New US immigration documents to curb fraud

United States, 28th October: Officials of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services are going to issue redesigned naturalization certificates to help reduce incidents of fraud.

All new US citizens will now get US citizenship certificates with embedded photograph and signatures. Also, the background of the redesigned naturalization document will have a color-changing ink pattern.

All these features will make the document much more secure.

Mariana Gitomer, official spokesperson of USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) said that the agency is confident that the latest redesigning of the document will prevent reproduction.

Around 600,000 new US citizenship certificates will be issued in the coming year by the agency. Around 65,000 people became US citizens in the FY (Fiscal Year) ending on 30th September 2010.

The issue of the new redesigned US citizenship documents has already started with effect from 25th October 2010 in the US with the only exception of the Los Angeles district which will start issuing these documents in November this year.

A total of 9,900 people becoming naturalized citizens of the US received older version of the naturalization certificate in Los Angeles this Wednesday.

According to Alejandro Mayorkas, director of the USCIS, stated that receiving a US naturalization certificate is a memorable occasion for nearly hundreds of new US citizens every year.

The first redesigned naturalization certificates were distributed personally by Mayorkas at Baltimore District Office of the agency during a naturalization function.

Meanwhile, the US immigration officials have stated that all the US naturalization certificates issued previously will be valid.

The US immigration agency has plans to change into automated production system for issuance of new naturalization certificates by the end of the current year. The aim is to reduce the total time taken to make such certificates and to increase consistency, the immigration officials added.

The initial transition phase will be implemented in Atlanta, Denver and Baltimore and will be followed by various offices in the next two months.

Earlier in May this year, the US immigration agency had announced the launch of new redesigned US Green Card which is also known as US permanent resident card that had a radio frequency identification capacity allowing border officials to read such cards even from a big distance.