Remember the rush for U.S. citizenship in 2007, just before the fees increased? Since then, new applications for naturalization have fallen way down and are still very low, according to U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services.

To give you an idea, follow the blue line in the chart below. That shows the applications spiking in July of 2007, then dropping way down and staying pretty flat through January of this year. The red line shows the backlog in pending cases, gradually dropping over the same period.

I wrote in The Journal News yesterday about how the $675 fee and the bad economy seem to be prolonging the lull. I heard this morning that Southern Westchester BOCES is seeing about half the usual demand for its citizenship classes, which help people prepare for the exam. (Update: The agency checked its statistics and found that the decline was smaller than previously thought. Last year at this time, the program had 278 students, said Maria Morgan, Director of Adult and Community Services. The current number is 242, down 36 students, or about 9%. Information about the classes is available here.)

In Rockland, the Haitian-American Cultural and Social Organization has seen people put off citizenship because of the fee, Executive Director Rose Leandre told me today. Her organization has helped eight senior citizens by paying the amount of the increase, about $265, she said. HACSO had a state grant that allowed them to wave the $50 fee for citizenship assistance. It used another grant, originally for computer literacy classes, to help individuals with the fee payment.

The lull is both good and bad news for USCIS: It has given the agency time to clear the backlog, which generated a lot of criticism. But it means less revenue at a time when there are big plans to modernize the agency.

Some interesting news from two federal immigration agencies, ICE, the enforcement arm, and USCIS, the services agency.

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Julie Myers is stepping down Nov. 15. Her appointment brought questions about nepotism and a scandal over an internal Halloween party — the one where she helped give an award for a costume of a Jamaican detainee with dark makeup and dreadlocks. A House committee found that she “failed to be forthcoming” about destroying photos from the event and “tried to conceal the circumstances surrounding the party.”

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff praised her work on enforcement operations such as the targeting of more than a half-million people who have been ordered deported or failed to show up for immigration proceedings. Four teams in the New York area made 1,600 arrests under that operation in the 2008 fiscal year, and 100 teams across the country made 34,000 arrests.

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services awarded a massive contract to IBM to modernize the processing of applications, still a paper-based system.

The initial contract is worth $14.5 million, with options up to $491 million over five years. The Washington Post reports that the value could go up to $3.5 billion if Congress approves a legalization procedure or some other overhaul of the immigration laws.

Partnering with IBM on the project are Blackstone Technology Group, Deloitte Consulting, EDS, Evolver, The Legacy Network, Sandler and Travis Trade Advisory Services (STTAS), Sapient Corporation, SI International, Unisys, and Visionary IntegrationProfessionals and others, according to a press release.

As of Oct. 1, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, will be offering a new version of the citizenship test. The aim of the redesigned naturalization test is to offer a more uniform, standarized experience nationwide and to allow applicants to demonstrate their knowledge of U.S. history and civics.

The  biggest change to the test is the civics portion that will include new questions focusing on geography, Native Americans and women. Applicants, like before, must correctly answer six out of ten questions taken from a list of 100. The test has not undergone any substantive changes since 1986.

The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, examined the revamped test in a report that can be viewed here.

To view the types of questions that are asked in the current test, go here. To view the questions—and answers—of the new test, check them out here.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has settled suit brought by immigrants who faced a cutoff from SSI benefits because they were not U.S. citizens. Under the agreement, their citizenship applications will be expedited.

Attorney/blogger Greg Siskind explains that the applicants are elderly refugees who rely on Supplemental Security Income but, under the 1996 welfare reform, face a cutoff if they do not receive citizenship within seven years.

Below is the USCIS news release.

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Are you an immigrant hoping to become a U.S. citizen in time to vote for the next president? Your wait will likely vary a lot depending where you live.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released a list of projected wait times at local offices for those who applied for citizenship last summer. In New York, the average wait should be 10 months. Those who applied just before the July 30 fee increase, therefore, should see their cases finished by next month.

The New York Immigration Coalition notes that these projected wait times apply to trouble-free applications — those that do not require additional documents, for example, or those that aren’t caught up in the FBI name-check process USCIS officials have taken criticism, and lawsuits, over the backlog of naturalization cases due to last summer’s surge.

