I am now in the club!

My DiL is an adopted 'Murican. First time she came to visit after becoming official, I took her out to the range and showed her how to shoot. I did it for laughs but she took to it like a fish out of water. She especially liked the GP100 in 357 mag. SS with a 6" barrel....who woulda thunk it?
PS, Congratulations and welcome to the melting pot.

 

Congratulations, man. I'm sure that's a relief.

 

It might take until the "vacationers" return, but it will go there.

 

Congratulations and welcome to the club!
Went through "official" process myself 15 years ago, still awesome country and still proud to call myself an American even though many born here shit all over her!!!

 

Thanks all. To those who asked I moved from Canada and have been in the US since 2003. The really cool thing is I am allowed to keep the Canadian passport. The only stipulation is I need to always use the US passport for entering the US. Once outside the US they do not care what passport is used according to the Immigration officer that gave us the Oath. It is kinda handy as I have worked in some shitty 3rd world countries where the immigration officer will keep your passport until the company bribe guy goes and pays him off. It is a bit of an empty feeling to be stuck in a small country in Cenral Africa with no passport hoping the bribe guy took enough cash to get your shit back...

My official personal feelings on firearms are I am deathly afraid of guns and I believe that a pistol is the devils right hand (Credit to Steve Earle). So no need to search my house for firearms. Move right along to someone elses house.

It took about 10 years to get a Green Card from initial filing to having the card in hand. 2 of those years were due to a screwup by the immigration lawyer though. Once the Green Card was acquired you need to wait at least 5 years before applying for citizenship. My oldest daughter applied pretty much as soon as she could because not being a citizen was somewhat limiting for her in her field. Between Covid and procrastinating my wife and I waited 6 years and applied in October when there was talk of the fees doubling from $600 to $1200. So from application for citizenship to waving a little American flag in front of the Citizenship and Immigration center in San Antonio was about 3 months but the entire process took 16 years. My youngest daughter applied the same time we did but will be going to a different Immigration center and her interview is not until July.

As far as Charlies question about the process goes, I thought that it was long, fairly expensive and took quite a bit of effort. There are several factors that determine how long the line you are in will be. Country of origin, education and field of employment all play a part. There is a quota for every country and only so many are given Green Cards every year from each country. It took a couple coworkers from Nigeria about a year to get Green Cards. A coworker from India was about 10 years like me. That being said, I agree with the process for the most part. It could be made more efficient but I really do not think an open door policy would be in the best interests of the country. My personal belief is that if a person is not willing to follow the laws of the nation (except for those bullshit speed laws), put in some affort and make some sacrifices they should not be given the opportunity of US citizenship. Others may disagree but oh well. I have been told that I have to strike "sorry" from my vocabulary.

 

Yeah, I foresee no casualties from this thread at all…

 

How much longer is the ban?

Well said, @crashman, speaking to your experience and allowing for others to express theirs. Welcome.

 

Register to vote right there, I was number 73 out of 200 or so people and first one to actually register to vote when u got my citizenship.

 

So @crashman and @Canadian Bacon do you still retain your Canadian citizenship (dual citizen)? I need to be smuggled across the border to ride Mosport

in June if the border is still closed..

 

@crashman - So the citizenship application was $600 in your post.

What is the total cost, including all application fees, background check fees, lawyer's costs, and every other cost/fee from the day you first arrived to achieving citizenship?

I'm told its expensive, but expensive is a wide range. I'm interested in the costs, say to the nearest Thousand Dollars (USD).

 

Welcome. Move to SC. There's no better state in the union.

No offense to you other 49.

 

Man, don't get me lying to you. Paying for the process from work visa to Green card was part of the deal I worked out when I hired on with the company I work for. I have no idea what the cost of work visas and lawyers was. I do know that yellow Ferraris are not cheap though. I did do a quick search and the Googles said attorney fees to get a Green Card were between $3000 and $7,500. If I recall correctly the Green Card was about $1400 per person when it was all added up including the cost of the medical exam to make sure we were not bringing any Canada cooties with us. The Citizenship app was was $640. The biometrics fee was supposed to be $85 but they waived that as they were able to use the biometrics from the Green Card application. So assuming the lawyer costs were correct it is between $5,000 and $10,000.

 

My wife and step-son both went through the process of becoming naturalized, with Russian births. Son's was very straight forward and he took my name upon becoming a citizen (he's the IV). Wife's was a major hassle. They interviewed ME for 45 minutes during her interview, and did not approve her, which we disputed and eventually beat.

They can be very thorough and stringent when they choose.

 

In other words, pay some US chick 10 grand to marry you. Got it.

 

A friend of mine had the opposite experience. He was Canadian and married an American. When they went in for the citizenship interview they took all of the pictures and supporting documents to prove that they were actually married and it was not some sort of citizenship scam. As they were sitting in front of the immigration agent before the interview something happened and they started bickering. The agent laughed and told them that everything was approved. When they asked him if he needed to see any pictures or documents he said that there was no need because only married people fought like my buddy and his wife were fighting.

 

Russian. Automatic flag right there.

 

That shit is hard to make up for sure.

On a side note, you should buy a gun because we're all armed anyway. Its just a tool. I have two and haven't shot a damn thing in 20 years.

 

That was quick
Took me 33 years from stepping on this land to holding passport.

 

Congrats dude.