On October 9, the President signed the "Military Personnel Citizenship Processing Act of 2008" (S. 2840) into law. The law requires that the USCIS process and issue a citizenship decision within six months of receiving an application from a current or former member of the armed forces, or their surviving dependents. If a decision is not made within that time frame, USCIS is required to explain the delay and provide a new decision target date.

The law also establishes an FBI liaison office inside USCIS and processing deadlines for other naturalization applications