denials
• 44,327 Green Card Renewal Denials
Having your immigration application denied results lost money, wasted time and missed opportunities. Applying for immigration can be stressful, expensive and time-consuming. Denials are frequently due to missing documentation, missed deadlines and misunderstood requirements and eligibility.
You are not required to hire an attorney to apply to immigrate to the United States, apply for a Green Card, or apply for citizenship. Simply hiring an attorney does not guarantee that your immigration application is approved, but it does show USCIS that you know and are protecting your rights.
Immigration law is complicated, confusing and – especially now – changing rapidly. The advice and guidance of an experienced immigration lawyer can save you time, money and stress – and make the difference in whether your citizenship application is approved or denied.
1. Wait Times Have Doubled
The New York Times reports that wait times for citizenship applications have doubled in the past 2 years, and is now from 10 to 31 months, depending on where you live and how long that field office’s backlog, due to tightened requirements and screening requirements implemented by the Trump administration.
2. More Naturalization Applications Are Being Denied
97,000 naturalization applications were denied in 2019: nearly twice the amount of green card applications that were denied, and there are close to 650,000 pending naturalization applications nationwide.
3. Minor Issues Can Derail An Application
Minor or accidental issues can be a potential roadblock to the immigration process but are taken extremely seriously by USCIS.
An experienced immigration lawyer knows and understands current immigration laws and can assist you with your naturalization application by helping you spot potential roadblocks in your background that can derail your application. Experienced immigration attorneys can save you money, time and stress and make sure your application has all the required documents and that the process is done correctly the first time, and accompany you to your immigration interview. If USCIS denies your application or there is a misunderstanding, your lawyer can help clarify and resolve the miscommunication.
Read More:
• What Is A Green Card Lawyer?
United States immigration laws can be extraordinarily complicated. A small mistake on a naturalization application can lead to years of delays to citizenship and even outright denials and deportation. Your decision to hire an experienced immigration lawyer can save you time, money and stress – and make the difference between your naturalization application being denied or approved. Contact Godoy Law Office, our skilled immigration lawyers in Chicago, Lombard and Oak Brook can answer any questions about immigration and guide you through every step of the process.
