CRAWFORD, Texas -- Ice dancing champion Tanith Belbin will become a U.S. citizen Saturday, one day after President Bush signed an appropriations bill speeding up the process.
A provision of the bill allows Belbin, who is from Canada, to immediately gain U.S. citizenship. She will be sworn in at an immigration center in Detroit.
Belbin and partner Ben Agosto, the U.S. champions, are considered strong medal contenders for the Turin Games. The United States has never won an Olympic medal in ice dancing, but Belbin and Agosto finished second at the 2005 world championships.
Under the measure, Belbin, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., where she has lived since 1998, and other people "of extraordinary ability," face a faster immigration process. She needs to have her U.S. passport by Jan. 28; the national championships, where the Olympic team will be chosen, begin Jan. 10 in St. Louis.
Belbin, 21, got her immigrant worker visa approved in 2000, but she didn't receive her green card until July 2002. Because of a typical five-year waiting period, she was not expected to gain citizenship until 2007 without the change, meaning the pair would have to sit out the Olympics.
They qualified for the 2002 Olympics but sat out because of Belbin's citizenship situation.
Belbin has been able to compete for the United States in international competitions, including the world championships. But only U.S. citizens can be on the Olympic team.
Another skater, Maxim Zavozin, took advantage of the accelerated process and gained his citizenship Friday in Fairfax, Va. Zavozin, born in Moscow, and partner Morgan Matthews, won this year's world junior ice dance title.