"We don't carry weapons, we don't arrest people. Everybody can come to see us," said Andrea J. Quarantillo, the New York district director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said last Thursday at a briefing with ethnic journalists. A moment later, fifty residents of the New York area from 47 countries were naturalized. Among them was one man from Poland.

"Each year we receive 85,000 to 100,000 applications for citizenship," Quarantillo said. On average, the application review time is five to six months. The data made available to reporters from the ethnic press indicates that Poles are still one of the largest groups from Europe to become naturalized U.S. citizens and are ahead of the Ukrainians and Russians.

In the last fiscal year 1,458 Polish nationals took an oath in New York. However on the "global" list of immigrants, Poles are in 13th place, far behind China (7,167), the Dominican Republic (6,051) and India (3,603).

The New York district is the largest in the country; 10 percent to 12 percent of all green card and citizenship applications are reviewed here, the officials said during the Thursday briefing. Most of the petitioners have nothing to fear, they added, since 90 percent to 95 percent of the applications are considered favorably.

During the meeting with reporters, immigration agents acted out a typical citizenship interview. They also reminded the journalists about the basic requirements for citizenship. Similar presentations are being organized for different ethnic groups in the New York metro area.

The immigration bureau is also trying to explain that after dividing the former Immigration and Naturalization Service into three agencies (the two others are Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection) immigrants and potential future citizens should not fear going through the doors of this institution. Quarantillo admitted, however, that it is difficult to get rid of negative stereotypes that are associated with the institution she heads.

"The immigration office in its current form has been in existence for eight and a half years. It will be another eight and a half years until I manage to convey who we are and what we do," she said. She also mentioned the agency's efforts to battle corruption, and the constant tightening of controls aimed at making it impossible to "buy" a green card – a phenomena hard to eliminate completely. "One needs to remember that permanent residence is still a very sought after commodity in this country," she said.