Typical wait times for applicants seeking U.S. citizenship have doubled after a spike in applications before and after the 2016 presidential election.
The sharp increase in applications has led to a backlog of more than 708,000 applications nationwide, reports NBC4 media partner KPCC. In Los Angeles County, the processing time has consequently grown from around five to seven months to 10 months.
Applications began spiking prior to the 2016 election partly because some legal residents, wary of then-candidate Donald Trump's harsh immigration rhetoric, took steps to protect themselves, say legal service providers.
"Many people who were lawful permanent residents are saying, 'I am no longer safe in this country as a lawful permanent resident. I have to become a citizen,'" said Los Angeles immigration attorney Alma Rosa Nieto.
A much longer application form -- one put in place during the Barack Obama era -- and more vetting of applicants under the Trump administration have also contributed to the longer waiting times, Nieto said.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials, however, say they're trying to fix the backlog.
"To address the increased processing times, USCIS is allocating additional employee overtime and recruiting to fill vacancies across the country," the agency said in a statement to KPCC.
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