The number of people approved to become citizens in Greater Cincinnati has dropped significantly so far this year, according to federal immigration data.
The decline in approved citizenship applications could be driving cancelations in naturalization ceremonies locally. Those events are pivotal — they include a swearing-in that is a required part of the citizenship process, immigration attorneys say.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data shows about 750 people received approval for their naturalization applications through the agency's Cincinnati field office between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2026.
The field office issued about 1,650 approvals in the first half of 2025, USCIS data shows, and about 1,760 for that time frame in 2024.
Increased scrutiny and wait times
Cincinnati immigration attorney Chuck Hollis says heightened scrutiny by immigration officials has caused longer delays in approval and denials of citizenship applications.
"Part of the reason the number of approvals is going down is that so many more cases are still pending, and they're in this sort of limbo where they haven't been adjudicated," he said.
The most recent USCIS data through June 30 of this year shows the Cincinnati field office had about 2,360 cases pending. That's up from about 2,260 at the same time in 2025 and 1,800 in 2024.
Under federal law, USCIS generally has 120 days to issue a decision after they've interviewed an applicant for citizenship.
Applications also dropped somewhat in 2026 — from around 1,000 per quarter in 2025 to about 800 per quarter so far this year. But the process between application and approval takes a number of months, so there isn't likely a correlation between the decrease in applications and the decrease in approvals shown in the data.
Hollis cites instances in which an immigrant applies for citizenship or another immigration status change, because they're married to a U.S. citizen, as an example of the increased scrutiny.
"Before January of last year, probably more than 90% of the marriage-based adjustment cases I submitted were approved without interviews," he said. "Now, however, it's my understanding that every single marriage case has to go to interview, even if it's a case where a couple has been married for 25 years and has six biological kids together."
Cancelled Naturalization Ceremonies
At the same time the number of approvals for citizenship has dropped, some immigration advocates and others familiar with naturalization ceremonies locally have reported a number of the events have been cancelled in 2026.
Hollis says that's not a coincidence.
"I think one reason why ceremonies are getting canceled is because the vetting process is taking so much longer now," he said.
WVXU reached out to both USCIS and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, which administers the ceremonies, for more information. Neither answered questions about how many ceremonies had been canceled or why. The court referred WVXU's questions to USCIS, which referred back to the court. Neither responded to follow up questions.
The Northern District of Ohio's court calendar shows 17 naturalization events have been canceled in Cleveland and Toledo this year. The Southern District's court calendar doesn't show cancelations, but it does show only one naturalization ceremony scheduled in Cincinnati, taking place in late October.
Some advocates have also reported immigrants with approved citizenship applications being turned away at their scheduled events. Hollis says that happened at a recent event he attended — though it hasn't happened to one of his clients.
"I learned after I arrived there that several people who were expecting to naturalize were told to basically go home, and that they would be kept waiting," he said.
Hollis says immigrants whose application decisions or swearing-in ceremonies are delayed, or who feel they've been unfairly denied citizenship have a series of legal actions they can take.
"Now, for many people that federal litigation is going to be cost-prohibitive," he said. "But I think one way to remedy this uptick of denials that might not be justified is to go to court and have a judge look at it."
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