'I love this country': New citizens in Toms River tell us what it means to become American

TOMS RIVER - Mark Cunningham's family cheered as he walked up to the podium to shake hands with officials from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He walked back with a U.S. citizenship certificate in one hand and a small American flag in the other.

The Irish national officially could call the red-white-and-blue flag his own.

"I love this country, and I'm very proud to be made a citizen this morning," said Cunningham, 42, who raises three kids with his wife, Tara, in Toms River.

Twenty people became American citizens Monday in Toms River. It's a regularly scheduled ceremony carried out by USCIS, for but the 20 individuals who took the oath of allegiance the day marks a special milestone.

"All my family except me are citizens," said Xiuhua Chen, 39, of Brick, who came here from China in 2001. "My daughter told me, 'We are all a family of citizens.'"

Nearly 11 million people have become naturalized citizens between fiscal years 2001 and 2016, according to the most recent figures provided by USCIS. Each year an average of 700,000 immigrants become citizens.

It's not a simple process. Law-abiding green card recipients have to wait five years before becoming eligible for citizenship, or three years for those who are spouses of U.S. citizens. They must speak, read, write and understand English, and pass a test on U.S. government and history. A 2016 poll of 2,000 Americans found that just 35 percent answered five of the citizenship questions perfectly, 31 percent missed a question and the rest scored a D or failed.

And that doesn't take into account the paperwork it takes to obtain the green card years before citizenship becomes a possibility.

"It's difficult to get your green card, even on a spousal visa, even as someone who's been here a lot over the years," Cunningham said. "I think in the application I had to write how many times I had been in America. I'd been here over a year of my life, but I never lived here."

He added: "It's a tough system for sure. There's nobody getting in that's not meant to get in."

Theresa Brush, 52, of Brick, originally came here from Guyana 28 years ago. Juggling work and raising a family, she put off the naturalization process until last year.

"It was time," she said. "I've been here 28 years. I said, 'You should do it now. This is your country.'"

Steph Solis: @stephmsolis; 732-403-0074; ssolis@gannett.com