Dressed in his best suit and able to pose for photographs, Akshay Gavai joined the road of cars heading to the car parking zone of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service field office in San Jose.
That Friday, June 28, Gavai was set to turn out to be an American citizen. Inside, he was awaiting the naturalization ceremony that may mark the top of his 21-year immigration from India.
At least that's what he thought.
As a USCIS agent approached him, Gavai rolled down his window and asked if the road was for parking.
“No,” he remembered her answering. “We're doing a drive-thru ceremony.”
Gavai rolled up his window. Shock and confusion ran through him. “What does this even mean?” he asked himself.
Little did Gavai know, nonetheless, that lots of the estimated 2,500 latest residents naturalized every month by the San Jose field office weren’t attending a high-profile ceremony — where latest residents watch select videos and presentations, hear an inventory of the countries represented by their previous nationalities, and listen to inspirational speeches from well-known public figures.
Instead, there was a drive-thru ceremony within the car parking zone – a practice introduced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to assist contain the spread of the virus.
Waiting alone in his automobile for twenty minutes, Gavai watched what would occur. Lines of cars drove into the car parking zone, where the long run residents got out in small groups for 2 minutes at most, then got back of their cars and drove away.
When it was his turn, Gavai thought back to the videos he had seen of ceremonies where judges gave grand speeches. He considered his parents, who were planning to travel from Australia to witness their son's naturalization ceremony, and his friends in Wisconsin and Colorado, who had planned to return there to support.
Instead, he saw a USCIS officer in chinos and sneakers. It was Gavai's turn. He got out of his automobile, listened to the USCIS officer take his oath of allegiance, answered “yes,” and heard “Congratulations, you are now officially a citizen.”
He got back within the automobile, received his naturalization certificate and drove off. Within 90 seconds, it was throughout.
Gavai was considered one of the last people to attend a drive-thru naturalization ceremony, a USCIS spokesperson told the Bay Area News Group. In July, the San Jose field office resumed holding monthly naturalization ceremonies on the Campbell Heritage Theater — the location where the ceremonies were held before the pandemic.
But it wasn't the coronavirus that sparked Gavai's drive-thru ceremony.
The Agency rushta is on the lookout for a venue for the June 28 ceremony and is on the lookout for a setting that can “preserve the significance, dignity and solemnity of the occasion,” in keeping with HigherGov, a government contracting website.
This attempt was apparently unsuccessful.
USCIS initially suspended naturalization ceremonies in the primary few weeks after the coronavirus outbreak. Starting in June 2020, the agency began holding expedited drive-thru ceremonies more regularly to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions and to deal with the growing backlog of residents looking for naturalization from March to May.
When pandemic restrictions were eased, most USCIS offices resumed regular operations. However, the San Jose field office didn’t because there was not enough space within the office constructing, the USCIS spokesperson said.
When asked why the theater wouldn’t be available until July 2024, USCIS didn’t respond.
USCIS Policy Manual sets out several steps that field offices should follow during naturalization ceremonies, “unless they are exempted.” Taking the oath of allegiance is considered one of 11 steps, but in keeping with the USCIS spokesperson, it’s a very powerful a part of the ceremony.
Every naturalization ceremony is different, the USCIS spokesperson added. USCIS desires to make each ceremony meaningful and special, but must juggle space, staff and scheduling.
The experience left Gavai dissatisfied.
“You want to walk out of there and say, 'Okay, I'm officially a citizen,'” he said. “I just didn't have that feeling. I really felt like a herd of cows being pushed through a factory line.”
For Gavai, USCIS' decision to proceed drive-thru ceremonies even after pandemic restrictions make it clear that “this is what they want to do.” Even if space had been a difficulty, he said, USCIS could have held a full ceremony within the car parking zone quite than continuing with the expedited drive-thru process.
Although the sector office said they at the moment are holding full-fledged ceremonies, Gavai stays frustrated that USCIS continues to permit these “convenient” drive-thru ceremonies years after pandemic restrictions ended. He feels that is unfair: “I was not told my ceremony would be in the drive-thru,” he said.
The frustration stems from Gavai's long and unsure path to citizenship – a process that many must undergo as they vie for a bit of the American dream.
When Gavai first got here to America as a tourist in 1998, “he couldn’t help but be amazed.”
Gavai was invited to the citizenship interview in May of this yr. When he received the letter for his naturalization ceremony, “it was pretty exciting,” he said. “It was the last step of this process.”
For Gavai, it’s “just so sad to see the final step being taken in such a careless manner.”
image credit : www.mercurynews.com