Nearly 66,000 Indians will take oath of US citizenship in 2022: CRS report

Washington: As many as 65,960 Indians have officially become US citizens, making India the second largest source country for new citizens in America after Mexico, according to a latest Congressional report.

An estimated 46 million foreign-born individuals lived in the United States in 2022, about 14 percent of the total U.S. population of 333 million, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

Of these, 24.5 million, approximately 53 percent, reported their status as naturalized citizens.

In the latest April 15 “US Naturalization Policy” report from the independent Congressional Research Service in fiscal year 2022, 969,380 individuals became naturalized U.S. citizens.

“Individuals born in Mexico represented the largest number of naturalizations, followed by individuals from India, the Philippines, Cuba and the Dominican Republic,” the report said.

Based on the latest available data, CRS said as many as 128,878 Mexican nationals became U.S. citizens in 2022. They were followed by Indians (65,960), Philippines (53,413), Cuba (46,913), Dominican Republic (34,525), Vietnam (33,246) and China (27,038).

According to CRS, 2,831,330 foreign-born U.S. citizens came from India in 2023, the second largest number after Mexico’s 10,638,429. Mexico and India are followed by China with 2,225,447 foreign-born US citizens.

However, as many as 42 percent of Indian-born foreigners living in the US are currently ineligible to become US citizens, the CRS report said.

As of 2023, as many as 290,000 Indian-born foreigners with a green card or a lawful permanent resident (LPR) were potentially eligible for naturalization.

CRS said some observers have raised concerns in recent years about USCIS processing backlogs for naturalization applications.

While there remains a backlog of naturalization applications, the agency has reduced the number of pending applications by more than half since FY 2020.

At the end of FY 2023, USCIS had approximately 408,000 pending naturalization applications, up from 550,000 at the end of FY 2022; 840,000 at the end of fiscal year 2021; and 943,000 at the end of fiscal year 2020.

In FY 2023, 823,702 LPRs filed naturalization applications. The number of individuals who recently applied for citizenship remains well below the estimated population of 9 million LPRs who were eligible for naturalization in 2023. The percentage of foreign-born individuals who become naturalized varies by several factors, including the country of origin.

Immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela, Mexico, El Salvador and Brazil have the lowest rates of naturalized foreign-born, while those from Vietnam, the Philippines, Russia, Jamaica and Pakistan have the highest.

To qualify for naturalization, an applicant must meet certain eligibility requirements set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The requirements generally include being a lawful permanent resident (LPR) for at least five years.