The longest waits are more than 14 months, in cities including Los Angeles, Tuscon, Phoenix, Miami, Hartford, Conn., and Washington, D.C. The shortest wait, five months, is out in Helena, Montana.

Let us know how long your application is taking, particularly if you’re hoping to vote in November.

The competition is tight again this year for H-1B visas, which are given to skilled foreign workers and are good for three years, renewable for another three. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received 163,000 petitions in just five days at the start of this month.

Today the agency randomly selected the “winners” in two stages: first for those with advanced degrees who qualify for 20,000 visas, then for the general pool of applicants who are subject to a cap of 65,000 visas per year.

The selected applicants will be notified by June 2, according to USCIS, with processing estimated to take 8-10 weeks.

As part of a lawsuit on behalf of legal, Latino immigrants in New York City, attorneys have filed a motion seeking a Sept. 22 deadline for the processing of citizenship applications that are more than six months old. Inordinate delays will otherwise prevent the immigrants from being able to vote in the November elections, say attorneys from the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been under pressure to address the pileup of paperwork that came in just before the July 30 fee increase. The agency announced yesterday that it was on course to complete naturalization applications in 13-15 months, down from earlier projections of 16-18 months. USCIS says it is hiring almost 3,000 new employees and quadrupling the funding for overtime.

USCIS and the FBI also announced an effort to deal with one of the typical holdups, the FBI “name checks.” (Name checks are required for various applications including those seeking citizenship, green cards and asylum.) USCIS is asking the FBI to prioritize 29,800 naturalization cases submitted to the FBI before May 2006 in which applicant was already interviewed, according to a press release.

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There are many astounding details in Nina Bernstein’s NYT story today about a Colombian woman who secretly recorded an immigration adjudicator asking for sexual favors in return for working on her green card application. The story and a portion of the recording are here. The woman said she went to the Times because she was afraid to contact police. As the agent repeatedly tells her, he seems to have a very good understanding of her level of fear.

The Daily News story reports here about man’s arrest. He is accused of coercing the woman to perform oral sex.

There is no longer a published phone number at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for reporting misconduct, the Times says. An official tells the Times that immigrants “should report wrongdoing to any law enforcement agency they trust.”

Emilio Gonzalez, the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is stepping down April 18 Associated Press reports this morning. His agency is the one handling a deluge of applications for citizenship and permanent residency, on top of its usual paperwork. A hefty increase in fees, which cover nearly all of the agency’s costs, helped generate a flood of paperwork last summer.

Gonzalez told AP that his eight years on the job commuting between Florida and Washington have taken too much time away from his family. His agency was criticized for not being better prepared for the increase in applications.

UPDATE: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today that “Emilio has been an extraordinary director who is leaving an indelible mark on the transformation and modernization of USCIS operations.” Gonzalez was appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in December 2005.

A lawsuit filed yesterday on behalf of legal immigrants in New York demands that long-delayed citizenship applications be handled in time for the November election.

The complaint, linked here, names several Latino plaintiffs from New York City and is filed on behalf of other citizenship applicants served by the New York district office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (NYC, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam are part of the district.) One plaintiff is a Navy veteran who is unable to get a government job for lack of citizenship; another cannot get a visa for his elderly mother so that she can visit the United States from Mexico. And all, of course, cannot vote for the next president if their cases remain stalled. The suit was brought by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The complaint demands that applications filed before March 26 by those found eligible for citizenship should be able to naturalize in time to vote. (New Yorkers must register to vote 25 days in advance of the election.) Officials at USCIS in New York said last week that they have stepped up processing to handle a spike in paperwork filed last year, but they repeated estimates that applications would now take 16-18 months on average. The suit says more than 140,000 cases are on hold because of FBI “name checks,” and that hundreds of thousands of applicants are waiting up to two and three years. The law calls for processing to be completed with 180 days.

Other documents related to the case can be found here.

Are you waiting in line for citizenship? Let us know whether or not your application is delayed and how it’s affecting you.