Citizen Gao bid unravels in a far tangled manner

U.S.-based Chinese scholar Gao Zhan

By CNN's Terry Frieden

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hours after a U.S. senator announced the abrupt cancellation of a ceremony to swear in recently freed Chinese prisoner Gao Zhan as a U.S. citizen, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said no such event had been scheduled.

"There never was a naturalization ceremony scheduled for today," said INS spokesman Bill Strassberger. He refused further comment.

Senior Justice Department officials also refused to explain the confusion.

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The INS comment contradicts a statement earlier in the day by Republican Sen. George Allen of Virginia who Wednesday had announced plans for the ceremony.

"The formal swearing-in of Fairfax County resident Gao Zhan as a U.S. citizen has been put on hold indefinitely by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service," Allen said in a statement issued early Thursday.

Allen claims the INS had told him previously Gao could be sworn in "anytime, anyplace".

Allen's office said Washington District INS officials had been working with the senator's staff to arrange the swearing-in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol when the event was ordered stopped by INS headquarters without explanation.

Sources familiar with the confusion variously cited miscommunication, or paperwork and processing problems, but nothing substantive that would appear to represent an obstacle to Gao gaining citizenship.

A spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, a group that has followed the case closely, said Gao had declined to answer a question on the naturalization application which asked whether the individual had ever been arrested.

"A good immigration lawyer would tell you that any arrest or conviction for political purposes would not represent a problem," said a government official familiar with the process.

An aide to Allen said the senator had asked whether the ceremony could be rescheduled for Friday, and was told "no" by INS headquarters.

Gao, a Chinese citizen and permanent resident of the U.S., was to be sworn in at 1:30 p.m. Thursday on the west steps of the U.S. Capitol.

She was convicted by China as a spy and held for 166 days before being released last week on medical parole.