Becoming an American: Legal Residents Given Aid in the Cumbersome, Expensive Process of Becoming Full Citizens

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Eunice Salvatierra, of Elma, her husband Oscar and their two children, a 6-year-old and a 20-month old, arrived at the Centralia College library at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning. By 2 p.m., Oscar had the paperwork in hand  to join his wife and children as  American citizens. The documents were stuffed into an envelope addressed to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“It was such a long day,” said Eunice, who was born in the United States but grew up in Bolivia and married Oscar 10 years ago. “But they took great care of the kids while we were here.”

And they provided the help Oscar needed to navigate the citizenship application process.

“They” are the volunteer members of the Washington New Americans Program, the Washington Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and OneAmerica, a nonprofit group, which organized the annual Citizenship Day event, held in Centralia each year.

Citizenship Day is an opportunity for eligible legal permanent residents, who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford a private attorney or manage on their own to navigate the application process on their own, to receive free assistance from attorneys, paralegals and other volunteers.

Oscar and his family have lived in the United States for the past six years, and he has been eligible to apply for citizenship for over three years, said Eunice, but they’ve been procrastinating.

It hasn’t been laziness or uncaring that delayed the Salvatierras from applying for Oscar’s United States citizenship; it is the fact that the process is so intimidating.

“Oscar has spent a lot of long hours on the computer, researching the process,” Eunice said, “trying to make sure he has everything he needs.”

And it’s also expensive.



The filing fee for naturalization for most people is $680, which covers the $595 filing fee and $85 fingerprinting fee. That’s a large chunk of change for a young family to save and, added to the expense of a private attorney, it may have kept Oscar from applying for citizenship had it not been for the help of the volunteers at the annual Citizenship Day held at Centralia College.

“A lot of people need help going through this process,” said Kendra Anderson, an interpreter for OneAmerica, “we walk them through the process, step by step.”

“Citizenship can really change people’s lives,” she said. “Some of them wait 10, 20 and even 30 years before they apply.”

The Centralia Citizenship Day was one of four events held in Washington State on Saturday.

The next event will be held on April 21, 2012, in Moses Lake, Mount Vernon, Tacoma and Vancouver. For more information call 877-926-3924 or visit www.WaNewAmericans.org.

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Kimberly Mason is a freelance writer based in Cinebar. She can be contacted at kz@tds.net.