Why everyone want to become a u.s citizen?

[Ketsuban 1,034]

• To live wherever I want (but I'll probably die in America)

To have it be a lot harder/impossible to deport me

To not have to renew my Green Card every 10 years

To vote

To clear my husband's I-864 contract (not that I'm planning on claiming welfare, but still!)

Having 2 passports would be amazing

[Chris & Pam 11]

Because maybe in a few years when I will be living in Europe with my wife and we want to come back to spend Christmas with her family I do not want to:

1) Apply for another Green Card or other kind of visa a year in advance and pay these Government (Republican or Democrat) $1000+ so they can use that money, for example to finance the "War on Drugs" that Nixon started.

OR

2) If I decide not to pay for a visa and I use the tourist line at the airport, it is not my dream to be denied the entry by an arrogant official who is going to question me about my "suspicious" intentions of coming back to his/her country with an American family member who by the way is crossing the border thought the "citizens" line... Meanwhile I will be already on my way to the secondary inspection office when I will be asked if I have been involved "in genocide or espionage or whether I am seeking entry to engage in criminal or immoral activities".

Really, I do not want to deal with the Department of Homeland Security ever again. However I am not sure if it is worse than to deal with the IRS for the rest of my life... What a dilema!

Am I to understand that if you are working here with a green card, you do not pay income tax?

[Ketsuban 1,034]

Am I to understand that if you are working here with a green card, you do not pay income tax?

You do. I think people are saying that if you become a citizen, you will always be involved with the IRS whereas if you have a Green Card, you can easily abandon it and then you won't have to declare your worldwide income once your residency is revoked for lack of continuous physical presence.

[subwayguy 100]

• To live wherever I want (but I'll probably die in America)
• To have it be a lot harder/impossible to deport me
• To not have to renew my Green Card every 10 years
• To vote
• To clear my husband's I-864 contract (not that I'm planning on claiming welfare, but still!)
• Having 2 passports would be amazing

Couldn't agree more! Already have two passports, one from HK one from Uk but doesn't hurt to carry a third one just incase i lost them both.

[subwayguy 100]

There is another reason why i, not would , but should become an american is that , coming from a small country ( and although i am from Hong Kong, like the absolute majority of us, I don't feel a connection to China ) , I got almost zero chance to cheer at olympics or whatever games our team plays. We won one Olympic gold medal and that's about the end of our story. I wanna be able to share the excitement and passion and celebrate our country's win !

[AnotherLostSoul 167]

just to be done with USCIS and the bunch of paperwork...I couldn't care less about the option of voting/non-voting. I am not afraid of ever being removed since I am a super law abiding citizen and I don't really care what my spouse (or my future chidlren) citizenship status is. It's all nothing but a paper. I have no intention of moving out of US for more than 6 months, and definitely have no intentions to live x years here, x years in another year, then return then leave again and all that c.r.a.p. I just simply don't want to do any more paperwork and pay and wait and pay more and wait more. LOL This is the simple reason...

Edited April 25, 2015 by AnotherLostSoul

[Hotter Otter 1,211]

For me I will probably do it so that we can live wherever we want in future (if we move back to Europe for a while I won't have to worry about losing the green card) and also so that I won't have to deal with USCIS anymore. That will be a sweet moment

Also because once I'm a citizen I can vote for whichever person I dislike the least, its strange living in a country and paying taxes but being essentially disenfranchised (although I can still vote in the UK as a UK citizen).

Edited April 25, 2015 by Hotter Otter

[Formula1 5]

Am I to understand that if you are working here with a green card, you do not pay income tax?

Green Card = Report your WORLWIDE income to the IRS

US Citizen = Report your WORLDWIDE income to the IRS

No Green Card, No Citizen and NO living in the US = bye bye IRS and their accomplices (Turbotax, HR Block, etc.)

Edited April 25, 2015 by Espanyol

[POA 178]

I chose citizenship (over staying a greencard holder) for several reasons:

- Desire to be able to vote

- Desire to "be done with it"; no more USCIS, ever, and it would be very difficult for them to kick me out now.

- Desire to be able to live where-ever I want, and return to the USA; while we have no plans to move back to Europe, I want that option to be open, especially once we retire. Being a US citizen means I won;t have to justify me being out of the country for more than 6 months, or fear loosing my greencard.

- Desire to have the same citizenship as my kids

I have the same reasons. I would add two more for me. To be able to travel to more countries without needing a visa (once we are financially capable) and to get my husband out of the I-864 hook.

Just as the title states

[Fan_Dancer 171]

To be able to leave the US for years without worrying about the ability to return, and to be done with USCIS.

[lmatos1978 14]

I want to become a citizen because I love this country and there's no place on earth I would rather live.

Egypt is a wonderful country with an amazing history and with long-suffering, but kind and tenacious people.

I've been to many places that are absolutely beautiful; from Stockholm to Chennai to Montreal to Barcelona there are many places that I think I could live and be quite happy.

But there's an undefinable quality that makes someplace just feel like home, and while I love my country of birth, the United States definitely feels like home.

I want to become a citizen so I can say that I am an American; not other people, but to myself. I think to me, getting the naturalization certificate would be similar to someone finally paying off a mortgage; you may have lived in the house for 30 years, but it wasn't really yours until that last moment.

I think there are very many valid reasons to want to become an American Voting, ease of travel, (as someone above mentioned) being with your loved ones. Not having to deal with the immigration services would be a huge plus! Being able to sponsor family members. These are all practical reasons, but in my own situation, I do not think I would choose to become a citizen if I didn't already feel like one in all but name.

Exactly how I feel! I love that I grew up in Brasil, had a great childhood, but since I've been living in the States (15 years now) I feel like I belong here, it's not a perfect country but it just feels like home!

[Calicolom 266]

I agree, citizen ship means nothing anymore, non citizens have more rights now than citizen. I was a non citizen once, there where many things I could not do, own a gun, speak a foreign language on the air waves, work for any company that had a government contract. Now illegals have more rights.

[KASH2011 382]

I want to become a U.S. citizen so I can:

1) Be taxed on my worldwide income.

2) Vote in elections already decided by moneyed interests.

3) Sponsor even more and ungrateful family/people to the U.S.

4) Die while pursuing the American dream that is increasingly illusive to the 99%.

Seriously though, I love this country so much I want to help fix all of the above.

[Neonred 3,562]

Travel to so many more countries without needing to get a visa.

[dwheels76 5,468]

To be freer to move about the world at will without documents. That blue book is a mighty powerful thing. Just saying US embassy in many countries people back up off you quickly. Has helped me get out of many a situations.