You do not get to be a U.S. citizen just by marrying one. (I know. I did it.) You get to be a legal Permanent Resident. That gives you most of the same rights (and duties) as an American citizen, the main exceptions being the right to vote and (I think) being subject to the military draft. (I think you are ineligible for certain government jobs, and certainly for elected positions, and can lose you Permant Resident status reletively easily if you commit a felony.) After you have had that status fo ra few years you become eligible to apply for citizenship (but not everybody does - I didn’t) after which you still have to jump through several hoops, show god character, take the test, etc., to actually become a citizen.
Indeed. In fact, I did just that back when I was just a green card holder. While visiting New York / Vermont (from California) I decided to go check out Montreal while my wife was busy with college stuff. My green card was enough to get into Canada (and back again!). Honestly the border crossing in both directions didn’t seem more onerous than getting carded at the liquor store.
I’ll just assume you meant “good character”…
I think there’s just a semantic difference between what we’re saying. I realize a foreign citizen doesn’t become an American citizen automatically on their wedding day. But marriage does open a pathway to citizenship.
Green card keeps you from having to get a visa. You will still need your passport. Since 9-11, you need a passport to enter Canada via air, and by land a passport, passport card, or NEXUS (I realize these don’t all apply to permanent residents).
You’re right. I handed over my SA passport too. As you said, without the green card I would have needed an already approved visa.
It is relatively easy to become a Canadian citizen, but first you have to become a “landed immigrant”, which is based largely on a point system. Then after, I think, 4 years, you can apply. It can take 18 months for the bureaucracy to grind after that. And you keep any other citizenship you hold. You also have to take an exam on Canadian history, government, etc., unless you are over 55.
I happen to know someone who became a Swiss citizen. It is expensive and arduous. He had grown up in Geneva and became a citizen there so there was no language problem but if you live in a German speaking Canton you have to be fluent in Swiss German. I might mention that you actually have to be accepted by a community, that being to arduous part. Then the canton and the federal government rubber stamp it.
I’m not an expert on world nationality law or anything, but I’ve never seen a modern country(there are antiquated laws that generally only covered foreign wives getting instant citizenship in the husband’s country) where marrying a citizen granted you any right to citizenship. Generally what it does grant you a right to is to apply for permanent residency, and assuming you fulfill the requirements and are granted it you then can apply for citizenship once a certain number of years have been spent in the country and you meet the requirements and are granted it.
It is basically a two separate step process:
1.Permanent residency(which allows you to rack up the time in country to qualify for citizenship).
2.Citizenship.
Nearly every nation has immigration law that has a path for family unification, with spouses and minor children being given preference.
Well North Korea is one you can’t become a citizen of. They’re not interested in defectors any more, even ones from South Korea:
They seem to have granted some passports to foreigners that did diplomatic work for them, but there is no ordinary path to gaining citizenship.
I certainly have not become a Thai citizen despite being married to a Thai. And the wife is in no way considered an American citizen by the US government. She still has to renew her US visa every 10 years. If she wanted to become an American, which she doesn’t, there would be a process to go through. I don’t know of any countries, at least over in this part of the world, that grants you citizenship just for marrying a citizen.
[quote=“coremelt, post:29, topic:675814”]
Well North Korea is one you can’t become a citizen of. They’re not interested in defectors any more, even ones from South Korea:
Ah, shucks! There goes my backup plan! 
As for buying citizenship, ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has racked up citizenships, at least honorary ones, in the Bahamas, Nicaragua and several other countries in South America, Africa and Eastern Europe, largely by paying for them. Superficially, these have been granted for his services as an “economic adviser,” as he emains influential enough to throw a lot of Thai business their way.
Is relatively easy. (The key word being “relatively.”)
I hope it isn’t prying but is that a tourist visa? My wife didn’t want to go through permanent residency yet and inquired about getting a tourist visa from the USA embassy. Thankfully I guess since we didn’t waste the money the woman on the phone told her straight out since she was married to a USA citizen there was no hope for a tourist visa, they would just assume immigrant intent.
Looking online on immigration forums it appears you can occasionally get a tourist visa as a USA citizen spouse depending on a lot of things, but often you’re just wasting the application fee. And apparently if you mention being married to a USA citizen when entering the USA on the visa they can decide to deny entry.:smack:
You really think so?
Yes. I’m a permanent resident myself and immigration and naturalization to Japan are far easier and straightforward than stereotypes will lead you to believe. As far as naturalization is concerned the single biggest hurdle, the one that keeps me from applying, is that Japan does not allow double citizenship for adults. However, Japan is hardly unique in this regard, which is why I stressed relatively. Note that according to one of the articles I linked to 99% of naturalization requests are approved.
You missed the joke:
Dammit, I caught njtt’s reference, but for some reason missed the second. Anyway, the info’s relevant to the OP, so I’ll leave it at that.
And the least restrictive way to get Aus ‘points’ is to have a lot of money. It’s not quite like buying citizenship, you only have to buy a local business and then establish local resdence, but the visa fee is likely to be a high 4 figure amount.
This only gets you residence, not citizenship. You still have to live in Australia for enough years and then apply for citizenship. And most countries have Investment visas, if you can employ enough locals you get residence.
Moderator Note
Siam Sam, whether this is intended as a political or religious jab, it’s not appropriate for General Questions. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
It is a tourist visa. Was never much of a problem for us at the Bangkok embassy. I don’t know how much it matters, but she has civil-servant status and is a fairly senior level, plus she received one of her master’s degrees in the US (we met at the U of Hawaii) and so already lived in the US without abusing her visa. Plus she owns a fair amount of property, at least on paper, as much of it really belongs to “the family” rather than her; since someone has to own a property, her family just divvies up who owns what, but it’s considered everyone’s, a typical practice here. But the point is she had a lot of stuff to show she was tied to Thailand and intended to return. That seems to matter a lot.
The very first time we applied for a visa for her after getting married was the only hiccup. They would give her only one year, but it’s been 10 years each time after that. We’ve almost always entered the country together and never a problem with Immigration. In fact, entering New York City via JFK Airport last year, they even let her get into the “US Citizens” line with me. But even when we are in separate lines, she always points me out, and I wave to the Immigration officer. The one time she went to the US without me was in 1996, to attend a summer workshop at the U of Michigan, but that was on her official Thai-government passport, and I’m not sure they would have been aware of me (especially since that was pre-9/11).
But my best friend in Thailand will be down this week with his Thai wife to renew her US visa. She routinely gets 10 years too, and she’s not a government official. They met when she was his secretary and now is a housewife.
My bad.