How to Become a US Citizen
Hi everybody and welcome. It's Friday so it must be Connetics USA weekly show Onwards and Upwards. Everything that a health care worker needs to know about coming to live and work in the United States. I am your host, Tanya Freedman, president of Connetics USA, the number one direct hire company for healthcare workers coming to the United States. If you are interested in coming to the United States, please apply to our website. Our team are waiting online right now to speak to you and apply to Conneticsusa.com/application. Today's topic is the pinnacle, the ultimate, the best day of all immigrants lives and that is citizenship. It's where you've climbed that mountain of immigration. You have been through all the sacrifices, the hardships, the delays, the sacrifices that you might need, and you're now at the top of that mountain and able to waive that American flag and become a citizen. There we have the mountain. So I'd like to welcome our two guests this morning. Who will be joining us discussing their citizens citizenship journey we are welcoming Anna welcome Anna. How passport and her flag yay.
Hi everyone. Thank you for having me. Kanye and fanatic family and brother for our family watching right now. Man I am so excited and I'm so happy you're right Crimea mounting before you can even a wave so welcome to Anna I love having to post more than that is so cute. And we can't wait to hear about your journey of becoming a citizen. And I also want to welcome Rona how Reiner, welcome. Hi, everyone. Hello, everybody. I'm running up a coma and I'm one of the onboarding specialists from Connetics USA, I would like to say hello to everyone around the world. Hello to all our viewers and hear I'm waving my American flag and my blue. Oops, I think we lost Rona. Hopefully she'll be back. There we go. So we are so excited to have Anna and Rona here today. I know for all immigrants becoming a citizen really is the pinnacle, it is the greatest one of the greatest days of your life. And that's what we want. For everybody who's watching onwards and upwards. Today, we have so many viewers all over the world that want to share in and learn about this experience. And we thought as the as one of the last shows for the year, we wanted to do a show on citizenship because it's just, it's my favorite time of year, the end of the year. And this is just such a great way for everybody to celebrate that moment and look forward to that moment.
So I see we have viewers watching us from around the world. Sunny is saying hi j k is saying oh, say Jake, is it hi. Hi ma'am. Good. Good to all am from India working in Saudi is that possible for me to get a job in the US? So JK we're gonna answer your questions Sonny's flying to Detroit from Abu Dhabi. Thank you Connetics. Yay. Yay, Sunny. Have a good trip. We are excited for you. We have Dennis is saying hi from Saudi. PJ is saying good morning. Is it worth it for Indian born Canadian citizens to work on the TN visa? How many years waiting for the Indian born Canadian citizen RN nurse to get a green card. So PJ, PJ keep watching because today the first part of the show is we're going to be talking to Anna and Rona about the experience of becoming a citizen and then we have Christmas Salah who is joining us in part two of today's episode, and we're going to be talking to him about and we will ask him your question PJ. Faith is watching from Zimbabwe that's close to my home country, South Africa. If you are watching today, please apply online use up from Nigeria. So please put in the chat. Where you are watching from and if you have any questions for the panelists. We will take your questions this morning. All right. So let's get started. Anna and Rona. Let's before we talk about citizenship. Let's just talk a little bit about your journey of coming to America. Anna did you always want to come to America?
Yeah, if I always want to be here in the US. I am fine a lot of Hollywood movies. And I was telling myself someday I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna work nerf and I grew up my father used to have a lot of us movies, American movies, so I was greatly influenced by him. So I never thought about Work concrete. But, you know, it's always in my heart. So you always had that dream came through the family, like many, many nurses or immigrants that come to the United States. Rona. Did you and I think you came to the US at a younger age. Can you share a little bit about your journey of coming to the United States? Yes, Tanya. Yeah, I was young than when I came here to the US as an immigrant. I was 17 years old. That's right after I graduated high school, so I was very, very excited. I'm like, I was like, oh, America, yes. I'm gonna be in America. So you know, that's all what's in my mind during that time. So I was very excited. I wasn't nervous at all, even though I don't speak much English back then. So I was like, Okay, I don't care. I'm going to be in America, I'm going to be you know, I'm going to be with, you know, seeing all these different people there. So, yeah, so you, you were excited. I was very excited.
