PHOENIX (AP) -- Although immigration officials in Phoenix are churning out record numbers of new U.S. citizens, critics say federal officials aren't working fast enough so many immigrants won't become citizens in time to vote in November.

The Phoenix office for Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to grant citizenship to 2,000 legal immigrants this month, more than twice the usual 800 for May.

Charles Harrell, acting district director of the CIS office in Phoenix, said the immigration service is responding to a surge of applications that poured in last year.

Citizenship applications spike every four years preceding a presidential election, but the record surge last year was triggered by various immigration-related factors, including a 70 percent fee increase that prompted thousands of immigrants to apply before the increase took effect Aug. 1.

Many immigrants also applied in hopes of being able to vote for a new president in the November general election.

Others were prompted by citizenship drives launched after the collapse of immigration reform in Congress. Still others applied out of fear of being swept up in stepped-up immigration crackdowns.

A legal resident is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship five years after getting his or her green card. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for citizenship.

In Phoenix, 15,976 immigrants applied for citizenship during fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30. That's up 64 percent from 2006.

Nationally, 1.4 million applications poured in 2007 - almost twice as many as during the previous year.

The flood of citizenship applications created a huge backlog. By the end of December, more than 1 million immigrants were waiting for their applications to be processed, and the CIS said it could take up to 18 months to plow through the backlog, compared with the usual six-month wait.

Oct. 6 is the deadline in Arizona to register for the Nov. 4 election.

The CIS has increased overtime and hired scores of new officers to help process applications more quickly.

The Phoenix office has added 12 adjudication officers since February and plans to add 10 more next month. The additions will give the office 39 total, up from 17 at the start of the year.

As a result, Phoenix is on pace to create more U.S. citizens this year than any time since 1995.

Data shows the immigration service in Phoenix has sworn in 5,994 new citizens during the first seven months of this fiscal year, up 80 percent from the first seven months of the previous year.

Nationally, the immigration service has sworn in 387,901 new citizens during the first six months of this fiscal year, up 34 percent from the 288,987 sworn in during the first six months of the previous year.

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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

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