Six years ago, my best friend Garrett married the love of his life, Lauryn, an Australian by birth. Lauryn moved to the United States and immediately applied for residency, citizenship, etc. and began the naturalization process.
Six years and who knows how much money later, the United States government finally deemed it appropriate to grant Lauryn citizenship as an American. Six years after she married a U.S. citizen, and six years of living in the U.S. and abiding by the laws that govern this country--not even a speeding or parking ticket.
Six years.
Six years for someone who looks like the majority of U.S. citizens. Six years for someone associated with a peaceful religion. Six years for someone who already "speaks the language."
Now, none of those factors should be considered when determining whether an applicant should become a U.S. citizen. And yet, people exist who consider those factors important, and arguably, a few of them work in the agencies responsible for immigration and naturalization. Even so, none of those reasons apply to Lauryn.
It took six years for someone with no red flags--legitimate or illegitimate--to become a U.S. citizen. Nevermind she was married to a U.S. citizen at the time she applied for citizenship.
...Does this seem right to you?
Do not take this to mean that, because the legal process of becoming a citizen takes too long that I approve wholeheartedly of illegal residency. Instead, I suggest that one possible way to reduce illegal residency in the U.S. is to streamline the process and shrink the time it takes to become a citizen.
What is a reasonable time? I'm not sure; how long does it take to do a background check? To apply for my character and fitness portion of the bar application, I must submit a list of everywhere I've worked, every traffic ticket I've ever received, a record of every time I have been fingerprinted, etc. It takes the state bar between seven and nine months to determine if I am of proper "character and fitness" to be licensed as an attorney. Of course, there are fewer applicants for the bar than there are applicants for naturalization, but isn't the turnaround more a function of resources than applicants? In other words, shouldn't the ratio of applicants to funding/manpower be the same?
Perhaps getting an attorney licensed is more important than naturalizing citizens, but is 9 months vs. 6 years (72 months) the right ratio?
In any event, I would argue arbitrarily that we can cut this in half, and reduce the time for naturalization to three years. That should be enough time for us to discover the skeletons in a particular persons closet. If there are red flags, it should take longer. If not, move the process along.
Six years, married to a U.S. citizen, law-abiding throughout that entire time. I think that's too long to wait, and I think reducing this time will encourage more people to go through the process legally.
Six years and who knows how much money later, the United States government finally deemed it appropriate to grant Lauryn citizenship as an American. Six years after she married a U.S. citizen, and six years of living in the U.S. and abiding by the laws that govern this country--not even a speeding or parking ticket.
Six years.
Six years for someone who looks like the majority of U.S. citizens. Six years for someone associated with a peaceful religion. Six years for someone who already "speaks the language."
Now, none of those factors should be considered when determining whether an applicant should become a U.S. citizen. And yet, people exist who consider those factors important, and arguably, a few of them work in the agencies responsible for immigration and naturalization. Even so, none of those reasons apply to Lauryn.
It took six years for someone with no red flags--legitimate or illegitimate--to become a U.S. citizen. Nevermind she was married to a U.S. citizen at the time she applied for citizenship.
...Does this seem right to you?
Do not take this to mean that, because the legal process of becoming a citizen takes too long that I approve wholeheartedly of illegal residency. Instead, I suggest that one possible way to reduce illegal residency in the U.S. is to streamline the process and shrink the time it takes to become a citizen.
What is a reasonable time? I'm not sure; how long does it take to do a background check? To apply for my character and fitness portion of the bar application, I must submit a list of everywhere I've worked, every traffic ticket I've ever received, a record of every time I have been fingerprinted, etc. It takes the state bar between seven and nine months to determine if I am of proper "character and fitness" to be licensed as an attorney. Of course, there are fewer applicants for the bar than there are applicants for naturalization, but isn't the turnaround more a function of resources than applicants? In other words, shouldn't the ratio of applicants to funding/manpower be the same?
Perhaps getting an attorney licensed is more important than naturalizing citizens, but is 9 months vs. 6 years (72 months) the right ratio?
In any event, I would argue arbitrarily that we can cut this in half, and reduce the time for naturalization to three years. That should be enough time for us to discover the skeletons in a particular persons closet. If there are red flags, it should take longer. If not, move the process along.
Six years, married to a U.S. citizen, law-abiding throughout that entire time. I think that's too long to wait, and I think reducing this time will encourage more people to go through the process legally.