Okay, so and that's very common in the beginning, when we arrive here, and there's a lot of excitement, and a lot of anticipation of your new life and the new chapter and how you're going to experience American life. Ana in the beginning, when you came here, what were the first few months like, oh, it was wrong. I have no family here in New York. I'm not driving. Okay, and I have no friends. Everyone was new. I have no apartment. So it will vary. I'm not gonna deny it. But, but I've always thought with my role, I always thought my roles and every time I'm having a hard time, I always remind myself, remember, when you were young, your orientation dreaming? When you work and work for everyone, it will make me feel better. It will hire but I'm gonna pay. It's all worth coming here. So the first few months were rough. What do you what do you wish that you had known before you came to the United States? What do you wish someone had told you? Oh, my number one regret. I believe I learned how to dry before I left. While we've been here for having you.
And we've only own a car for three year or a year. We have I'm from New York where we have a lot of Uber live we have a green bar. But when it no equal hire when it comes to cross fertilization. I believe me or I left in February. Yeah. And it's interesting, Anna, because you live in one of the cities in the United States that actually has quite good infrastructure of public transportation. So for many other international nurses or, or immigrants that come to the United States, often it's still more difficult, because there's actually very, very much more limited transportation. Rona, what were those first few months like for you? It was easy for me because my family's here, my dad, my siblings, my most of my family were here. So it was easy for me to adapt the environment. And since I was young then so they were there for me. But before I came here to the US, my aunt who used to take care of us when we were in the Philippines told us that you need to learn this, you need to learn that because when you get there, you're gonna be on your own, you're gonna be you're gonna be cooking on your own, you're gonna be independent. So he she taught us how to you know, she taught us to be prepared. Once we you know, we come here to the US because no one's gonna be home. There's no housekeeping. No, nobody is gonna help you out with everything. Like you're gonna have to wash your own dishes you gotta have to wash your own clothes. All those so yeah, so but it was easy for me because my family were here so I adjusted very quick.
So and I think also you are more fortunate than Anna in a way and everybody's experience is different so that's why we love the both of you sharing your experiences because you were younger. And sometimes the younger you are the easier it is to adapt and also you had family you had that support. These are tips and pointers of what to expect so you really had your head around what could be some of those changes Yeah, that's right. And what is the biggest difference for you living in the United States as opposed to living back home? Oh my now me mean the community in the Philippines in Manila. Transportation number one big new friends, working environment. Working here if more free for free for and I got a break I have lunch break, and I'm not gonna deny I'm getting paid more I am being more conservative. And I have been when I'm an employee I have time, which I never have back home when you're here. You're upfront use money. And when Ella 14 Philippines for clothing from a winery, we're going to have health insurance for Imagine your feet your call out and you pay for your own health. Health care needs for local rugby or moving from fill in when us
Yeah, those are big things. Those are definitely big advantages that can make a huge difference to your life. I see we have an user from Nigeria Earth and from USA yesterday only arrived in Texas welcome Irfan we are excited for you to hear to be here. I'm just thinking this year we have literally 1000s of nurses that have arrived at through Connetics USA this year. And it's just like a joy. It is just the best part of our job and we just love that. Thank you for trusting us with your journey. And cynic qui is saying hi, thank you. I am Sandeep, you're watching from Namibia inspired I believe yes, I can choose. So there we go. Anna and Rona, you have made your good deed for the day inspired. And Philip is currently in India, and PJ has equations. I'm going to PJ I'm gonna wait for the legal experts and ask you a question. Or your body Samuel is watching from Nigeria Jamila saying hi. And Eve is asking do you personal referral link? So if yes, we do have a referral link. So if you have a friend who has passed the NCLEX exam, please go to the Connetics USA nursing job agency website. You'll see the referral link, and you'll be eligible for the $1,000 referral fee. Please see the terms of the referral fee and how that is paid out. Jamila from UK Bina from Philippines. I Asha from my home country, South Africa. So thank you, everybody, for joining us. If you have any questions for Anna and Rona, please put them in the chat. Rona, what? What did you miss about the Philippines when you first came to the United States?
My high school friends, I mean, we when I came here to the US, we started writing a letter to each other, you know, back then, you know, there was an email wasn't really a thing. And you know, all the social media wasn't really a thing. So we were just writing letters sending pictures of each other. And then, um, right after maybe a year everything like, was separated because we I started going to school, and they started going to college. So they met new friends, I met new prints. So I you know, that that's like the part of my adjustment. So I mean, that's all I miss because I was young, then, you know, I spend most of my life when I was there, you know, hanging out with my friends back in high school, and also my relatives also back there in the Philippines. But since I'm here, I was here with my family. So I was you know, it was really, really easy. Everything for me was easy. With all the supports. Yeah, that makes a huge difference to have that support. But you do you have that tag of those relationships that you miss? And is nodding her head I can see from home as well.
