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04/12/2025

Today’s blog

Lynn Murphy Mark

Immigration stuff

The month of May is coming soon. In the 31 days that make this month, three clients will become US Citizens. In April alone, three other clients will have their citizenship interviews and hopefully get in line for an oath ceremony in May or June. Only one of these six people represented a regular case with no complications. My other five clients have been through the process with fairly big issues in the way. 

Five people were denied the chance to move on to an Oath Ceremony and had to resubmit an application. There is a provision in the immigration law that allows for a person to be exempted from taking the civics exam in English, and from taking the reading and writing exam in English. 

This exemption requires a detailed statement from a physician or a licensed psychologist attesting that due to a medical condition the client is unable to learn or study in English. The practitioner must certify that because of the condition, the client’s capacity to learn and retain new information is severely compromised. In addition to the regular citizenship application, called an N-400, the client must present an N-648 – the medical exemption form.

For a period of time, USCIS officers were allowed to deny the exemption if they did not judge the exemption form to be specific enough. Describing the condition that affects the ability to learn new things has to be worded in a certain way. This required a lot of time spent calling doctors’ offices, speaking to the nurse, sending sample letters, sending instructions from USCIS, and writing letters to doctors asking them to modify the language used so that it fit the requirement. 

Because I’m an old nurse, I know how to approach the receptionist who answers the phone. These highly trained gatekeepers know how to protect their doctors from doing more work than is absolutely necessary. What I’ve found to be effective is to quickly tell the patient’s basic story. Then I tell them that the doctor is the only person who can clear the way for a person to become a new citizen. I give them the Cliff Notes version of the story.

All five of these people are victims of severe PTSD due to conditions in their home country that prompted them to come to the United States. One lady, from Syria, was denied twice by the same officer who did not approve of the language used. Her story is as tragic as the rest: she witnessed members of her family killed by a bomb dropped by her own government. Since then she has suffered from depression, severe anxiety, and fear of leaving her home. I’ve been working on her case for three years. I’ve gone through three different doctors to get the correct wording on the form. I am so happy to report that this last interview was successful and she will soon be a citizen.

When we go for the citizenship interview I arrange for an interpreter to attend as well. The interpreter is a key person in this scenario. USCIS does not allow family members in the interview, so I have to hire the interpreter through companies with whom we have contracts. He or she must establish a quick rapport with the client, and help me explain what to expect in the interview. I have nothing but praise for the interpreters that I have met. They have a natural understanding of the difficulties that my clients have faced in their mutual home country.

The only problem I’ve ever had happened last week, when the interpreter did not appear. Turns out his wife had taken his driver’s license to conduct some business and had not returned it to his wallet. So when he entered the federal building without a license, he was not permitted to enter. This all happened 5 minutes before the scheduled interview. Luckily the USCIS officer is a young man who is kind and laid back. He arranged for an interpreter to do telephonic interpreting. This is an unusual happening.

In my little office the two of us who go to these interviews swap stories about one particular officer. She is inordinately strict and not very friendly. She is impatient if the client takes a little too long to answer her questions. She has asides that she speaks out loud, intended to remind us that she has the power. My colleague and I call her the Blonde Bombshell – and that’s the sanitized version.

My attorney friend in Florida, Lindsay, has a sweet practice that I am going to start. For every client who becomes a citizen, she places a big colorful star on the wall. I love that idea. It’s a reminder that the work we do can change lives.