SAVANNAH, Ga. — The federal government is processing citizenship requests at the fastest clip in a decade, moving rapidly through a backlog that built up during the Trump administration and the coronavirus pandemic.

At ceremonies in courthouses, convention centers and sports arenas across the country, thousands of immigrants are becoming new Americans every week — and becoming eligible to vote in time for the presidential election this fall.

It’s unclear how many of the new voters live in battleground states, but a number of the states where Kamala Harris or Donald Trump must win have large and growing numbers of voting-age naturalized citizens, including Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

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In Savannah, Georgia, people from 19 countries streamed into a federal courthouse recently to take the oath of allegiance.

“My case was done in less than six months,” said Gladis Brown, who is married to an American and emigrated from Honduras in 2018.

Generally, lawful permanent residents, known as green-card holders, are eligible to become naturalized citizens if they have had that status for at least five years, or have been married to a U.S. citizen for at least three years.

Green-card holders have many of the same rights as citizens. But voting in federal elections is a right accorded only to citizens. And that can be a powerful motivation to pursue citizenship.

“I’m so glad that the process moved quickly,” said Brown, who was one of the 31 immigrants being sworn in. “People like me want to vote in the election.”

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At under five months, application processing speed is now on a par with 2013 and 2014. About 3.3 million immigrants have become citizens during President Joe Biden’s time in office.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services took 4.9 months, on average, to process naturalization applications in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, compared with 11.5 months in fiscal 2021.

The oath of allegiance is the last step to obtaining U.S. citizenship, after passing a background check, health exam, interview and civics test.

As the new Americans emerged from the courtroom in the Savannah federal courthouse, Nishang Patel, 28, a dentist born in Kenya who arrived in the United States as a child, said, “This is a wonderful country that we want to be fully a part of. We will contribute and vote,”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Miriam Jordan/Anna Ottum
c.2024 The New York Times Company