ciizenship

[soontobe]

without the whole long story how important do you think it is to get american citizenship and would you compleatly change your plans for the next 3 years to get it? (you already have a greencard)

thanks!

[MontrealMum]

Well, this will be general advice not knowing your specific situation, and also not having dealt with getting US citizenship. I am an American living in Canada who recently obtained Canadian citizenship (so I am dual now).

I think it depends on whether you have to keep renewing your green card and how much that costs. For me, to keep applying for perm. res. status - ie letting it run out w/o getting citizenship and re-applying - would have been prohibitively expensive. Something like $1800 every 5 yrs. But the Canadian citizenship process costs more than the US one, so maybe this isn't as much of an issue for you.

In this economy, I have noticed that the "preferential" hiring for some positions now often separates citizens and perm. res. into two categories, not one. So, if you don't have citizenship, you may not be able to get some jobs as easily.

If you want to attend university and need loans, you will have to be able to have a co-signer who has citizenship if you only have green card status. I believe that the tuition will also cost more (for a state school), but am not sure about that. Here in Canada it would.

So, if you're not in any of those situations, maybe it's not as important. I guess it depends?

[mommylamb]

My husband is British and is a US greencard holder not a citizen. He has been eligible for citizenship for a long time, and I know we should do it, but we haven't yet. Partially it's procrastination, but mainly it's for tax reasons. He works for the embassy of a different foreign country and because he's not a US citizen and works for an embassy he does not have to pay payroll taxes (and since I'm not so sure social security will be around for us anyway, I'm not sure he's really missing out on much).

The down sides for us is that I always wonder what if... It's a little disconserting knowing your life partner and father of your child isn't actually a citizen. Also, he can't vote in this country. We're both very politically motivated people, so voting is important to us. Also, he has considered applying for a federal job, and if he were to do that he would have to be a citizen. We're getting close to the time when he'll have to lodge his application to get his greencard renewed, so we'll have to decide which way to go.

[Piglet]

Yes, I think I would. Once you have it it can't be taken away from you, ykwim? Like a driver's license. I have a friend that is American. Her DH is not. He has been living here for 8 years and has been eligible to write his citizenship test for 5 years. She got a job offer in Canada - a great job with great pay, no less. She had to turn it down because it would reset the clock for her DH and their long-term plan is to live in the US. I don't know all their specifics but she was REALLY mad at her DH for not getting his citizenship taken care of all those years ago. I have a similar story with another friend in reverse. She was Canadian, he was American. They were living in Canada and he could have become a citizen no problem. They got divorced and she stayed in Canada but he wasn't allowed to get a job and therefore he couldn't livbe in the same city as her and the kids. Again, I don't know everything about their situation, but after hearing about these 2 instances in the last year, I am neurotic about taking care of these types of issues.

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

It depends on your plans.

My friends did arrange their plans to get citizenship and once they had citizenship, they felt able to take positions in their native UK nearby family (elderly mother), knowing they can return in the future.

[niccig]

I got my citizenship in January. I always intended to get it, and as I can retain my citizenship of birth, there was no con. of getting American citizenship. What spurred me to do it was talking to a lawyer about estate plans. The inheritance laws and gift taxes are different for a non-citizen. The main one for us, was transferring the house into both our names. Thankfully, we procrastinated and didn't get around to it. If we had just gone ahead and transferred the house when I was only a resident, I would have had to pay thousands of dollars in taxes - I think anything over $125,000 value is taxed. 1/2 our house value - not the equity but the market value - is more than that. As a citizen, there is no limit on gifts between spouse. I got my citizenship, and a week later we transferred 1/2 the house to my name. We could have transferred the house when I was a resident and avoided taxes by transferring smaller amounts, so there was a work-around. But as I always intended to get my citizenship, it was easier to do that.

Another benefit is never having to deal with Green Card renewal. It takes at least half a day anytime I have to go to the Federal Building.

If I have to return home for a long period of time, I don't have to worry how it will affect my residency status. No plans to move back, but who knows what life brings.

The process for citizenship was very straight forward for me. It took about 6 months from application to ceremony - which is a lot less time than the INS website said for my area. So, it might not be such a long time to wait. But you do have to wait until you are eligible to apply, it's shorter if you're married to a US citizen.