Paul Richelle is a Haitian migrant who walked through six countries to apply for entry to the United States at a consulate in Mexico. Then he waited months just to find out if he could get in.
"At the end of every day you're checking, checking, checking, to see if the United States responds," said Richelle in Spanish in an interview with NBC10 Boston.
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The U.S. naturalization process is clogged with long waiting periods, application scams, confusing forms, and a number of other obstacles when applying for citizenship. Unlike what online resources may lead some to believe, the steps to become a citizen are anything but simple.
"People think that it's simply a form that you fill out, and you send that to immigration, and that's how you apply for … citizenship. They don't understand," said Boston immigration attorney Giselle Rodriguez in an interview with NBC10. "They don't see how much of a puzzle this immigration world can be"
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Rodriguez outlined a number of the options her clients have worked through to obtain their citizenship. While these certainly aren't "all encompassing" of the immigrant profile, these specific applications can illustrate some of the major difficulties immigrants face in the process of naturalization.
Parole Processes: Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua
Around 95% of immigrants coming into Massachusetts in the last year are from Haiti, according to the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. These immigrants, along with those from Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, are eligible for a specific process that provides them with a temporary two-year period of parole within the United States.
"After those two years, we don't know what will happen," said Rodriguez.
The parole process works "pretty much like a lottery system," according to Rodriguez. Over 30,000 applications are submitted to the federal government monthly, with applicants combined from all four of the eligible countries.
One Haitian client Rodriguez had worked with was able to emigrate to the United States because of his parole eligibility. Before becoming eligible, he'd worked with Rodriguez to submit a marriage petition for citizenship on top of his green card - his original case is still pending within immigration services.
Asylum vs. refugees: What's the difference?
Asylees and refugees face complicated definitions when petitioning for either of these causes in their applications for citizenship, according to Rodriguez.
While an asylum seeker is generally within the US seeking protection, a refugee would instead be abroad seeking the same protection. In order to win an asylum case, the term refugee must be defined and "distinct," Rodriguez said.
To Rodriguez, the most common difficulty with these petitions is gathering the "concrete evidence" that would make them applicable.
She emphasized that it is very difficult to win an asylum case. Most applicants are unable to prove they were individually affected by the political or religious aspects of their asylum claim.
One benefit to the uncertainty of a petition for asylum? Rodriguez explained that these applications tend to take a long time to be decided upon, and that petitioners can in the meantime apply for work permits while they await their decision.
"They're waiting for their future to be settled, but at least in the meantime they can work legally," she said.
Employment-based immigration processes & waivers
Employment-based immigration may seem like one of the easiest options to petition to stay in the United States. But Rodriguez explained that this specific petition isn't applicable for many migrants in Massachusetts.
Rodriguez said it is very hard for immigrants to acquire any form of relief if they've accumulated "unlawful status" in the US. With any kind of legal mistakes along the way, it becomes more difficult to have an employer sponsor them.
"Maybe they entered legally and eventually overstayed a visa...or if they entered through the border. That's grounds for inadmissibility, and that generally applies in the employment space."
There are several waivers that can cancel these issues out, but they mostly apply to family-based petitioners. Depending on who the petitioner is, it can be "almost impossible" for an employer to sponsor an incoming migrant who's accrued any unlawful status.
DACA, TPS, and the pathway to a green card
DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and TPS, Immigrant Temporary Protection Status, are two different programs for immigrants entering the United States. But they share one key similarity -- neither program offers a gateway to permanent citizenship.
“It’s not a pathway to a green card, so that’s also very frustrating," Rodriguez said of her clients with TPS. "They are here on a limbo.”
With DACA already on "life-support" after dozens of lawsuits to shut it down, the program has halted its acceptance of any new applications. For Rodriguez's clients, this means that those who were ineligible to apply at the last deadline, even by a matter of days, are still unable to pursue it.
"For that reason, they are still to this day without status," she said.
Applicants for TPS face strict cut-off dates set by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). They are only eligible after proving "continuous, physical presence" within the country after a certain date, and are able to apply for work permits under their status.
Like immigrants with DACA, they cannot travel outside of the country unless granted permission to travel abroad in an emergency situation. There still, however, is no guaranteed reentry for these citizens once they are permitted to travel outside of the US. For Rodriguez, it's one of the key risks of this specific pathway for incoming migrants. She emphasizes to her clients that, "you have to understand the odds."
"Once you're on the radar of immigration, you are prone to removal or deportation," she said. "That's obviously at the end of the day their decision, but it is something they need to consider."
