Client Naturalization – Success Story
Date Posted: January 19, 2022
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Naturalization is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the individual, or it may involve an application or a motion and approval by legal authorities. The rules of naturalization vary from country to country but typically include a promise to obey and uphold that country’s laws, taking and subscribing to an oath of allegiance, and may specify other requirements such as a minimum legal residency and adequate knowledge of the national dominant language or culture. To counter multiple citizenship, most countries require that applicants for naturalization renounce any other citizenship that they currently hold, but whether this renunciation actually causes loss of original citizenship, as seen by the host country and by the original country, will depend on the laws of the countries involved.
In January of 2022, Entre Hermanos Legal Department had a huge victory for one of our clients who had his naturalization interview postponed with no notice, and then never had it rescheduled. It’s unclear what happened, but we suspect that the application got stuck in bureaucratic limbo – USCIS saw that an interview had been scheduled, failed to make note that the interview never happened, and assumed everything was just fine. After languishing for nearly three years (yes, really) with no updates from USCIS, the client came to Entre Hermanos. We first tried contacting USCIS to make an official inquiry as to the status of the application, given that it was over a year past the maximum estimated wait time listed on the USCIS website. Their response was unsatisfactory, giving no reason for the delay and no assurance of a timeline for when his interview would be rescheduled. After reaching out to his U.S. Representative, who received a similarly non-responsive answer from USCIS, Entre Hermanos finally filed its first ever federal lawsuit on behalf of our client.
Within a few months, USCIS was suddenly willing to give us answers, and they quickly rescheduled our client’s interview.
Not only did our client finally get to have his interview – We just learned that he was approved for naturalization! He is now awaiting his oath ceremony.
This client has had such a long journey, from entering the U.S. as a refugee to finally getting approved for citizenship. We are so glad to have been able to leverage the legal system to get results for this client!
Entre Hermanos attorneys are actively taking cases for both detained and non-detained LGBTQ+ members of the Latino/a/e/x community to apply for asylum and other forms of immigration relief. We prioritize cases for those people who are vulnerable and detained, and those who are already in immigration proceedings. We also offer consultations to Latino LGBTQ folks with their other immigration needs, such as family petitions, adjustments of status, U-Visas and VAWA petitions. We are able to accept cases for these services depending on our capacity.
For more information, or to arrange an appointment for a consultation, please contact our immigration attorneys: 206-532-0266 or schedule on-line.