Having filed his declaration of intention after an average residence in this country shown in all courts as 6.8 years—nearly two years more than the five years’ minimum residence required for the completion of citizenship—our average immigrant waits more than five years longer before he files his final petition for naturalization—although under the law he need have waited only two. The range, however, was wide, between an average of 3.0 years in the Supreme Court of Androscoggin County, Auburn, Maine, and 11.1 years in the Circuit Court at Portland, Oregon. The whole average shown in all the courts studied was 5.1 years. These are very surprising figures for those who have been complaining that we have hurried aliens into citizenship.
Once the applicant has his petition filed, the process becomes more expeditious. The figures collated for the year 1913–14 show an average interval between petition and certificate of naturalization of 4.9 months; the range is between 3.9 months in the United States District Court in Manhattan, and 12.7 months in the State Supreme Court at Elmira, New York. From the point of view of delay, three months must always be subtracted, since the law requires, in any event, an interval of at least ninety days after the petition is filed before it can be considered by the court.
HOW DO THE RACIAL GROUPS COMPARE?
What light do the petitions throw upon the question of the relative “civic and political interest” of the various racial groups, as shown by the interval that elapses between their attainment of the age of 21 years, or if they come here after they are 21, between their arrival and their filing of the final petition?
TABLE XXII
Average Interval Before Filing Petition, After Attainment of Twenty-one Years, for Those Arriving at Ages of One to Fourteen, by Races
| Country of Birth | Number in Age Group 1–14 | Average Interval (Years) |
| All countries | 2,900 | 6.2 |
| France | 19 | 12.9 |
| Norway | 13 | 12.5 |
| Switzerland | 7 | 12.4 |
| Sweden | 31 | 12.4 |
| Scotland | 13 | 11.8 |
| England | 77 | 11.6 |
| Ireland | 77 | 10.8 |
| Germany | 280 | 10.3 |
| Canada | 88 | 9.8 |
| Denmark | 13 | 9.5 |
| Holland | 17 | 9.5 |
| Hungary | 192 | 5.8 |
| Greece | 12 | 5.5 |
| Finland | 6 | 5.3 |
| Russia | 873 | 5.0 |
| Italy | 651 | 4.9 |
| Austria | 389 | 4.5 |
| Turkey in Asia | 10 | 4.0 |
| Rumania | 89 | 3.8 |
| Turkey in Europe | 8 | 3.6 |
We have three groups of statistics on this point: those petitioners arriving at the ages of 1 to 14, those at 15 to 20 years, and those 21 years and over. In the following table the countries of birth are arranged in the order of the average interval for those arriving at the ages of 1 to 14 years. The complete table will be found in the [Appendix].