Hello fellow Americans,
I had recently found out two of my friends didn’t bother naturalize to become American citizens, despite living here nearly their entire lives. They were born overseas, but immigrated here like at very young age, below 10. but now they are in their 30s while having permanent resident status and eligible to natrualize.
It just made me wonder why but didn’t press a reason.
So I am here wondering, do you know anyone like that?
48 comments
Only lots of people in “the old days”. You used to not need ID, visa, etc. You just showed up and could stay even if you didn’t attempt citizenship. It was super helpful for grandkids to get dual passports.
Both of my parents are permanent residents and have lived here for 40+ years. Never wanted to become citizens i guess
I know many people like that. It’s less common, in my experience, to meet a permanent resident who DOES choose to naturalize.
Yep. A “great aunt” I guess.. (my grandfather’s brother married a girl – that woman’s mother)
She came over around 1900 from Ireland as an indentured servant and when her bond was completed, she stayed. She got a job as a nurse and got married. The subject of her citizenship never came up. She worked as a hospice nurse well into her 70s, then had a stroke when she was 79. The family was trying to help her get into assisted living when the Medicare & Social Security paperwork threw some red flags. She wound up being deported back to Ireland.
The family members who grumbled the most also happened to be the most vocal about the brown immigration “problem”. I still tease them about the criminal aunt on their side of the family.
Maybe their home country doesn’t allow dual citizenship?
I have one friend I know of that has been here for 20+ years as a permanent resident. I have far more friends that eventually became citizens.
My great-grandmother left Mexico when she was two and died at 85. She never became a US citizen. I guess she didn’t think there was a reason to.
Brother-in-law, over 44 years and no interest in citizenship. Don’t know why and don’t care.
My husband still has a green card.
I have an aunt who does this. She’s Canadian and married my uncle
My grandparents lived here for over 30 years and never became citizens.
21 Savage
I know some Chinese Americans who didn’t. China doesn’t allow dual-citizenship, and for some people, being able to visit family without limits was more important than getting US citizenship.
My mom! She’s lived here since she was 10, and just doesn’t think it’s worth $800+time+paperwork. She still qualifies for things like Medicare and Social Security, all she would really get that she doesnt have roght now is voting rights and an American passport.
My sister in law, she had a green card and just never bothered.
I live in a small town with a significant Latino population. Many of my friends’ parents immigrated here and never became citizens but a lot of my friends were born here. However, a lot of my friends from school weren’t born here either and many of them never became citizens. It’s actually pretty common where I live
Lots of people I work with aren’t citizens, I don’t know all their exact statuses, one guy I know had a green card. They all seem to have been here a while and plan to stay, don’t know if they plan to become citizens or not.
Yeah my mom. I always thought she was a citizen until my dad happened to bring it up recently. No idea why she isn’t a citizen(we were both born in South America, I became a citizen as a kid since my dad is American)
It is kind of a hassle and costs a fair bit of money. Also maybe they don’t care about voting and want to avoid jury duty.
My mother-in-law was from England. She married a US soldier and came here after the war ~1947, and I think made one brief trip back in the 1950’s, and never went back again. Died here in 2006. Never became a citizen.
My old GF’s ex-husband was an American sailor she married in England. Has a green card but has never bothered with citizenship.
My great grandmother came to Texas from England around 1916 or so. Got married, popped out grandma, lived in *Phoenix* in 1917-1919 (I presume with no A/C) while great grandpa was off fighting World War 1. I guess great grandpa like to bang (and ended up being married *six* times), but at some point great grandma presumably got fed-up with him, as she handed my grandmother to him around 1920 and then got on a boat and went back to England, never to return. I made up a narrative where she probably went crazy from the heat.
I know a number of permanent residents. Most of them just didn’t want to give up their home country citizenship, or didn’t find the benefits of US citizenship to be worth it.
One of my coworkers never bothered and now it’s expensive so he really isn’t going to do it. I didn’t even know till he was complaining about having to get a visa to travel to a country that you normally don’t need one.
My great grandfather came from Italy in the 10s and spent his whole life here as an undocumented alien.
My best friend. We’re in our late 30s, she came here when she was about 6. At first I think it was a pride thing, now it’s just a time and expense thing, according to her.
My uncle is Canadian and has been living and working in the US for like 30+ years and has no desire to become a citizen.
As a person married to an immigrant – the amount of paperwork and waiting and hassle and waiting and documentation and waiting and fees that anyone has to go through to make it to permanent resident status is pretty much insane.
I can’t see how anyone who already went through all that would want to bother waiting and filling out more paperwork and waiting and paying more money and waiting and taking a test, just so they could vote and have a different color passport.
Did I mention there is a lot of waiting in this process?
Me. My home country doesn’t allow dual citizenship.
What are the benefits of citizenship vs Permanent Resident? I know in Canada, you can only vote or stand in an election if you are a citizen, and that’s pretty much the only difference.
I worked with an English woman who has been here since 1967. Still not a citizen.
My dad. Lived here for over 40 years never bothered to get citizenship. Probably figured he would be able to pass the tests.
