PROJECT CITIZENSHIP INC

Project Citizenship seeks to reduce the barriers faced by low-income legal permanent residents who want to become U.S. citizenship. By gaining citizenship, immigrants gain access to high paying employment, safety and security and the right to participate in the democratic process.

48% of clients require further assistance during the pendency of the application. When clients become citizens, we are immediately available to help their minor children obtain certificates of citizenship. After achieving citizenship, the client gains the benefits and refers countless more immigrants to begin the process; 25% of clients are referred by a former client. We offer our services free of charge. 75% of Project Citizenship clients are eligible to waive the $725 application. Cost is eliminated as a barrier. For clients with medical impairments that prevent them from learning English or civics, we act as an advocate with their medical provider to exempt them from the requirement and send legal representation to their naturalization interview to ensure fair treatment by USCIS. We have an 85% success rate with disability waivers, far above the national average of about 56%. We train medical providers and become a source of information and guidance for providers in the region. By hosting large scale citizenship workshops greater Boston, we take our services to the immigrant communities that need them. We partner with elected officials, other community organizations and local businesses to provide high-quality and free legal services.

95% of our clients achieve citizenship. The most common reason for denials is insufficient fluency with English. Project Citizenship is careful to advise clients applying for citizenship who must pay the full $725 fee if their English is inadequate.

Project Citizenship has refined its group processing workshop model. Applicants who have signed up to attend the workshop will sit down with a Project Citizenship staff member or a volunteer attorney to fill out the citizenship application. After the entire application has been finished, the application will be checked over by an attorney or senior staff member to ensure that no errors have been made. Project Citizenship staff also help applicants identify if they are eligible for an application fee waiver, and assisting in completing those forms. Finally, the applicant will receive a copy of their filled out application for their personal records, along with information regarding the next steps of the application process.

We partner with community organizations that make referrals and to whom we refer clients for ESOL and civics classes. Many community organizations are no longer able to accept disability waiver cases and are referring these and more complex cases to Project Citizenship.
We offer citizenship workshops in three different venues: at our Citizenship Center in Quincy Market, at law firms with which we have pro bono partnerships, and in the communities that we serve including Framingham, Quincy, Lowell, Lawrence, Attleboro, Chelsea, and beyond.

Project Citizenship has many core partnerships that allow it to provide services on such a grand scale. An initial staff of three that has now grown to five permanent staff members have served more than 4,600 immigrants since 2014. Our pro bono relationships with law firms provide venues for our workshops, needed volunteers who can be trained to serve clients, as well as financial support for our work. Similarly, pro bono relationships with the area law schools, notably, BC, BU, Harvard and Northeastern, provide volunteers, legal interns and a source of AmeriCorps attorneys.

AmeriCorps is the backbone of our staffing model. Three to four New American Integration Program AmeriCorps volunteers staff the intake telephone line, oversee our immigrant outreach, social media, and support the staff efforts with data entry and analysis. The AmeriCorps Legal Advocates – Massachusetts program provides a recent law graduate who gives one year of service to serve immigrants seeking citizenship.

We receive referrals from other legal services providers, from City Halls, immigration clinics and community leaders.

Project Citizenship's guiding principals are:

Inclusion: We welcome immigrants in the community and encourage them to become citizens as soon as they are eligible.

Democracy: We promote civic engagement among immigrants, to make new citizens active participants in their communities and country.

Opportunity: We promote the value of citizenship. Citizenship provides opportunities for increased access to benefits, jobs, and advancement for immigrants, their children, families and future generations to come.

Community: We inspire and assist immigrants to gain the benefits of citizenship to strengthen community ties.

Collaboration: We engage community-based organizations, partners and pro bono legal services to make Project Citizenship a community-driven, cost-effective model that is able to serve a vast number of immigrants across New England.

Project Citizenship has continued to see growth in demand for its services, and has been able to meet that demand. Since 2014, Project Citizenship has enabled more than 8,300 immigrants to apply for citizenship.

The political climate has, at different times, increased demand for services and has acted as a deterrent. The 2020 presidential campaign has increased the number of calls Project Citizenship received and the requests for information and services. COVID and its aftermath has constrained staff ability to respond.

USCIS practices also constrain our organization’s work. After litigation against USCIS, an injunction has been obtained to prevent the elimination of fee waivers and has prevented the increase of the filing fee from $725 to $1170.