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Citizenship application difficulties for elderly

Thursday, February 15 at 3:37 PM

This Speakout has not been edited

By Linh Duong, executive director, Vietnamese Elderly Center

On August 27, 1999, the Denver Rocky Mountain News ran an acticle I wrote about elderly immigrants applying for US Citizenship. This acticle pointed out that elderly immigrants were fearful of their interview for two reasons: 1. Their inability to understand English well, 2. Facing difficult interviewers.

Today, again, I am reluctantly revisiting this topic. As the Executive Director of the Vietnamese Elderly Center of Colorado for 9 years, I have had many opportunities to guide and counsel Elderly Vietnamese Immigrants for their citizenship application.

To tell the truth, there was something impossible for me to understand. Our country, the United States of America, has the best democracy. Americans are enjoying life in one of the most developed countries in the World. Human rights and all individuals are respected; therefore, the daily activity of the American is directed and protected by law. Of course, the procedure to become US citizens also has its own laws, policies and rules that immigrants must follow. For example, one of the requirements is that the candidates must live in the US for 5 years or more, and have no criminal background. They must state that they are willing to follow the US laws. They must also understand US history and the system of the government.

Within these policies an exception is provided for the immigrants who are disabled, or who have a medical reason why a traslator is needed during their application and interview. The law also allows candidate who is 50 years old and has been in the US for 20 years or more, or who is 55 years old and has been in the US for 15 years or more to take the test in his or her native language. The law is very clear. But what I cannot understand is when an applicant has submitted all the paperwork but the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) interviewer still asks for more. For example, the applicant may have paperwork to prove they have a disability (Form N-648); however, when the interviewer reviews all the paperwork, this documentation is many months old and will not be accepted by the interviewer. The applicant has to submit a new one.

And, again, it is out of date by the time of a second interview.

I think at the age of 60 or 70 or more and with some mental disorder or serious illness, it appears that the elderly sometimes lose memories, he or she cannot learn English or do some particular tasks. And if there is no hope for their disease to decrease; why does the interviewer ask them for a new medical record? The interviewer should either accept the whole application or deny it rather than asking for too much supporting paperwork. In reality, the Medical Certification of Disability Exception (Form N-648) was submitted along with the Application for Naturalization Form (Form N-400); and the applicants had to wait 6 to 7 months for the interview; of course, this form was old and no longer current at the time of interview, In this situation it is not their fault and they should not be penalized.

Another situation is that the interviewer may ask senior applicants submitting a confirming letter from SSI office if they are currently receiving Old Age Pension or SSI benefits and were out of the country sometime in the past. I realize that these people must payback the money when they were out of country more than 30 days. In ten pages of the Application for Naturalization (Form N-400), however, it does not require the applicant to submit any paperwork from the SSI office. In my experience I have seen many applicants very patiently try to provide all of the requested information to the interviewer. However, when they come back for the second interview, the interviewer still requests the same information with more details. It just takes more time for the applicants; and they can’t guess what more information should be requested. Sometimes the application is denied!

I am not an expert to know much about the new law or rules from the CIS beside the forms we have been using. It seems that when the elderly persons have an interview with a strick interviewer, a simple situation can become more and more complicated. It might make the applicants misunderstand the interviewer and feel that the interviewer is making the procedure unduly difficult; or, worse, he or she is discriminating against them.

The immigrants come to the US to live and have a bright future. I believe the first thing they have to do is to thank the US government and its people for allowing them to come and live here. I also believe everyone wants to live a good and honest life.

Finally, I believe all immigrants are dreaming of becoming US citizens one day. I remember that 12 years ago when I was an Excecutive Producer of the first Vietnamese Television in Colorado from 1991 to 1994, I had a chance to attend a meeting with Senator Hank Brown (now President of the University of Colorado). He said that these are two things that the US government expects from the immigrants: 1) First, if they are young, they should go to school or to work in order to provide vital human resources for the country to continue to grow. They will contribute to the economic success of the government by following the law, paying their taxes, and by voting.

2) Second, if the immigrants are seniors, they need to become US citizens so they can vote.

These reasonable statements from former Senator Hank Brown were previously broadcast on my Vietnamese Television programs (Channel 57 in Denver and Channel 8 in Aurora city). These notions were all welcomed by the Asian people. So for more than 9 years working with the Vietnamese Elderly Center of Colorado I have always encouraged them to become US citizens. However, their attemps are always limited by their age, physical situation or financial constrainsts as compared to younger people. It looks more difficult when an elderly applicants is confronted with a strict interviewer requesting too many things which are not really necessary as I mentioned above. Is the door of citizenship still wide open or restricted by some interviewers and the CIS officers?

I think that elderly immigrant applicants for US citizenship will not hurt anyone. They should absolutely receive our appropriate encouragement. I wish that nobody unintentionally or intentionally tries to create more obstacles or difficulties them.

Our Vietnamese Elderly Center has often helped the elderly immigrants apply and take the US citizenship test. Occasionally, I have felt emotionally torn down when an applicant… passes away due to old age before enjoying the whole happiness and pride of becoming a US citizen! At that time, I dare not go further or think about whether the path to becoming a US citizen for the elderly immigrants is worried or not worried!!!

READER COMMENTS

Solving your problem is simple. Have them go to Mexico, enter the US illeagally and in a few years they will be granted amnesty and become citizens. It is that easy. Illelgals do not have to follow any laws and our stupid politicians grant them everything. Including voting illegally.
Nuff Said!!

Posted by duke on February 17, 2007 04:21 PM