WASHINGTON — Millions of people who applied for naturalization and other immigration benefits to beat a fee increase are caught in a paperwork pileup that threatens the chance for some to become citizens and vote in the presidential election.
“Were we caught off guard by the volume? Let’s just say it was anticipated it would increase. It was not anticipated it would increase by that much,” said Emilio Gonzalez, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The immigration agency would not say how many applications it has received. The American Immigration Lawyers Association, a private legal advocacy group, said it was told by agency officials that 3.5 million applications had come in over two months.
The agency projected a workload of 3.2 million applications for fiscal 2008 and 2009.
Gonzalez said naturalizations have been given priority, but some applicants will miss voting in primaries in January.
“I really want to target the elections,” Gonzalez said. “I really want to get as many people out there to vote as possible.”
The onslaught of applications has led to some files being sent back with errors or mistakenly rejected, while others seem lost in the system, applicants and attorneys say.
