BEDFORD -- The two-story, brick U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services field office, at 9 Ridgewood Road, is tucked behind shopping plazas and professional office buildings.

Few may know that it has a public ceremony room where about 750 people have been sworn in as new citizens since the site opened Sept. 2, 2010, according to USCIS Boston District Director Denis Riordan.

They included 14-year-old Shachar Ginat, a shy Israeli teen who took the oath of allegiance Thursday. Ginat already derived her American citizenship from her mother, Ayala, who was born in the United States and remains a citizen although the family lives in Israel. Shachar took the oath of allegiance to formalize her citizenship during a family visit to the Boston area.

“Now, I am American,” she smiled.

The USCIS field office in Bedford processes lawful permanent-resident applications, does fingerprinting and photographic services at its application support center, holds naturalization interviews and swearing-in ceremonies, has a Fraud Detection National Security unit and information area.

The USCIS field office handled 1,560, 1,699 and 2,551 applications for naturalization in federal fiscal years 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively, Riordan said. It also processed 616, 610 and 615 applications during those same years from people seeking to adjust their status from non-immigrant — or those who are lawfully here on a temporary basis such as tourists and foreign students — to immigrant status, he said.

In general, to be eligible to apply for citizenship, a person must be a lawful permanent resident for five years; three years if married to a U.S. citizen.

Riordan said it takes the field office's 14 staffers an average of 3.9 months to process a permanent-resident application. The national goal is five months. It takes the staff an average 3.6 months to process an adjustment status application compared to the national goal of four months.

The $10 million, 21,000-square-foot building hosted an open house for the public the month after it opened and is planning another open house in the near future, according to immigration officer Paul Sylvain. It is dedicated to Civil War Medal of Honor recipient, Sgt. Maj. Abraham Cohn, an immigrant who fought with the 6th N.H. Infantry Volunteers.

Sylvain said he sees the same quest for freedom in those who become American citizens today that he saw in the many East Germans killed trying to scale the Berlin Wall in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“People were dying to get over that wall,” Sylvain said of the failed and fatal efforts to cross the Iron Curtain to freedom in West Berlin where he was stationed with the U.S. Air Force.

“When you see that, it makes you really appreciate what we have,” added Sylvain, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services supervisory immigration services officer at the New Hampshire field office in Bedford.

“Sometimes the general public gets the wrong perception that it (citizenship) doesn't mean as much as it once did,” he continued.

Nothing could be further from the truth, he and other USCIS officials said in a recent interview at the agency's office.

“They believe this is the American dream of liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” USCIS acting field office director Luis A. Chaves said.

“If you could have seen the faces on the people yesterday, you would have no question (the dream) is still alive,” Chaves said of the Fourth of July naturalization ceremonies in Portsmouth and Manchester.

Most seeking citizenship want freedom, opportunity, a chance at a better life and sometime escape from terrible conditions in their homelands, they said.

They also want a chance to make a difference, Riordan added.

“They want to make their contribution to the greater good,” Riordan explained.

Citizenship involves hard work, sacrifice, courage to leave behind family and country to start fresh. Applicants must be able to read and write English, be of good moral character, and understand the principles of the Constitution, American history and government.

“It's not given away. It's something they have to earn,” Chaves said.

Riordan said immigration officers urge those eligible to apply for citizenship.

“The value of citizenship is to have a stake in the future of this country ... It's important to the health of our nation and the future of our country,” Riordan said.

kmarchocki@unionleader.com