Max Dietz
eSomethin Staff
Have you ever wondered where your ancestors came from? In 2023, most Americans are either immigrants or descendants of immigrants. So how does immigration work? From visas, to green cards, to naturalization, how does someone become a citizen?
When immigrants come to America, they usually come on temporary visas. There are two types of visas: immigrant visas and non-immigrant visas. Non-immigrant visas, like those issued for tourism, medical procedures, and education, only allow you to come for certain events. For example, in 2028 when the Olympics are in LA, foreign athletes will need to acquire nonimmigrant visas. Immigrant visas, by contrast, are issued to people who intent to live in the United states, like someone who marries a spouse or works for an employer in the United States.
After becoming an immigrant’s visa expires, they must either leave the country or obtain a green card. A green card allows the immigrant to fully work and live in the United States full time. People with a green card are not declared United States citizens.
After living on a green card in the United States for three years, immigrants are eligible to apply for citizenship. To apply, they must fill out forms, pay a $725 fee, and then go through an interview process. After all is done they become a citizen at a naturalization ceremony.
On Tuesday, October 24, 2023, Perrysburg High School held a naturalization ceremony where twenty-five people, from sixteen different countries, became new U.S. citizens.
In 2022, there were almost one hundred thousand people naturalized in the U.S, a twenty percent increase from 2021. In the United States, immigrant’s are very important people.
According to Judge James Knapp,who presided over Perrysburg’s ceremony, “We were all immigrants at one point, if you go back far enough.” Knapp also adds that immigrants have taken immense risks and came to the United States with only the clothes on their backs.
“Immigrants are some of the most hardworking people in the world, ” said Knapp.
One of the twenty-five people getting naturalized at the ceremony was Nishanth Pasham. Pasham is originally from Hyderabad, India. Pasham studied physics at the University of New York and graduated in 2012 with his masters and is now a software engineer.
According to Pasham, “Becoming a US citizen is a great feeling.”
According to Knapp, “Becoming a United States citizen is better than graduating from college. They achieved something today.”
Pasham says that he has “mixed feelings” about leaving his Indian citizenship behind but he also says, “I will continue to bring my culture with me everywhere I go… I am a citizen of the world.”
Selected History of Immigration in the United States
In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered the new world. Immediately, people from all sorts of European countries raced to the new world to start a new life. Colonists settled in the original thirteen colonists, the first American immigrants. One revolution later and the United States is created.
As Americans moved west, more Americans moved in. In 1845, the great potato famine in Ireland caused around 2 million people to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in over 5000 different ships.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, immigration was at an all time high. In 1892, the United States government opened Ellis Island, a small island directly behind the statue of liberty. Ellis Island served as the center of immigration in the United States. More than twelve million immigrants passed through Ellis Island before its closing in 1954.
Life was miserable in Europe in the early 1900s. Lack of food, business, and money caused millions of people to immigrate to the United States. These immigrants would sell everything they had to afford a boat ride to the United States. Thousands of immigrants would pack into a steamship and the fifteen day journey would begin. Life on the boat was even worse. There was almost no food, everyone was sick and no one had the will to keep going. According to one of the immigrants on the boat, “Nobody knew where the bathrooms on the boat were so they went where they pleased.”
When the steamboat rolled into New York harbor, the passengers pressed up on the railing hoping to get a glance of the statue of liberty. According to one of the passengers on the boat, “I was so tired, when the statue came into view, I leaped up and ran to the railing, something I didn’t even know I was capable of doing.” The statue of liberty served as a beacon of hope for millions of immigrants.
As time went on, more immigrants came to the United States through air than sea. The countries with the most United States immigrants are Mexico, India, and China. Mexican immigrants make up about 25% of all immigrants in the United States today.
The journey of immigration to the United States has changed over time, from the fifteenth century Irish settlers, to the voyage through Ellis Island, to immigrants coming from all over the world.
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