In the community

Want to become a U.S. citizen? Free prep classes return to Ontario Public Library this fall

Attendees gathered this summer at Global Village Festival’s first ever ceremony to honor naturalized citizens of the U.S. (Submitted photo)

This story has been updated.

ONTARIO – Becoming an American citizen is no simple task, but free citizenship classes returning to the Ontario Public Library this fall may help make it a little easier. 

The 10-week classes kick off Sept. 24 and run through Nov. 26. Students will meet weekly on Tuesdays from 6 to 8 p.m.

This is the third time the Four Rivers Welcome Center has offered the citizenship preparation class. 

Renee Cummings, center director, will teach the classes, which walk students through the interview procedure with U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services as well as the exam that applicants must take covering U.S. history and civics. 

To pre-register call 208-369-3995 or email [email protected]

Cummings said the past two sessions have been popular. Over a dozen people graduated at each session and a few have already become citizens. 

“We don’t just teach them the answer,” said Cummings. 

“We teach them why that’s the answer, because we found they really wanted to know those things, they were really interested in that.”

The intent is to offer the course twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. For now the class is the only one of its kind in Malheur County since Treasure Valley Community College stopped offering a similar class. 

Maria Romero, a paralegal with the Oregon Law Center, helps Cummings teach the class and will be on hand the first day to ensure that everyone who signs up is eligible to become a U.S. citizen and has correctly filled out their application for citizenship. 

This first step is important, said Cummings. 

The application fee for citizenship is $725. If the forms are filed incorrectly, applicants risk losing a lot of money and delaying the process. 

Romero said she’d received positive feedback from community members.

“It’s a good thing for our community for them to move forward with naturalization. It’s a big step that they take,” Romero said. In recent years she said she’s seen more people interested in becoming citizens.

One student in particular stands out for both Cummings and Romero. An elderly woman who lost her husband last December took the spring class offered earlier this year. Cummings recalled how the student would take work home every week, copying the lessons over and over. She passed the exam on her first try this summer.

Cummings and Romero both marvel at the infectious pride they’ve seen in their students when they complete the class or pass the interview and exam.

They’ve seen community members from Mexico, India, Iraq and Japan, among other countries, come through. 

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This includes refugees who just hit the five-year mark of living in the U.S. that are required to apply to those who have lived here for decades. 

Some took the class twice to ensure they’re well prepared for the interview and the exam. Romero explained that the federal agency gives applicants two shots at passing before they’re asked to refile an application. 

Eastern Oregon applicants must travel to Portland for their interview and exam, but a recent change in procedure now allows those on this side of the state to go to Boise instead. 

Still, being so far away from Portland means many community members who have become citizens in the past didn’t get to share the ceremony with their families and community, Cummings said. 

That roadblock inspired her and Romero.

This summer, they helped organize the first citizenship ceremony at Ontario’s annual Global Village Festival. The unofficial event invited anyone in the area who had become a citizen, no matter how long ago. 

They made paper certificates and called people up to the stage. It was a last-minute addition to the festival, but they still managed to attract about 40 people.

Cummings said the ceremony was emotional. Some attendees cried, families took photos – they went down to congratulate some older folks who couldn’t make it up onstage. 

“It was pretty powerful,” Cummings said. “You hear so much rhetoric from people saying ‘Why don’t they just become citizens?’ I want to show people that people are working at it, and it’s not easy.”

News tip? Yadira Lopez of the Malheur Enterprise: 541-473-3377 or [email protected].

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