How long to get American Citizenship?

[eg77]

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So I'm applying to American schools as a Canadian citizen. Anyone here know how long it takes to become an American citizen? If I get accepted to an American med school would I only be there as a student? Would have to return to home or would my stay be considered part of the years for citizenship status? Just thought I ask here before I call the embassy.
Thanks.

 

[Camillekc]

I don't think there is any easy way to become a citizen while a student. if you get accepted, you would get a visa for the time you stay, plus a year of related work, then you have to go home. getting citizenship take lots of money and time, unless you have a corporate sponsor, is my understanding.

good luck.

 

[ms1finally]

So I'm applying to American schools as a Canadian citizen. Anyone here know how long it takes to become an American citizen? If I get accepted to an American med school would I only be there as a student? Would have to return to home or would my stay be considered part of the years for citizenship status? Just thought I ask here before I call the embassy.
Thanks.

You have to occupy this country "openly and notoriously" (i.e. - be legal and have a green card or similar document or be illegal but very much here - and able to prove it) for 7 years to attain citizenship (and there are a bunch of hoops associated as well). Camille is correct about the student status, and it's very difficult to stay beyond that unless you get married or find corporate sponsorship.

 

[hardy]

You have to occupy this country "openly and notoriously" (i.e. - be legal and have a green card or similar document or be illegal but very much here - and able to prove it) for 7 years to attain citizenship (and there are a bunch of hoops associated as well)..

It's 5 years.
The USCIS website is probably a much more reliable information source than a discussion board for premeds, I would read up on it there:
http://uscis.gov/graphics/citizenship/becoming.htm

 

[.edu-MD]

It's 5 years.
The USCIS website is probably a much more reliable information source than a discussion board for premeds, I would read up on it there:
http://uscis.gov/graphics/citizenship/becoming.htm

It's 5 years AFTER RESIDING AS A PERMANENT RESIDENT (i.e. green card holder). If you're not a PR, it doesn't matter how long you've been in the US, you won't automatically get citizenship just for residing x number of years. Getting PR can also take longer than some of the posters here are suggesting. Depending on the basis of your application, you may need to wait for an immigrant visa number to become available (e.g. for some of the family categories, which can take years). Then the application process itself can take another year or two, depending on which local office is servicing your app.
Also, if the PR was based on marriage, you can apply for citizenship after just 3 years (not 5).

 

[hardy]

It's 5 years AFTER RESIDING AS A PERMANENT RESIDENT (i.e. green card holder). If you're not a PR, it doesn't matter how long you've been in the US, you won't automatically get citizenship just for residing x number of years.

Also, if the PR was based on marriage, it's only 3 years (not 5).

ah yes, another thing that ms1finally stated incorrectly. For this reason, go directly to the source and read up about it in the link I provided.

 

[EndSong]

I heard it was faster if you had an M.D. because countries like to recruit talent. I know this is true like countries in the UK where if you have a PhD or an MD you can get a PR and possibly citizenship much faster.

 

[Wahooali]

It takes years and years even with an MD or PhD. My supervisor is a post-doc, and she has now been here 5 years, and has been waiting for the paperwork for her greencard to go through for over a year now, and it is going to take about another year. It is a slow process.

 

[medhacker]

I heard it was faster if you had an M.D. because countries like to recruit talent. I know this is true like countries in the UK where if you have a PhD or an MD you can get a PR and possibly citizenship much faster.

With an MD you can get a J visa, provided you commit to work in underserved areas, after the J visa, then you can opt for residency (green card) and then (after a number of years) then you can wait minimum 4 years three hundred and some days and apply for citizenship which could take anywere from 1 and a half to 3 years. No fast route sorry.

Some schools do accept students with certain visas, however they ask for mucho money to prove you can afford school.

 

[es19]

eh...my dad is MD, but we didn't get any special treatment..
so yeah, I-20 stay doesn't count anything...you need to be PR, after 4 1/2 years after that u may apply, but they won't approve it until it's been 5 full years. also, they do subtract the time u spend outside the US after becoming a PR. and in general, if you leave the country for more than a year, u need to start over the residency requirement again.

 

[little_late_MD]

I heard it was faster if you had an M.D. because countries like to recruit talent. I know this is true like countries in the UK where if you have a PhD or an MD you can get a PR and possibly citizenship much faster.

Unfortunately the recently reelected xenophobes in the US are actually allergic to foreign talent.

 

[travelbug73]

So I'm applying to American schools as a Canadian citizen. Anyone here know how long it takes to become an American citizen? If I get accepted to an American med school would I only be there as a student? Would have to return to home or would my stay be considered part of the years for citizenship status? Just thought I ask here before I call the embassy.
Thanks.

