A number of organizations, including the ACLU, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Asian Law Caucus, recently filed a class-action lawsuit against various federal government organizations.  The suit suggests that the government violated immigration laws by allowing years-long delays in background press during the citizenship process.  The Washington Times reports that the defendants named in the suit include Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, and USCIS director Emilio Gonzales.  

The suit contends that applications for citizenship must be ruled on within 120 days after the applicant takes a naturalization test; the eight plaintiffs filing the suit claim that they have waited for several years.   

Chris Bentley, USCIS spokesman, claimed that the agency approves approximately 700,000 new citizens each year, as well as 1 million permanent residents annually.  Out of each of these people, all must undergo FBI background checks.  “Just getting a handle on the sheer volume we handle is hard to get across – six to seven million applications, and each one having a background check done,” Bentley said.  He estimates that approximately 1,000 to 2,000 cases annually will be delayed for various reasons.  

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The American Immigration Lawyers Association reports that U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone has announced the immediate resumption of non-immigrant visa services at the American Embassy in Freetown . Immigrant Visas for Sierra Leoneans are still processed in Dakar and Diversity Visas (DV) are still processed in Abidjan . The Ambassador noted that nonimmigrant visa application procedures have changed since 1997 when the Embassy last processed visas, including the requirement that applications be submitted on the internet in accordance with the U.S. Government’s worldwide requirements. Other changes include making visa interview appointments via the internet instead of queuing at the Embassy, and paying the visa application fee at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank in Freetown in advance of the appointment.

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