When Promila Mehta passed her naturalization test on March 4, 2004, she was told she would be sworn in as a U.S. citizen within months.
Stanislaw Makarewicz heard the same thing when he passed his test on July 29, 2004.
Roughly three years later, both were still waiting.
After calls to immigration officials and their congressmen got them nowhere, both wrote to What’s Your Problem in February, their letters arriving within a week of each other.
The two met for the first time Tuesday, when both were sworn in as citizens at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago — after a few calls from the Problem Solver.
“I’m very happy,” said a beaming Makarewicz, 67, from Poland, after getting his certificate of naturalization. He proudly wore a lapel pin of the American flag, the red, white and blue sparkling in the courtroom lights.
Two rows back, Mehta, 58, smiled broadly too.
“It’s a great moment,” said the former housewife from India. She now works at an agency that helps the elderly, a life she said she could only dream about before coming to America.
Their stories, which culminated on a day when thousands marched in Chicago and across the country for immigrant rights, highlight the joys and frustrations of the immigration process.
Government officials say it generally takes eligible people about six months to complete the naturalization process, from application to swearing in.
As joyful as Mehta and Makarewicz were Tuesday, each had endured a much longer — and more aggravating — wait.
Mehta came to the United States in 1998 on a special immigration visa, obtained through her husband, Inder, who worked 33 years for the U.S. government in New Delhi.
Inder Mehta passed his naturalization test and was sworn in as a U.S. citizen months later. The couple’s son followed a similar path. He took his test a few weeks before Promila Mehta and received citizenship in 2004.
But Promila Mehta’s application hit a snag. So did the application for Makarewicz.
Makarewicz came to the U.S. in 1982, sponsored by his wife, who arrived earlier. Like Mehta, he settled in Chicago because it was home to friends and family.
He worked as a tailor and fell in love with America. The longer he stayed, the more he wanted to participate. More than anything, he said, he wanted to vote.
His wife applied for citizenship in 2005 and was sworn in months later. But his application languished.
When the Problem Solver began making calls in February, Marilu Cabrera, spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Mehta and Makarewicz had cleared every hurdle — except the FBI name check.
Such checks became mandatory after 9/11, a change that immigration officials say has made the country safer, but also has heaped a greater workload on the FBI.
Paul Bresson, a spokesman for the FBI, said his agency’s National Name Check Program receives 67,000 requests every week from 70 federal and state agencies. More than 32,000 of those requests come from immigration officials — and the number is growing.
Fueled by expected fee increases and changes in immigration law, the number of immigrants applying for citizenship has mushroomed. In March, 4,210 people were naturalized at Chicago’s U.S. citizenship office, almost double the number from March 2005.
Cabrera said that of the thousands of names her office sends to the FBI each month, most are returned within weeks. But some, like Mehta and Makarewicz, become stuck in the system.
“The good news is that we are trying to work with the FBI to resolve this issue, to see if they can get this information to us more quickly,” Cabrera said.
Just what happened to Mehta and Makarewicz is unclear. Bresson said he cannot discuss details of individual cases. But weeks after the Problem Solver contacted him about their cases, both names were cleared by his agency.
By then, however, their original fingerprints, taken years ago, were no longer valid. It took several more weeks for Mehta and Makarewicz to get new prints taken, and for the prints to clear.
Tuesday morning, the two joined 141 others from 33 countries in the ceremonial courtroom on the 25th floor of the courthouse.
They raised their right hands in unison, swore their allegiance to the United States and got certificates pronouncing them U.S. citizens.
Outside, Mehta talked about celebrating and about how excited she will be to return to work as an American.
So was Makarewicz. Before he left the courthouse, he had taken a voter registration card. He mailed it to officials hours later.
While waiting for his citizenship, he said, he had missed a presidential election, a midterm election and a City Council election.
He had no intention of missing any more.
“I want to vote,” he said earlier. “I want to participate.”
Now he can.
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THE PROBLEM
Promila Mehta and Stanislaw Makarewicz passed their naturalization tests, but years later they had not been sworn in as U.S. citizens.
THE SOLUTION
Tuesday morning, both took an oath to their new country.
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