Virginia and Maryland were two of the most popular states last year for foreign nationals who wanted to become U.S. citizens. The two states ranked among the top 10 for naturalizations, as Virginia placed seventh, with almost 30,000 newly minted U.S. citizens, and Maryland 10th, with about 23,000, according to an annual Department of Homeland Security report.
Neither state ranks in the top 10 in overall population, according to 2008 estimates from the U.S. Census.
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The top 10 states in naturalizations last year:
State Total
1. California 297,909
2. Florida 128,328
3. New York 90,572
4. Texas 82,129
5. New Jersey 59,950
6. Illinois 45,224
7. Virginia 29,949
8. Massachusetts 28,728
9. Arizona 24,055
10. Maryland 23,342
Source: Migration Policy Institute, Homeland Security Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, 2008
Among metropolitan areas, the Washington area was ranked fifth. Almost 4 percent of all residents who became citizens last year lived in the region. The Washington area has been a popular destination for immigrants over the past 20 years, said Michele Waslin, senior policy analyst for the Immigration Policy Center. The IPC is the research arm of the American Immigration Law Foundation.
Indeed, from 1990 to 2007, the foreign-born population in the Washington area doubled from fewer than 500,000 to more than 1 million, according to U.S. Census data.
The Washington area also ranked fourth among metropolitan destinations for legal immigrants in fiscal 2008, and Virginia and Maryland were in the top 10 in state rankings, the report said.
In terms of 2008 naturalizations, California was first, with almost 300,000, and Wyoming had the fewest, with 245.
The number of naturalizations nationwide increased 58 percent between 2007 and 2008, from about 660,000 to just more than 1 million.
There has been an “ebb and flow” of citizenship applications since about 1996, said American University professor Alan Kraut, who specializes in immigration history. He said there was a perception that the entrance exam was easier than it used to be, and many people wanted to become eligible to vote in the 2008 election.
Another factor was the 80 percent increase in naturalization fees, to $595, at the end of July 2007, Jeanne Batalova of the Migration Policy Institute wrote in a recent article titled “Spotlight on Immigration Trends.”
“Given the delay between application submission and when the approved applicant takes the oath, many applicants who submitted their applications in 2007 naturalized in 2008 or later,” she wrote.
