By: Timothy Sutton, Communications Editor

My grandmother turns ninety-two years old this Fourth of July. Born and raised in Hawaii, she is one of seven daughters of an immigrant Chinese farmer. She grew up speaking Chinese, but raised her children to be American. To her, being American is more than just eating hamburgers instead of Chinese food; it is a love affair with endless possibilities. A bank teller, married to a butcher, my grandmother sacrificed all financial possessions to support her children’s education. The result: a doctor, an engineer, a certified public accountant, and two Ph.Ds.

America is a collection of success stories like my grandmother’s. We are a nation born out of a common struggle to establish a greater good for all. Our history may be shorter than many nations, but our progress is unparalleled.

Our strength and unity have made us a great nation that continues to rapidly progress. Our youth are both bright and ambitious. Over the last ninety-two years, my grandmother has participated in the most amazing experiment of freedom and personal liberty the world has ever known. This Independence Day, while the rockets cascade vibrant red, white, and blue hues across the night sky, another great American will be born; who knows what endless possibilities they may achieve over the next ninety-two years?

USCIS announced that it has begun issuing a redesigned, security enhanced Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550) as part of its ongoing efforts to enhance the integrity of the immigration system.  The agency anticipates that over 600,000 new citizens will receive the enhanced certificate over the next year.

Here’s Q&A on the new Certificate, and here is a close-up image of the new certificate.

The previous Certificates featured hard-copy photos of the candidates.  The redesigned certificate features the naturalization candidate’s digitized photo and signature embedded into the base document.  Eliminating the requirement to affix the hard-copy photo and hand-stamp the USCIS director’s signature cuts cost in man-hours and improves security.

USCIS also changed the wording to better reflect the current provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.  In particular, obsolete language stating that the candidate resides in the US and “intends to reside in the US when so required by the Naturalization laws of the USA” has been removed.  These changes affect the form of the certificate only and do not alter any legal requirements for naturalization or USCIS application processing.

Immigration officials, in an effort to deter fraud, will unveil today a new naturalization certificate for people who become U.S. citizens.

The new certificates, used to obtain passports and other legal documents, come after USCIS unveiled a new green card — the ID card for immigrants with permanent residency status — this year that had improved security features to prevent forgery and tampering.

The old Naturalization Certificates were filled in manually and the person’s photograph was just attached to it. The new computerized certificates will have all that information embedded in the document and also will have ink patterns that are harder to duplicate.

It’s important to note that  previously issued certificates remain valid.

If you haven’t seen the new USCIS Naturalization Resource Center, take a look.  It’s very informative, easy to navigate and an excellelnt addition to their website.