Dumb Census Question....

[MaggieSinead]

***The Census isn't dumb, just my question.

In theory, if someone where here and still on a visa (pending the fruition of citizenship) Would they have to fill it out?
It doesn't appear that citizenship is ever mentioned, but a full and legal name is requested.
Also, is there a penalty for not filling it out?

Thanks!

[txtraveler07]

The census isn't concerned with your citizenship status, just how many people live in your household. So yes, if you're on a visa, you should still fill one out. Illegal immigrants are expected to fill out the census (at one point there was a threat to have illegals boycott the census if there wasn't immigration reform). You can be fined up to $100 for not filling it out.

http://2010.census.gov/2010census/how/questions.php

[Carl]

They'd still want a count of people living here. The info isn't just used to determine Congressional representation and districts but also for urban planning, allocating federal spending and compiling & forecasting population demographics.

I'm not sure if there are penalties, but I've never heard of anybody being penalized.

But if you live at an address where they didn't get a response, they will eventually be sending real-life temp-workers to those places to knock on doors and try to gather the information directly, later this spring and into the summer.

[rCoder]

Just keep in mind that the only use of the census as authorized by the Constitution is for redistricting. So the number of people is the only data authorized by the Constitution to be collected.