WASHINGTON (AFP) - A record number of people, some 1.4 million, rushed to become naturalized US citizens in the 2007 fiscal year before a hike in fees was introduced.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said Wednesday that in 2006 some 730,000 people became naturalized citizens.
The Immigration Policy center said the doubling of the figures was due to several reasons, but mostly because from August 2007 the cost of the application process rose some 80 percent to around 675 dollars.
In July 2007, just a month before the new charges came into effect, there were some 450,000 applications compared to 20,000 in August.
Immigration was also the focus of intense debate in the United States in 2007, encouraging eligible immigrants to apply to change their status.
Year 2007 "was an anomaly," said a USCIS spokesman, Bill Wright.
"We acknowledge that there is reduction and fully expected that a fee increase would have some kind of impact, but we believe a more realistic comparison has to be made between 2008 and 2006."
For the first seven months of 2008, from January to July, there have been 332,000 naturalization applications which is more in line with the numbers over the same period in 2006 when there were 459,000 requests.
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