The City of Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) is partnering with Seattle Parks and Recreation to hold a series of monthly citizenship clinics to help immigrants and refugees become naturalized U.S. citizens.
A citizenship clinic is a community event where volunteer attorneys, interpreters, and others assist eligible green card holders with completing their N-400 naturalization application through an organized step-by-step process. The goal for these events is to serve 25-50 people. Attendees can also usually receive information about low-interest loans to pay for the naturalization application processing fee.
These citizenship clinics continue to demonstrate the City’s cross-departmental commitment to promoting citizenship for our vulnerable immigrant and refugee neighbors. The first clinic of the year was held in February at the Bitter Lake Community Center where 23 applicants completed their citizenship applications, the first significant step on the pathway to naturalization.
The next clinic will be held on Sat., Mar. 23 at the Meadowbrook Community Center, 10517 35th Ave. NE, Seattle beginning at 10:00 a.m. Another clinic has been scheduled for Sat., June 29 at South Park Community Center, 8319 8th Ave. S, Seattle also beginning at 10 a.m.
“Today’s immigrants are tomorrow’s American citizens who should have the chance to contribute to the economic, cultural, and civic life of Seattle – and our nation,” said Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. “The City of Seattle’s citizenship clinics are an important opportunity to help our immigrant communities overcome the Trump administration’s so-called ‘Second Wall’ of bureaucratic barriers to citizenship. Seattle is a Welcoming City, and we will continue to fight for the rights and dignity of our immigrant neighbors.”
Last July, Durkan was one of nearly 50 U.S. mayors and county executives who delivered a letter to USCIS Director Lee Francis Cissna demanding that the agency reduce the backlog of what was then over 753,000 citizenship applications and reduce the time it takes to process citizenship applications down to six months. The Mayor together with the Seattle City Council also passed a resolution condemning the enormous backlog of citizenship applications before USCIS that is currently preventing tens of thousands of immigrants in Seattle from becoming U.S. citizens and voters.
New Citizen Campaign
The monthly citizenship clinics are part of the City’s New Citizen Campaign (NCC), launched in 2016 to increase the number of naturalizations among the approximately 80,000 green card holders in Seattle-King County who are eligible to become U.S. citizens. Since then, NCC has held four large workshops serving 250 to 1,000 participants each.
In 2017, NCC launched smaller clinics to provide monthly citizenship events throughout Seattle. The 2019 partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation will help to increase the availability of citizenship services in North and West Seattle where there are fewer citizenship providers.
Our NCC community partners that help organize and run this year’s citizenship clinics include:
- Asian Counseling and Referral Service
- Catholic Immigration Legal Services
- Chinese Information and Service Center
- Entre Hermanos
- Horn of Africa Services
- International Rescue Committee
- Korean Community Service Center
- OneAmerica
- Refugee Women’s Alliance
- Somali Family Safety Task Force
- South Park Information and Resource Center
- The West African Community Council
OIRA is in the process of scheduling additional clinics at City of Seattle or community locations. See www.newcitizencampaign.org/get-help/events/ for the schedule to date.