Yes. And in fact, I still have those letters with me, oh, I still have those letters with me. I love that well that those people will always have a very special place in your heart. When you meet up with them, you just connect as if you saw them yesterday. So you know that's a very special relationship. Israel is asking Hi, this is very informative and inspiring. I have a US dream also. But I have a husband and a baby and I don't know how and when to start watching from the Philippines. So Israel I would suggest you can look at the Canadian news USA website and look at our success path that will give you step by step by step how to navigate through the process. What do you need to do first, first pass the NCLEX prepare for the interview. Then we have the visa framework where you'll come on a green card or TN Visa, licensing and credentialing the Get Ready game plan, arrival sequence and then enjoy and prosper as Rona and as Anna are doing right now. So let's talk a little bit about that. Enjoy prosper. Let's talk about becoming a citizen. Anna how long after you came to the United States did you become a citizen?
I arrive ate real clean from everything arrived here, welcome. I mean, well, I'm going to be a human, or five year. So I started thinking about it around 20 may mean, when I regard older requirements, I refer it's all about me and 2020 I filed or, but I was ready to do it on my own. Since I was hired by an agency, and I finished my very early I was my contract was three years. But if you are only one year you may have and when they don't want to let me know yet, for a lawyer help for me fill out paper and prepare me I won my dream to become a un companion. I don't want to mess it up. So I asked for a lawyer help. File and rubber all the new paperwork. Wait, put me around. I'm here. Okay. So five years was that cut off? Time? Ron, tell us a little bit about your journey to become a citizen. When did you become a citizen after how long? Okay, so I came here in 1996. I was 17 then I remember my dad telling me that it's been three years, you should file your citizenship now. I don't know. I think back then it was three years or I don't remember anymore. But it took me I believe eight years before I decided to file for US citizenship. Just because I was inspired back then I was you know, I was inspired by this person that I wanted to. I wanted I wanted him to come here. So I my thought was when I become a US citizen, I can get him here. I can you know, we can live together. But that did not turn out. Okay. So like must move on. So that I became a US citizen in 2005. And it took me only four months to become a US citizen. I remember when I filed when I submitted my application. It was March 2005. And then I took an oath, July 7 2005. So that only four months of time. Very quick, very quick. And it was your what was your timing similar? Or was it like orders? Oh, no longer? Your Honor. Me too. Was a jealous of you.
Well, I like when I got caught up on diamond. Who me live. Make your own when you mean clean. And then fundraising came in. So I like for myself and my husband and my daughter and 11 year old brain. So it was hard we know when you apply for your massive grant or when you're calling them and it took me a year a year before going back for me like we're gonna we're going to schedule your opening on your path and when you're opening in, but my half months to a year. Yeah, my options are all the frames me. i He recently Moon one. Meanwhile, me I'm in my 2021 and worrying my time 2020 It was Sunday me no family is allowed. I lived by myself. I was like I want to cry. I want to be in this moment with my family. And we're you're asking someone Hey, can you help me but inside I was happy and sad at the same time. Finally, after five years, hopefully but I remind myself my family were waiting outside the building who many Amy knows that I have honey.
So that was like a bittersweet moment and but my half my no great alga family we have a program. We have Miss or I'm full grown him and I cry more than him finally hanging out for a year in the US. And you're you know we were there for him. quite emotional. Like there were seven for me. Immigrants, recurrent concrete pouring. Now we're climbing in us. And it's not easy coming here. It's not easy for a very emotional and rewarding moment of my life. It's a moment It's really a moment when you become a citizen. And you write, and it's very emotional. Because when you sitting there, what was that? What was it like for you when you were sitting in that swearing in ceremony? Well, I don't make someone called me and I hold a live poll right now. Finally, like, I am not looking immigrant, I'm a green card holder. Now I might, like I'm one of you now, you know, and I love to go. My right. Yeah, working here and earning money and learning to talk. But now, you know, you're more involved in community, and you can offer run in you want to, and 100 more inspiring from yoga, leaving your American dream classrooms. Arriving in the US is no worse, more polite. And we alone you have the blue passport, you can go anywhere you go. without hassle, you know, when I got Philippine passport, more requirements to remain.