Some countries do not allow dual citizenship. Many folks come here and work their entire working life, save all they can, then move back to the old country for retirement. It’s actually rather common. I have many friends who are permanent residents that are immigrants for India and do not naturalize for this exact reason.
A guy in the US I used to work with (I work in the UK, but it’s a multinational company) is Canadian and a US permanent resident, having lived there for 20-30 years. He showed no signs of wishing to become a US citizen.
In general becoming a US citizen comes with a bunch of problems all related to the US IRS and tax laws, if you ever want to go live in your country of origin again. A Canadian has no problem visiting the US, so it’s not like returning to Canada to retire or change jobs would cut him out of going to the USA once he gave up his permanent residency. That might well apply to him and to some other people too, and discourage him from becoming a US Citizen.
Tell them they can’t collect Social Security without being a US citizen.
If you’re parents naturalized when you were under 18, you’re automatically a citizen and don’t have to do it yourself.
So I never actually went through the naturalization process because my parents did it when I was young, so I’m automatically a citizen even if I wasn’t born here.
My husband waited a while. We were tired of dealing with immigration and a law changed that allowed him to have dual citizenship, so we finally did it years later.
My MIL has not despite living here for nearly 60 years. She likes her British passport.
I was born abroad and lived here for almost 20 years before I went through the naturalization process. Once I had my green card I didn’t feel like it really had any benefits over my homeland citizenship – so I just never bothered.
But then I changed my mind to vote. I try keep abreast of politics and be socially conscious, and I believe every vote does count – so it felt hypocritical.
My grandfather (born in Greece) moved to the US at 24 and never naturalized (he died at 85). He was a bitter old dude that hated the US and regretted moving here, so take that for what you will.
My brother-in-law. He’s loved here since he was 6. He hasn’t even done the easier process after marrying my sister because he didn’t want it to be a green card marriage.
I know someone that went through the entire naturalization process but they refused to take the oath because they rejected it. They still live in the US but they never naturalized.
I had a friend that didn’t find out she was a citizen and was here illegally until she applied for financial aid for college. Her parents never put her in for whatever reason. She’s a citizen now.
Also my moms close cousin didn’t become a citizen until his 50s, and he had been in the US since he was a baby.
We have a close friend that’s still on her green card. She’s been here since she was in elementary, in her 30s, got married, has a kid, a career, and she still haven’t put in her for her citizenship. We have no idea why.
My wife. She’s still not sold on this America thing, I don’t blame her, Canada is better.
I work with Permanent Residents often as part of my job. These are a few common reasons:
– Most common: They just don’t bother. Lawful Permanent Residents aren’t entitled to *all* of the rights of citizens. But, with the exception of voting, the rights they aren’t entitled to are ones they’d rarely utilize anyway (e.g. most people don’t run for office in their lifetime). Permanent Residents contribute to US entitlement programs such as Social Security & Medicare with their work history, so they are entitled to these benefits after so many years of work—just as US citizens are. Without that as an incentive, some people just don’t bother.
– Fairly common: Their mother country doesn’t permit dual citizenship. They might prioritize their natal citizenship for convenience of finance, travel, pension, inheritance, or business. This is fairly common with people who still have most of their family in their natal country.
– Least common: Their mother country doesn’t permit dual citizenship AND doesn’t permit land ownership by foreign nationals—or if it does, there are various restrictions that can simply be avoided by maintaining their natal citizenship.
While many countries allow foreign nationals to do business, buy property, etc, there can be restrictions or extra steps they’d have to take after relinquishing their natal citizenship. So if you can work for your US entitlement benefits AND still easily take care of personal or business matters abroad, there isn’t much interest in becoming a naturalized citizen.
Yes – she already holds dual citizenship and can’t add a third. She doesn’t want to renounce either of the others though she married here and plans to spend her life here.
My wife didn’t. She came to the US from Australia. She was a permanent resident (green card), but never got citizenship.
What put her off was the oath that you have to take to renounce all other allegiances.
Although you’d allowed to take that oath and still maintain a dual citizenship, it didn’t sit right with her, and she didn’t NEED to, so she never bothered.
As it happens, we now live in Australia. When we moved away from the US, she gave up her green card. Now, her lack of dual citizenship (which I have) has been a bit of a pain sometimes when we want to go back to the US, or even get one of those yummy Covid checks from the US government.
>didn’t bother
#👁👃🏾👁
Eta: are you serious right now? Who cares? They pay taxes? Are they considered productive members of society? If so, then seriously, why should I care?
Eta2: I read the rest… I do know people who haven’t, but I still don’t understand why they should or why it matters.
I’m an American abroad and wouldn’t want to give up my citizenship because it makes it harder to move back to my origin country if I want. I assume there are many reasons to retain someone’s original citizenship, but perhaps a common one might simply be residence rights in their origin country. I would guess many people don’t want to lose that option.
I was 4 when we moved to the US in 1956. Neither my nor I became citizens until
2009 (my mother had passed by then).
I had gotten the forms back in the 70s and 80s but never submitted them.
We became citizens when my father found out some of the inheritance tax exemptions only applied to citizens so he insisted.
I wish I’d done it sooner.