A record number of about 1.4 million people became naturalized U.S. citizens in the fiscal year2007, according to the statistics released by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Thursday.
The data showed that the figure from Oct. 1, 2006 to Sept. 30, 2007 doubled the number of people becoming naturalized citizens in the fiscal year 2006, at 730,000.
The increase was attributed to several reasons including the hike with application fee by 80 percent to around 675 U.S. dollars starting from August 2007.
According to the immigration officials, as many as 450,000 applications were made in July 2007, compared to 20,000 in August.
"We acknowledge that there is reduction and fully expected that a fee increase would have some kind of impact, but we believe a more realistic comparison has to be made between 2008 and 2006,"said a USCIS spokesman, Bill Wright.
A report released last week by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said that in the first six months of this year, an average of 46,866 immigrants applied for citizenship each month, a 59 percent decrease from 114,469 applicants per month last year.
"The expense has shut the door on many hard-working immigrant families," said the report, calling for a reform on the citizenship application fee and more funding from Congress.
Source:Xinhua
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