Cuc Vu, Director July 3, 2019 Submitted via email OMB USCIS Desk Officer
[email protected] Re: Agency USCIS, OMB Control Number 1615-0116 - Public Comment Opposing Changes to Fee Waiver Eligibility Criteria, Agency Information Collection Activities: Revision of a Currently Approved Collection: Request for Fee Waiver FR Doc. 2019-11744, Filed 6-5-19; 84 FR 26137 Dear Desk Officer: The City of Seattle (“the City”) submits this comment in response to the proposed revision of a currently approved collection published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in their Agency Information Collection Notice published on June 5, 2019. We are responding to the lack of response to the public comments previously submitted on April 5, 2019 and to address the inadequacy of responses by USCIS to comments submitted in response to their Notice of Revision of Currently Approved Collection published on September 28, 2018. The City of Seattle continues to strongly oppose the proposed rule to modify Form I-912, Request for Fee Waiver. The City of Seattle created the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) in 2012 to improve the lives of Seattle’s immigrant and refugee families. Through OIRA, the City of Seattle funds and coordinates two naturalization programs called the New Citizen Campaign (NCC) and the New Citizen Program (NCP) to help an estimated 75,000 Seattle-area legal permanent residents (“LPR”) become U.S. citizens. Since its inception in 1997, NCP has served over 19,000 people, provided naturalization assistance to over 12,300 LPRs, successfully naturalized 9,500 LPRs, and provided over 90,000 hours of citizenship instruction.