It so happened that the desire to obtain US citizenship has become the main dream of many residents of Russia and not only. It is far from easy, but knowing certain rules, it is quite possible to make this dream come true.
By birthright
For obvious reasons, anyone who is fortunate enough to be born in the United States automatically acquires the citizenship of that country. The same rule applies to territories belonging to the United States. Based on this, a child of non-US citizens becomes a citizen automatically, even in the case of illegal residence of the parents.
Interestingly, none of the parents will become a citizen of the United States anyway. If it happened that a child was born outside the country to the legitimate citizens of America, then he also has all the rights to the citizenship of his parents' homeland. This law works even when only one of the parents is American.
If the child is illegitimate, then he must be adopted by an American father or adopted by a family. To do this, it is enough to register citizenship at any US consulate. The main thing is to carry out this procedure before the applicant turns eighteen years old.
Change the two-headed eagle to the bald eagle
If you are not so lucky with the birth, it is too early to despair. There is still a chance and it is not as scanty as you might think at once. The first step towards citizenship is getting a Green Card. Acquisition of the right to permanent residence, and this is what implies the presence of a green card, does not at all oblige its holder to become a citizen.
Citizenship allows you to vote, provides legalization anywhere in the world, impossibility of deportation, and so on. Obtaining citizenship or naturalization is carried out in several stages, following each other. First, an application is submitted, then the candidate is interviewed. At the very end of the process, the newly minted US citizen takes an oath of allegiance to his new homeland.
It should be noted right away that with all the external simplicity, the procedure takes about twelve months. Moreover, only those who have lived in the states with a residence permit for at least five years have the right to submit such an application. But if the green card is issued in connection with marriage to a US citizen, then the term is reduced to three years.
Without the right to citizenship
It is worth considering that there is a certain category of people who will never receive citizenship, or may even lose their Green Card. This applies to those who committed offenses while living in the United States. This is especially true for crimes related to drugs and their use, with especially grave crimes and illegal distribution of weapons.
Persons convicted of these acts can no longer count on naturalization, as well as those who provided inaccurate information in the documents for obtaining a Green Card.