Yeah, and really a moment, a great achievement and a sense of belonging. Because now you feel really secure and that you belong. Ronna, what was what was becoming a citizen, like for you? What would tell us a little bit about your swearing in ceremony? Oh, during that ceremony, I was nervous, but excited at the same time. Because yes, finally, finally, finally, I'm going to be you know, I'm going to have the blue passport with the most powerful passport in the world. You know what I mean? So I can go here and there without any problem at all, I get to be in the line in the priority line when I go, you know, and I go home to the Philippines, I don't have to wait in a long line, you know, they all those kinds of things. But my main focus back then was you know, I was you know, I was inspired, I was in love. So, you know, I'm, I'm trying to like, Okay, I'm gonna get this person, I'm gonna petition this person. So he can come here with me in the booth in the US and live with me, but I wasn't thinking right, that financially that I don't think I can, I can do it. So that did not turn out. Okay. So, like, must move on. Like what I said, so. So yeah, here I am right now. Like, you know, living the, you know, living my dream as a US citizen, I get to vote, I get to go travel to anywhere around the world without applying for any further visa, because I have the blue passport. So that's my, that's my, this is my ticket. This is my ticket to get to my destination, to any part of the world.
It's a great, great feeling, really, for all immigrants, one of the greatest days of your life. I remember even for myself, my sweat swearing in Cerami I actually have a video of myself doing a happy dance. And I was telling my family. Yesterday, I'm going to show my video of myself do my happy dance. And they were like, No, you can't do that. So I've got a picture of myself and my daughter and the swearing. Oh, it was it was a moment. It really is a moment for any immigrant. Okay, so we've got and I see we got in the chat. Jamila is saying I tried to register but no response. Jamila. I'm so sorry. We will make sure our team gets you as soon as partisan possible. We've been inundated with applications, but thank you for applying and we really want to help you with your American dream. Eunice is saying hi from Ghana. i She's asking do you accept diploma nurses? Yes, I shall we do. We have some employers that will not accept diploma. But we have many employers all over the United States that will accept so please apply to the Connetics USA website. Baby's watching from Kuwait, Marcel from Manila. And Jamila say, Oh, she's passed her pass NCLEX congrats and Mila. And so as we say my bedside experience was 10 years ago. Am I still qualified? So Israel? That's an interesting question because we do have some employers that will consider your experience so definitely, especially if passed the NCLEX apply and we'd be very happy to help you.
Okay, so Sheila's from India any positive movement from India so she said I'm gonna ask the lawyer then in part two of the show, saying from UAE Priyanka, why is the feeble taking so long these days Priyanka, we share your frustration. Oh my goodness There are still delays, unfortunately, with the green card process, and from the Connetics USA, we're doing a lot of action to try and mitigate that. And Darrell is saying, I'm a proud Connetics baby of London. Thank you, Darrell. We love that that just makes our day. Okay, so the citizenship test is one of the most scary parts for many immigrants. Anna Rona, do you remember what it was like to take the citizenship test? Oh, yeah. I, I went nursing board, the NCLEX. And five, lower will be the last test I will read. And when you have a speaking part, you have a really blurry Writing, Speaking of English, so then I now have my role in this area. And but you know, like what I said, on your role? I mean, I know. They asked me questions, maybe it's with me, I don't really know.
When you apply for you know, you want to know, like, how can you prove that? You want to be an American? You want to be a one? Off? No, go holla at me, you got to do that. You got to know the answers to that question. We've got a quick game. Now. So everybody get ready. We've got some of the quiz questions that you get in the citizenship exam. So everybody who's watching please put your answers into the chat. So the first question that we're going to be asking is, what is the capital of the United States of America? Is it California and New York or Washington DC? If you know the answer to that question, please put it into the chat. This is one of the questions that you could get in your citizenship test, when you go to the United States. And it can be confusing you need to study because you need to know and which one is it ah there we got it. Shanann is saying see Priyanka saying see well done to mind and deep Priyanka is Washington CC. Let's do another one. We've got a question. What does each star on the American flag represent? A does it represent a president a city or a state? Which one? Does it represent? A president a city or state? Put your answers into the chat? This is one of the citizenship questions.
