With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we often think of Presidents’ Day as another day off of work. This national holiday, which occurs the third Monday of February, is the national holiday to recognize George Washington, our nation’s very first president. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) decided to honor Washington in a special way this year by holding naturalization ceremonies for approximately 17,800 new U.S. citizens.
USCIS will hold approximately 150 naturalization ceremonies across the United States. The ceremonies began on Valentine’s Day and will continue through Feb. 22. Some ceremonies will be held in historic presidential buildings, including George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate in Alexandria, Virginia; the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia; and the JFK Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
USCIS also added a digital aspect to this Presidents’ Day celebration. They invited the newly inducted citizens to post photos and experiences on their Facebook page and also on Twitter, using the hashtag #newUScitizen. You can access the USCIS Facebook page here: https://Users/davidlewis/Sites/berardi/app/public.facebook.com/uscis, and the Twitter here: https://twitter.com/USCIS.
Hundreds of people flocked to Twitter to share their stories and the result is truly heartwarming. Posted photos show new U.S. citizens with huge smiles proudly holding their naturalization certificates and miniature American flags. Some of the captions read, “Proudest moment of my life, dreams do come true,” “My sweetheart is a new U.S. citizen,” and “The day has finally come!”
George Washington once said, “Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.” There’s no better way to honor this statement than to welcome the citizens of those nations to our own.
If you have questions regarding naturalization, please contact one of our immigration attorneys today!