FBI Name Check Cited In Naturalization Delays

Source: Washington Post

FBI Name Check Cited In Naturalization Delays
Official Calls Backlog 'Unacceptable'

By Spencer S. Hsu and N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, June 17, 2007; Page A01

Jin Ju Yoo, a stay-at-home mother who immigrated from South Korea in 1990 and applied for U.S. citizenship in 2002, would seem a minimal security risk. So say friends in Clarksburg, Md., where Yoo, 36, plays drums at a Presbyterian church and raises three children with her husband, a flooring contractor. Her husband and children are citizens.

The would-be American is still waiting for approval, however, because the FBI has not completed a security check of her name against its more than 86 million investigative files. Neither the bureau nor the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency will say why.

Since 2005, the backlog of legal U.S. immigrants whose applications for naturalization and other benefits are stuck on hold awaiting FBI name checks has doubled to 329,160, prompting a flood of lawsuits in federal courts, bureaucratic finger-pointing in Washington and tough scrutiny by 2008 presidential candidates.

At a time when Congress is intensely focused on border security, the growing backlog is one of the most visible signs of the U.S. immigration system's breakdown, current and former government officials said.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601360.html?hpid=topnews

And every time there is a power outage they have to start it all over.