Before the new application took effect on April 1, 2024, GCAB assisted 110 people in their journey to apply for citizenship, covering the cost of N400 citizenship application fees totaling more than $74,000. Thirty-five of them, including two children, have attained citizenship with the assistance of GCAB as of March 31, 2024. But more importantly, the data collected helps the cohort understand the challenges and barriers immigrants face, as well as identifying supportive services, such as interview accompaniment, legal representation, practice interviews, and study materials that the cohort can develop and expand to help immigrants overcome anxiety, language barriers and other roadblocks on their journey in acquiring citizenship.

Now that USCIS has increased the naturalization application fee to $760 and expanded reduced fee to a higher income bracket to include those whose household income is at or below  400% of the federal poverty guideline, HILSC is growing the cohort to add new providers, Tahirih Justice Center and the Earl Carl Institute for Law and Policy of Texas Southern University to make financial assistance available to a broader swath of immigrants contemplating the final leg of their immigrant journey to become U.S. Citizens. HILSC will continue to collect feedback from immigrants benefited under GCAB to cull lessons learned to continue to improve the project to maximize its impacts.

On July 10, 2024, amid the power outage and clean-up following Hurricane Beryl, Houston hosted the largest citizenship oath ceremony at the NRG Stadium where a record number of 2,286 newly minted citizens from 121 countries took the oath of allegiance to the United States and arrived at the destination of their immigrant journey. Among them was HILSC’s intern, Ander Seungsun Yoo, who is a rising Senior at University of Houston majoring in political science and an aspiring law student.