The situation in Massachusetts
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced a state of emergency in August 2023, when the number of incoming migrants began to surpass the capacity of the city's homelessness shelters. Over the same time period, attorneys like Rodriguez have seen a swell in prospective citizenship applications, with certain trends defining them.
In July, Healey announced that immigrants arriving as of Aug. 1, 2024, will no longer receive priority in the state's housing crisis. The state has continued to struggle with the influx of migrants currently straining its homelessness shelters.
Richelle, whose family lives in a Roxbury shelter, has obtained his employment permits to work at a Haitian food truck, Gourmet Kreyol. His attitude about the waiting periods for his visa application parallels what he hopes for U.S. immigration reform.
"I'm just waiting here, to see what the government does," said Richelle. "You just wait, you have to do it."
Rodriguez noted that as Massachusetts manages its crisis, she has seen an emphasis on families or relationships in her applicants. These include things like a parent petitioning for a child or a child with citizenship, over the age of 21, petitioning waivers on behalf of "extreme hardship" for a non-citizen parent. Relationships like marriage-based applications have increased as well.
The attorney also noted a new wave of anxiety regarding the fall 2024 elections. She said a "state of fear" exists within her clients, who "want to file everything before November, because of so many unknowns."
In the past year, some clients have also been more interested in applying for U.S. citizenship. While it is technically possible to be a green card holder and remain in the United States for your entire life, some applicants are motivated by the "very important" benefits that come with being a citizen.
Once an immigrant is awarded a green card, the mandatory waiting periods before applying for citizenship take five years, or three if the applicant is married to and living with a U.S. citizen. Even after these periods, the processing times for the N-400, the naturalization form that grants someone citizenship, are different from center to center.
Each office has its own processing times, even after the waiting periods to qualify for citizenship. These times also fluctuate with "little rhyme or reason" as to why -- some cases can be approved in two months, while some remain pending for over a year, Rodriguez told us. The average waiting period for an N-400 form to be approved in Boston is eight and a half months.
Depending on the petition for citizenship that is being submitted, some cases face even longer waiting times. U.S. citizens to petition for a spouse abroad can take "over a year, sometimes two to three years" to receive their decision. These cases now depend on the capacity of the consulates in each respective country, which can be overwhelmed and armed with limited resources when compared to the US.
If an immigrant makes a mistake on their application, it can tremendously elongate the timeframe for their application to be approved. These can include minor paperwork mistakes like not understanding the language of the forms themselves, pending requests for evidence, or not paying the right filing fees depending on which form is submitted.
Some cases were delayed after applicants failed to sufficiently prepare for their in-person examinations, whether these were the marriage or family-based interviews, or the 100-question U.S. History and Civics test. The test is extensive, and, according to Rodriguez, the average anti-immigrant commenter she interacts with on social media "would probably not know what those answers are."
The gravest mistakes, from a DUI years ago to evidence of false claims to be a citizen, can severely delay or even permanently bar an immigration process. Rodriguez advises her clients that "whatever you do before getting your green card, can impact your green card."
Rodriguez regularly works with clients who've made mistakes like these in the past. Some use fake IDs or passports to enter the country, or have illegally crossed the border during their journey to Massachusetts. Rodriguez maintains that she's not justifying these mistakes, but that "at the same time, it's understandable."
"No one is going to take such a risk 'just because'" she said.
Even those who make every attempt to follow all the steps may experience obstacles external to the process itself. Migrants trying to navigate an unfamiliar system and language are more vulnerable to people who may try to take advantage of them, particularly in the form of scams.
Rodin Martinez, a Salvadoran migrant and former client of Rodriguez's, shared how one scammer created "a disaster" of his application after enticing him by charging cheaper rates.
"Months would pass, a year passed, and there was no news, until I realized I got a letter from immigration saying my petition was denied," said Martinez. "He put my mother's name wrong, he put my name wrong, he made a mess."
Rodriguez urged the importance of recognizing how hardworking migrants like her clients truly are, and the importance of dispelling misinformation that they aren't deserving of support like food stamps or public health benefits. She acknowledged how strict these processes can realistically be, saying that most people "don't even understand that in order to get these public benefits, there are requirements."
Rodriguez and her clients face a constantly changing landscape in immigration procedures. USCIS forms have expiration dates, and even recently saved forms can be a problem if submitted after a change or deadline. Asylum law can constantly change, becoming futile or "no longer authority" -- Rodriguez emphasized how important it was to pay attention, if only to help her client.
Changes can come even on a day-by-day basis for some pending cases. For one case, Rodriguez worked with a couple who were recently married in July. Because of a June executive order, Rodriguez noted that these clients had missed the deadline to qualify for new immigration benefits for married couples by only a few days.
"Things change very fast in immigration," said Rodriguez.
