INS More Than Doubles Applicant Fees for Would-Be New Americans

The Immigration and Naturalization Service is more than doubling the cost of applying for U.S. citizenship as of today, from $95 to $225, an increase that drew condemnation Thursday from critics who say the process continues to be riddled with delays.

“They shouldn’t increase the fee 5 cents,” said Emilia Casanovas, a 79-year-old native of Bolivia and citizenship applicant.

Casanovas said she recently traveled from her home in the San Fernando Valley to an appointment at the INS office in El Monte. When she arrived after a four-hour bus trip and three transfers, she was told that her file wasn’t there and she should go home.

Levon Kayaoglu, an ethnic Armenian from Turkey, says he was sworn in as a citizen in Los Angeles more than two years ago--but still has not received his naturalization certificate. That omission has left the longtime legal resident without any proof of his legal status.

“If I ran my business this way and then raised my prices I would go out of business,” said the 42-year-old beauty salon owner, who has only a form letter of congratulations from President Clinton to attest to his U.S. citizenship.

The two were among half a dozen would-be citizens who appeared at a news conference in Boyle Heights organized by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

Community activists fear that the fee increase could deter more people from seeking citizenship at a time when the number of applications nationwide has plummeted. Horror stories about endless delays and bureaucratic snafus have discouraged many eligible immigrants.

But INS officials say the fee increase was necessary to reflect the true processing costs. Applicants lacking the financial ability to pay may request that the fee be waived.

Officials have noted a slight increase in applications in advance of the fee increase, as some hustled to submit their paperwork before the costs went up.

“We don’t like fee increases, but they’re necessary, and we hope not to deter anyone from applying for citizenship,” said Thomas J. Schiltgen, INS district director in Los Angeles, which leads the nation in citizenship applications.

Moreover, Schiltgen and other agency officials insist that service has improved.

When the fee increase was announced a year ago, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner vowed to hold off implementation until progress had been made in reducing the bulging backlog of pending cases. Filing fees for most immigration services were increased in October.

At the INS California Service Center in Laguna Niguel, it was quiet Thursday. Though employees there process applications for seven counties, they don’t do it over the counter, said Neva Meis, a congressional liaison working there this week.

Several would--be citizens tried to file paperwork in person, she said, but were redirected to the post office. “We had a large number of people trying to turn in their applications earlier this week--quite a number of people trying to turn them in downstairs,” Meis said. “But I didn’t notice any lines down there today.”

For the past two years, the office has not accepted citizenship applications in person, only by mail, said Rico Cabrera, an INS public affairs officer. “We’re not like the IRS, taking applications at the last minute.”

Applications received after Thursday--regardless of date postmarked--must include the new, higher fee, she said.

In the Los Angeles district, Schiltgen said the citizenship backlog had been shaved to 390,000--down from a high of 430,000 in March. In addition, the district director said that almost 70,000 citizenship applications were completed in the first quarter of the current fiscal year--more than double the number processed during the same period a year ago.

“I think we’ve made tremendous progress, tremendous strides, though there still is a lot to do,” Schiltgen said.

Critics of the system are less sanguine.

The 1.8 million people now in the naturalization queue nationwide actually represent an increase of 100,000 compared to a year ago, according to the National Immigration Forum, a Washington organization that works on behalf of immigrants.

“It’s an outrage that people are being asked to pay more and wait longer,” said Angela Kelley, the forum’s deputy director.

But INS officials said that waits are generally on the decline. The average time it takes to process citizenship applications--from submission of documents to swearing-in--decreased from 27 months in October to 24 months in January, said Bill Yates, acting head of the INS’s immigration services division in Washington.

The agency’s goal is to bring average waiting periods down to 12 months by late this year. A year later, INS officials hope to cut waiting times to six months.

The government had managed to reduce citizenship waiting periods to six months in late 1996, at a time when a record number of applications were pouring in. But allegations of widespread irregularities in the Clinton administration’s Citizenship USA program led to the complete revision of the process, adding new delays.

Among those still stuck in line is Eligio Leon, 78, who arrived from Cuba 19 years ago. He longs to see the two sons, now adults, whom he left behind, along with all the new grandchildren. But he wants to go back with a U.S. passport, a privilege reserved for citizens.

“This is the greatest country in the world,” Leon said. “I just want to visit my family again.”

Times correspondent Chris Ceballos contributed to this report.