Florida New Americans hosts free legal clinic to assist hundreds of South Floridians with their citizenship application

MIAMI – Florida New Americans intensifies outreach to South Florida’s legal permanent residents for the last free citizenship clinic they are hosting before the new form goes into effect.

Saturday, April 5th, 2014, Florida New Americans is having its 3rd Annual AILA Citizenship Day Clinic with the Americans Immigration Lawyers Association and St. Thomas University School of Law. Last year they were able to assist over 200 legal permanent residents become New Americans!

While they will continue to have their monthly free clinics, the clinic on April 5th is the last citizenship clinic where we will be using the old form. “Currently, less than 10% of eligible Floridians apply for citizenship, either because they can’t afford the high cost of the application or because they don’t receive proper guidance during the application process,” said Krystina Francois, Program Manager of the Florida New Americans. “With the new application form, we fear even fewer legal permanent residents (LPRs) will apply because of the length and additional questions, making it that much harder for people to apply on their own.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a revised version of the N-400 application form which will become mandatory starting May 4th. This revised form is double in length and will now make the process incredibly tedious for millions of green card holders eligible for citizenship.

Additionally, this Saturday’s clinic comes right on time before this year’s midterm elections. Those who apply for citizenship in the beginning of the year will have better chances to become citizens and register to vote in time for this year’s midterm elections in November.

Location
April 5th, 2014 11am – 2pm
St. Thomas University Law
16401 NW 37 Ave
Miami Gardens, FL 33054

To receive text alerts about upcoming citizenship clinics, text the word “CITIZENSHIP” to 23559.