Thousands of Southern California immigrants, many of whom had procrastinated for years about becoming U.S. citizens, rushed this week to get help to complete applications before fees jump 69% on Monday.
Mirroring a nationwide rush, immigrants here have tied up hotlines and packed into centers designed to help them process the paperwork.
Applications must be postmarked before Monday to avoid the jump in fees from $400 to $675.
Many of those filling out forms Thursday qualified for citizenship many years ago but put off taking the test because they feared they couldn't master
the civics lessons and English needed. Others had not seen much benefit in becoming a citizen.
Nationally, the total number of pending citizenship applications reached 811,810 in June, up 67% compared with the same month last year, according to government figures. Applications in Southern California numbered 24,320 just in May, more than twice what was received in May
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