Quote Originally Posted by Karen
Sparks19, from where are you emmigrating? Canada?

I know the rules are different from different countries, even the ones that border the US.

I worked with two young women, J and K.

J's mother was a Canadian by birth, her father was American.
K's mother was a Mexican by birth, her father was American.
Both mothers were legal immigrants, and had dual citizenship.
Both girls were born on US soil, spent time living in both countries as children, but most of their time in the US.

When J turned 18, she was granted dual citizenship.
When K turned 18, she had to officially chose - she could have American citizenship, or Mexican citizenship, but not dual citizenship.

Interesting, huh?

That is very interesting. Yes I immigrated from Canada. My husband was told that if he immigrated to Canada and then became a citizen that the US would make him give up his US citizenship after a certain amount of time. I don't know how true that is but I thought that was very strange.

Vio&Juni, No it was not a fiancee visa. I originally started with trying to get a work visa and then work towards permanent residency. But when we got married all of the work I had done was null and void. Getting married changed my status in the US. NOW, If I had come here gotten married and not returned to Canada (which is perfectly legal) I could have processed my papers from here but I would not be allowed to leave the country until it was done.

You see you don't have to get a greencard to be a legal citizen. Especially before 9/11. you can get permanent residency or you can get a K visa which will allow you to live and work in the states and process your citizenship papers from here. I don't have my green card. I am not even close to getting it. But I am a legal resident. I haven't even started filing the papers for my green card. THAT IS immigration.

What do you think immigration is? apparently you and I have two totally different views on how immigration works. you do NOT have to stay in your country until you have your green card. They have processes to allow you to come here and work here until you can file your citizenship papers. YOu don't even HAVE to file for citizenship if you don't want to. you can just file forms to be a legal resident. You pay taxes, you can work, you can come and go as you please but you are NOT granted citizenship. Many people do that because I know sometimes the US will make you choose citizenship. Like I said my husband can be a legal resident in Canada and keep his US citizenship but if he becomes a Canadian citizen the US will make him choose just one.

Edwina, I know vacationing is not the same. They told us at the resort that we shouldn't wander too far. well we did anyway. I can't tell you where exactly we ended up but it was very seedy. But they had homes and no one looked like they were starving to death.

My hubby has been to 32 countries and some of the places just look like a wasteland. Dirty water, flies everywhere, constant sand storms, the people were starving. No real shelter, only make shift homes that threatened to fall everytime a sandstorm passed through.

I talk about immigration with everyone I can. They are more helpful to me than any lawyer or INS officer. I hear the different processes people had to go through depending on where they were from and what they were coming to US/Canada for.

P.S- Vio&juni Have you gone through the immigration process? spousal immigration or otherwise?