Citizenship and Naturalization Numbers for FY2009

Our office continues to handle an increasing number of naturalization and citizenship applications so it is interesting to share with our clients and readers some recent numbers on the citizenship statistics for Fiscal Year 2009 (FY2009).

During FY2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) received 743,715 applications for naturalization (in comparison to the 1,046,539 during FY2008 and 660,477 in FY2007).  Some of our readers would conclude that there is a sharp drop in the naturalization applications in FY2009 compared to the fiscal year prior; however, FY2008 was the year when USCIS instituted a substantial Form N-400 fee increase, which prompted a higher-than-normal filing numbers.  FY2009 is actually substantially higher than FY2007 and FY2006 (660,477 and 702,589, respectively).    Based on these statistics, it is important to show that the citizenship and naturalization applications are increasing.

Most of the applicants (74%) resided in 10 states: California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts, Washington and Maryland.   The largest metropolitan area of residence was New York-New Jersey (15%), Los Angeles (11%), Miami (7.3%).

The top countries of origin of naturalization applicants were Mexico, India, Philippines, China and Vietnam.