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Three advocacy organizations that work on behalf of immigrants and poor people have filed suit against the INS, claiming the agency’s Miami office refuses to waive naturalization fees when good cause for a waiver is shown, thereby preventing hundreds of people from becoming citizens. The fee for the naturalization application is 5, plus an additional for fingerprints, which places it out of the reach of many people who are otherwise eligible for citizenship. According to the complaint, filed in federal district court in Miami just a few days before Christmas, the Miami INS office maintains a policy of refusing to grant fee waiver requests, and in many cases refuses to even acknowledge that it received such a request. The need for fee waivers became more important in January 1999 when the naturalization fee more than doubled, from to 5. One of the purposes of the fee increase was to provide better service and faster processing of applications, but another of the purposes was to cover the cost of services for those who had been granted a waiver of the fee. According to the suit, of the current fee is for this.
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