shows that Northeast Ohio is the best place in the country for people who want to become citizens.
The report was compiled by Seattle-based , which helps people navigate the immigration process. It ranks the immigration field offices in more than 100 cities nationwide by looking at their efficiency and the speed of the process. The Cleveland office -- which handles applications for most of Northeast Ohio -- came in at number one.
Farhad Sethna is an immigration attorney and on the faculty at the . He says that while Cleveland is a model for how immigration offices are run, the wait times around the nation have been rising over the past two years.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 keyed, really, to the change in the political directive that鈥檚 come out of Washington, D.C., and especially the anti-immigrant sentiment that鈥檚 rising out the White House these days.鈥�
Sethna says the while the Cleveland office may be physically similar to others in the nation, the difference here is the people.
鈥淭he Cleveland Field office is extremely responsive. They have an email box for attorneys and we get a response, usually, within 24 hours. Which is really incredible. I can tell you it鈥檚 incredible because I鈥檝e had dealings with other field offices. And you can send them letters and call and you just hit a blank wall.鈥�
also gives high marks to the other two offices in Ohio, with Cincinnati at #8 and Columbus at #11.
