New Citizens come from 13 countries
Today Eduardo Aguirre, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS), administered the Oath of Allegiance to 20 new U.S. citizens, from 13
countries around the world, in an open-air ceremony on Angel Island in San Francisco
Bay. The new citizens came from as far away as Sunnyvale and Petaluma, but most
live in or close to San Francisco. Each year, USCIS welcomes more than 450,000
citizens during naturalization ceremonies across the United States. That number
includes more than 8,000 service members who have naturalized thorough an expedited
process stemming from their involvement in the war on terrorism.
“We stood on Ellis Island a month ago on Citizenship Day, and naturalized
104 new citizens,” said USCIS Director Eduardo Aguirre. “Since then,
I’ve traveled to the Middle East to naturalize our nation’s soldiers.
Today, the beautiful and historic setting of Angel Island, Ellis Island of the
Pacific, completes a month of naturalization ceremonies in a most fitting and
poignant way.” (Read the Director’s comments.)
The new citizens are originally from the following countries: Canada, Ecuador,
France, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Israel, Japanese, Mexico, Nicaragua, the
People’s Republic of China the Philippines and Suriname. Among them are
four married couples. (Media should see the notice at the bottom of this document.)
U.S. citizenship is the essential goal and process that ties every American together.
From beginning to end, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is working
to ensure that the naturalization and education process is meaningful to all citizens
-- native born, naturalized and all immigrants who strive to become U.S. citizens.
Throughout the entire process, USCIS promises to be there every step of the way.
Over the past year, USCIS has launched a number of new initiatives to streamline
USCIS customer service delivery such as Electronic Filing and online immigration
case status check, Info Pass online appointment system, Backlog Elimination Plan,
expediting naturalization for all adopted children, expediting military naturalizations
for all active duty military personnel.
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