The number of foreigners legally becoming U.S. residents
broke the million mark for the first time last year, an increase the
Immigration and Naturalization Service attributed Friday partly to
reductions in application backlogs.

The INS said it recorded 1,064,318 new legal permanent residents between
Oct. 2000 and Sept. 2001. That number rose from 849,807 recorded the year
before.

Sixty-one percent, or 653,259, of the new permanent residents already were
living in the United States as temporary employees, refugees, students or
under asylum and simply adjusted their status.

Others were in the country illegally. The INS did not know how many people
had been in the country illegally and became permanent residents through
various programs.

The rest of the new residents – 411,059 – entered the country on a visa.
That is an increase from fiscal year 2000, when 407,402 new arrivals became
legal permanent residents.

The INS is processing the applications adjusting immigrants' status to
permanent resident faster than ever before, completing 48 percent more
applications. The immigration agency completed 653,259 cases in fiscal
2001, up from 442,405 completions the year before.

Nationally, such applications take an average of 11 months, down from 30
months at the beginning of 2000. INS said it still has 847,000 applications
pending.

"Last year the president declared his goal was to reduce the processing
times to six months by 2004 and this just shows we're on track to do that,"
INS spokesman Bill Strassberger said.

Processing times vary by city. In New York, the wait for completion of a
legal permanent residency application is 17 months. But in San Antonio,
Newark, N.J. and San Diego, the wait is four months, INS said.

INS statistics show the biggest increases in new legal permanent residents
are among immigrants sponsored by family members or relatives of U.S. citizens.

ATTENTION AMERICANS
We will be soon in minority.They will rule on us
soon.
tb.... please do something to stop this flood.