The Road to Citizenship That Leads Friday to BHS

By Josh Alex and Sydney Smith Each year, the United States becomes home to many people from all across the world, from places like Mexico, India, the Philippines, Dominican Republic, and China. In 2015, more than 450,500 people became new citizens of the United States. On Friday October 23 at Branford High School, a few dozen more people will become U.S. citizens after going through these following steps. Here is how they did it. The first things that they had to do was be at least 18 years of age, and be a permanent resident, (green card holder) as well. Each year the United States Citizens and Immigration Service welcomes approximately 680,000 citizens during naturalization ceremonies across the United States and around the world. Some of the steps that those people had to follow were them having to reside in the United States as a lawful resident for five years, along with having been present in the United States for 30 months. The requirements they needed for this was for them to be a person of good moral character, and be able to read write, and speak English as well. These people had to have knowledge of the U.S. government  and the history of it as well as being willing to take the Oath Of Allegiance. The amount of immigrants becoming citizens has been up and down over the few years. In 2014, about 654,949 immigrants became naturalized citizens. That number has drastically gone down this year, by more than 200,000. Since October 1st, 2001 the USCIS has also naturalized 107,398 members of the military, with 11,671 of those military members becoming citizens in the process, according to the U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services. Since the beginning of fiscal year in 2008, the USCIS has naturalized 2,511 military spouses during ceremonies in 30 different countries.