Nearly 320,000 immigrants who have passed naturalization exams and interviews have been in limbo for months, sometimes years, before the U.S. government has allowed them to take their oath of citizenship. The National Immigrant Justice Center, Competition Law Group, and Council on American-Islamic Relations jointly filed the class action law suit Alsamman et. al. v. USCIS in 2006 on behalf of naturalization applicants who have experienced unreasonable delays in the processing of background checks, the final step in the application process before individuals are allowed to become citizens.
In conjunction with the lawsuit, the Arab American Action Network filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released records in November 2006 that show that nearly 350,000 people have waited months or years for the completion of their background checks. More than 33,000 have waited at least two years.
The FOIA data indicates that the naturalization process for applicants slows significantly during the period in which they are subject to two background checks-a fingerprint check that searches government databases for past criminal records, and a name check that compares applicants' names to those on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Universal Index of investigations.
Many of the plaintiffs listed in the class action suit have held permanent residence in the United States for years and work as doctors, engineers, and in a myriad of other professions.