A Path to Citizenship


I’m relieved and grateful that Congress is seriously talking about immigration reform, but it really burns me when they focus the discussions solely on Mexican immigrants.  Because the national political stage has this tunnel-vision view of immigration, otherwise intelligent people (sometimes friends) tell me I don’t count… that I’m not really an immigrant.  I was born in Korea & am now a resident and citizen of the USA.  Yes, I am an immigrant, as defined by Webster (immigration, noun, the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country).  Still, I do think this is good news, in the sense that our government is talking about the possibility of maybe trying for a solution.
Photo credit:  Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press


This topic is extremely sensitive for me, and I get passionate when people talk about it, but have no idea how little they know – the unconsciously incompetent.  When people assume immigrants want to live & work here, without paying taxes & that is their only impetus, I could SCREAM!  I guarantee most of them want to become citizens, but it’s really expensive to become a citizen of the USA… and it takes forever.

An application form is about $700.  And that’s only one of many forms.  Plus court fees, attorney billable hours, and I don’t know what else goes into the expense because I very luckily was a minor when I was naturalized.  My father signed for me, completed the forms and hired the attorneys.  I blissfully arrived at JFK airport one day in May and about three years later, stood to say the pledge of allegiance in front a judge.  That unique day, I was treated to a hot dog for dinner (normally a no-no in my family) and magically became something that almost all earthlings want to be – a citizen of the United States of America.  Another benefit of undergoing naturalization at six years old is that I did not have to take the dreaded test, that most natural born citizens I know would fail.  Test yourself on the NATURALIZATION TEST (WITH ANSWERS).

I admit the bipartisan proposal for comprehensive immigration reform is more than I expected with a “path to citizenship”, but the path is so long & expensive, I don’t think any legislation proposes to reform that.  I am also glad to see that it covers what I call “importing talent”.  With the forecast of hundreds of thousands of tech jobs grossly out-weighing the science/math college graduates we (in the USA) produce, we’re going to have to focus on importing talent.  Otherwise, the tech jobs simply won’t be filled.

Want to see some interesting facts & figures?  Click here: http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/28/politics/btn-immigration/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

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