U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued an advisory warning that processing times for certain application types may become significantly longer. In particular, it advises that naturalization applications filed after June 1, 2007 may take approximately 16 - 18 months to process.
The significant increase in the number of applications filed in July and August 2007 is to blame for the expected delays. During those two months, nearly 2.5 million applications and petitions of all types were received, over double the number received in the same time period of 2006.
For fiscal 2007, USCIS received 1.4 million applications for naturalization; nearly double the volume received in 2006. The agency is working to improve processes and focus increased resources, including hiring approximately 1,500 new employees, to address this workload.