This is the way it goes, at least the more common routes:

1) Get a student visa: F1.
2) After F1 you can get 1 year of optional practical training which authorizes you employment for 1 year ( a benefit that all F1 students get unless he/she has somehow messed up).
3) Employer (residency in your case) sponsors you for an H-1B or a J1
4) J1- most countries have at least a 2-year home residency requirement, don't know about Canada. Anyway, you can either do that or get a waiver and then apply for a green-card (of course your employer must sponsor you).
5) If on H-1B, again employer must sponsor you for a green card. Sponsor does not necessarily mean pay for GC, it just means they will help you with the required paper work.
6) GC is easier to get if you work in under served areas
7) Once you get your GC through employment, you can apply for citizenship after 5 years.
8) Other routes to GC are family sponsorships or getting married to an American citizenship in good faith.
9) If ytou get married to an American citizen you can apply for citizenship 3 years after you get your GC.

Also, I'm sure you know, Canadian citizens do not need a work visa or GC to work in the US, you get what is called a TN VISA, under the NAFTA agreement. Essentially, you can go to school on F1 and then apply for TN visa (soemtimes even this is not required) based on your Canadian citizenship and work in the US. For this, however, you cannot be self employed and you should be a physician in teaching or research.
The best place for most of your questions is :
http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1274.html#16

Hope this has helped.

 

[Jon Davis]

If you're an MD, you shouldnt have a hard time getting PR. For an anectode, look at all those foreign trained docs who came in and are still coming in. Cough India Cough. If you're from Canada, it shouldnt be much of a problem. However, get a good immig. lawyer to get papers done for you, some corps./hosps. may be reluctant. To add, if you get into an American school, it shouldnt be much of a problem to get hook-ups for employment. They took you on, and in my opinion, you should expect to go further beyond training there. However, they dont guarantee you anything.

 

[Kiroro]

You will not become a US citizen just because you attended a US school. Doesn't matter what school or how many years.

If you want to aquire US citizenship by your work (as a doctor), I suppose you would have to be employed (not residency) for more than a year (depends on the employment) at a hospital or whatever job that would help you to obtain your working visa. With the working visa, after 5 years (maybe 3... not quite sure here) you can apply for Green card. Which would probably take about a year for INS to process. After obtaining your Green card, you'll have to wait for 4 years to apply for citizenship.

So it takes hell of a long time to become American citizen. However, there is a much easier way ...

Just marry a US citizen. If you could get into a US medschool, then your chance of meeting a significant other in your 4 years of medical study is pretty high. This would enable you to obtain a temporaly Green card almost immediately, and real Green card after 2 years. After that you'll just have to wait one more year to apply for the citizenship.

 

[little_late_MD]

You're Canadian, that's practically American already. Start wearing your hats backwards and you're 9/10 of the way there.

 

[eg77]

You guys are awesome...I'm actually working right now so I briefly (very very briefly) read over some of the posts. I just love this SDN page and how you get such different responses and personalities. I'm gonna have to read this more carefully when I get home and I definetly plan on discussing this with the embassy...I just thought I get some of your guys' opinions since it seems there are a lot of experience with student visas and PR stuff. Thanks and I'm looking forward to reading this more thoroughly.

 

[eg77]

You're Canadian, that's practically American already. Start wearing your hats backwards and you're 9/10 of the way there.

Canadians would love hearing that!!! It's so funny to hear American vs. Canadian discussions in Canada since people are so agressive. It's like cousins that were really close growing up and then they became really distant and started competing. Anyways...I don't know where I'm going with this.
But I'll say this: I had a negative view of America until I actually visited it and I found the majority of people hospitable, friendly, generous, and well informed. The amount of people that new some stuff about Canada was really impressive. I thought I share that with you guys 😀

 

[10minutes]

I waited 10 years to get a Greed Card and now I'm waiting for an interview (in November) for the citizenship. I've been living here for 7 years. I applied for the citizenship more than a year ago btw. Just to let you know, citizenship is not necessary in most cases except for when you graduate and start working.

 

[MeowMix]

here's how I got US citizenship as a Canadian. Took 17 years.

- went to grad school in US on F1 visa (normal student visa). Got PhD.
- did postdoc in U.S. on J1 visa (had to get J1 because I had govt funding)
- got TN visa for next job (for Canadians with advanced degrees, super easy to get, must be renewed every year). Had to get waiver of 2-year return-to-home-country residency requirement for J visa. Required having 3 bigwigs write about how my work was fantastic and in the national interest to keep me here.
- applied for green card, waited about 6-9 mo for it.
- after 4 2/3 years with green card, applied for citizenship. Waited about 9 mo for citizenship.
- got citizenship.

It is a very long and expensive process. Since you can probably work here on a TN visa, I'm not sure why you would want US citizenship anyway.

As they say, marriage is a much faster and easier route.

 

[sunnyjohn]

Get married or become a nurse.

Foreign nurse immigrating to the US who go through the proper immigration channels are given a green card and immigrate as Perm residents.

Marry an American citizen and you will also shorten the time

 

[Moto]

Don't forget about how long it takes to actually get citizenship once you apply. I applied March 2004, will finally become a citizen this month after a year and a half of anxious waiting, several infopass appointments, three inquiries and lots of stressful waiting.