According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, the U.S. welcomes approximately 680,000 citizens during naturalization ceremonies across the country each year.
Over 8 percent of Utah’s population are immigrants but fewer than half of them are naturalized citizens. Earlier this month at the Utah State Capital 116 immigrants living in Utah and other nearby states were sworn in as U.S. citizens.
To assist those seeking citizenship to move through the process the USCIS has created a new online version of “Welcome to the United States, a guide for new immigrants”. The electronic version came out this month.
Debbie Cannon, public affairs officer for USCIS said the guide, which is over a hundred pages long, is full of practical information.
“It’s in 14 languages now and it’s been updated to include two new chapters,” Cannon said. “One is taking care of your money—it’s about personal finances, taxes, financial scams—and also a new chapter on understanding education and healthcare.”
USCIS has also launched an online Spanish-language civics practice test which was developed as part of the Task Force on New Americans initiatives.
”The task force was established by President Obama on November 21, 2014 and there are certain initiatives they want us to undertake to help the immigrants and this was one of them,” Cannon said.
Both the new guide and practice test are available online.