Us Citizenship

In the United States immigrants can become permanent residents and obtain US Citizenship. There are many people that elect to become permanent residents that do not ever even apply for US Citizenship. It is important to understand the differences between the two types of residencies in the United States. Knowing the difference between the two can greatly help you to understand what US Citizenship is all about.

The first component to keep in mind is that a permanent resident of the United States is not considered to have US Citizenship. Many people automatically assume that if you are an immigrant and you marry someone that has US Citizenship that you automatically become a citizen of the United States. This is not the case. Instead you become a resident of the United States and can stay in the country long enough to become a permanent resident. After five years as a permanent resident in the United States, you can then apply for US Citizenship.

As with all countries, the United States as laws and regulations that everyone must follow. Under the United States laws there are civil crimes and felony crimes. Civil crimes are less serious in nature and carry fewer penalties than felony crimes. Felony crimes are very serious such as murder, armed robbery, and car theft, shop-lifting over a certain amount of merchandise and so forth. If you are a permanent resident of the United States and are convicted of a felony crime you have to serve your prison sentence like a US Citizen would do so. But, after your sentence is served you can be deported and banned from the United States.

Many people would like to bring their family members with them to the United States. As a permanent resident you cannot apply on behalf of family members to become United States citizens. This is different than someone that has obtained US Citizenship, who can apply to bring their family members to the US to live and become US Citizens. Family members can only come to the US and live with you when you are a permanent resident if they apply for a work vista or tourism vista. If on the other hand you were not a permanent resident but had obtained US Citizenship, you could apply for your family members to live with you in the United States as permanent residents and later to have them apply for US Citizenship.

In order to acquire your US Citizenship, you must be a permanent resident in the United States for a minimum of five years. During that time you may not leave the United States for more than a year at a time. If you do, then you have to start your permanent resident status all over again. Additionally, as a permanent resident of the US you cannot hold federal positions. For example, if you wanted to be a postal worker or bank employee these are federal jobs and reserved on for people that have US Citizenship. Nor can you vote in any elections both state and national until you have received your US Citizenship.

Us-citizenship-resource | Privacy Policy |