This much is clear: Pushp Grover desperately wants to become a U.S. citizen.
Less clear are the tiny whorls and ridges that make up her fingerprint patterns.
That, in the eyes of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, has been grounds for not granting citizenship over the last year.
The INS says it needs the prints for its files. The FBI, which examines the prints, says they’re unreadable despite repeated attempts.
Meanwhile, Grover, 53, who has lived in the United States for 27 years, including the past six in Everett, Wash., has become increasingly frustrated with the process.
“I passed my test. I passed my interview. I took the oath, and I was told I’d get the citizenship, but I didn’t get it because of my fingerprints,” she said. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Grover is a native of India who immigrated to the United States from England with her husband, Kumar. She is one of a small fraction of immigrants that the INS says are denied citizenship because of their fingerprints.
The INS, however, will start a policy on Monday that will allow those with fingerprints deemed unreadable to still gain citizenship if they can prove they have had a clean police record for the past five years.
That wouldn’t appear to be a big problem for Grover and other law-abiding immigrants.
Immigrants must live in the United States at least five years before applying for citizenship, so they would need to contact police agencies only in the places they have lived in the United States. Cost for copying the documents should be minimal, local authorities said.
But Grover is skeptical. She learned of the new policy only this past week when told of it by a reporter. The INS, she said, had told her nothing about it. And the new policy allows that route only if people already have had their fingerprints checked and rejected two times and then have been told to get the police check.
“I’m not optimistic about it at all,” Grover said. “So far, everything they’ve told me hasn’t happened. They’ve always kept us in the dark.”
She even has appealed for help from the office of Rep. Jack Metcalf (R-Wash.). Metcalf aide Fairalee Markusen became involved in Grover’s case in October and said she, too, has become frustrated with the process.
Recently, Markusen set up a fingerprinting session for Grover at the INS headquarters in Seattle, requesting that the prints be specially delivered to the FBI office in Clarksburg, W. Va., where prints of all citizenship applicants are sent. They are waiting for a response.
It’s a similar story for Bothell, Wash., resident Zenaida Prodigalidad, 58, who immigrated to the United States from the Philippines 30 years ago and began seeking citizenship last October.
Abnormal fingerprint development, which is rare, typically happens early in a person’s life, said Bellevue, Wash., dermatologist Julie Francis.
“We have fingerprints due to the development of our sweat glands in our fingerpads early in life. If someone has abnormal sweat glands, which can occur, they might not have clear fingerprints,” Francis said.