Shannon, you are on a roll today? Yes, correct. It is a state correct answer. There we go. Lots of people joining in Karen tears. Joyce says Sheila, how fun. Now another one. Let's do another two real quick before we bring in our legal expert, who was the first president of the United States of America? Was it John Adams, George Washington or Thomas Jefferson? This is an interesting question. John Adams, George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. And oh, Sherman is saying God just got my visa prove well done. Sure, man. That's very, very exciting for you. Okay, so we've got our RJs got it. First one. It's me, George Washington's called the father of the nation. Interesting fact about George Washington. By the way, he's the only president who owned slaves and freed all his slaves, which was an interesting one that he freed all his slaves. And last question on the citizenship, what Federal holiday is celebrated every fourth of July is at Thanksgiving Veterans Day or Independence Day. Which one is it? It's actually quite interesting, because when I left South Africa, I actually left on the Fourth of July, which I always thought was a very significant day memorable, Memorable Date. And there we go. A lot of people getting it, it is see Independence Day. It is the day when the US became independent from Britain. Great. Great. Great job, everybody. I see the lot. The questions are coming in there. And so Charmin got a perfect score. Well done Charmin.
This has been applying now. Thank you so much to Anna and thank you so much to run out. There was such fun hearing about your inspirational stories, your journey to become a citizen and learning about the questions that you can get in the citizenship test. I want to thank you so much for coming on onwards and upwards. Both of you have been on the show before and we are it's so fun to have you join us and we hope to see you many times in the New Year. Thank you so much to Anna and Mona and we ended it I'm going to be moving now to part two, where we're going to be talking to the legal experts, expert, Christmas sallow about the legal aspect of becoming a citizen. Welcome, Chris. Thank you for joining us on Yeah, I didn't know I was gonna follow a real entertaining session and again, show and happy dance. I mean, what am I going to do now? This is boring, you're gonna lose all the viewers probably. Never Chris, you never we never everybody can wait to hear your words of wisdom. I don't know, that was a pretty good session I caught I caught a lot of it. And hopefully, maybe it's less entertaining, maybe informative. I don't know what we'll find out, I guess really important piece, Chris, because as we said, climbing that, that mountain becoming a citizen, one of the greatest moments for all immigrants. And I know your family also come from a line of immigrants, Chris, as you've shared with our viewers before.
So it really is a moment becoming a citizen. But there are a lot of legal aspects that I think it's important for people to educate themselves about. And that's where you're not going to be boring. Chris, we believe in you. So yeah, the questions about the citizen citizenship, right? Yeah, let's do it. First thing is what are the requirements to become a citizen. So there's a number of requirements. So let's just go through them quickly. And then I'm sure people will ask them questions that will refine some of these. So I like to think of it as about eight, eight requirements. So the first one is, you have to be a permanent resident of the United States, you have to have your green card for five years. And there's one exception to that. And that's if you're married to a US citizen, then it only needs to be for three years. But for most people, it's five years. So if you get your green card, maybe you're a nurse or a health care worker or some other, then five. So if you get your green card, let's pretend today, December 16 2022. You cannot apply for citizenship until December 16 2027. Unless you're married to a US citizen, in which case is December 16 2025. That's the day you can actually file your naturalization petition. So that's one, I call that the time element. The second one, which is a little bit related, is what's called the continuous presence element.
And what that means is that you cannot have exited the United States for more than six months at a time, if you do that can reset the amount the five year rule. The third one, which is also sort of related is the physical presence test, which means that you have to have been physically on US soil for half the time. So if you have a five year, which is the standard amount of time, you have to be in the United States for two and one half years, physically in the US. So what we do when we prepare those petitions is we'll look at all the times we've gone overseas, whether it's for travel for work, or business or pleasure, you still have to be in the United States for 30 months. Okay, the next one is your physical current residence test, which is at the time you file your petition, you have to be in the same house or apartment or residence for 90 days, because you're filing your petition your naturalization petition at a local level, not at a not at a federal level. Next one's pretty easy age, you have to be 18. The next one is residency during the petition. You have to be in the United States when we're during the pendency of your petition.
So when you file your petition, it may take a month or two or six months or nine months, you need to be in the United States. Generally, you can make a short trip outside the United States, but we always advise you, you check with your attorney during that. And then the last two are you need to have good moral character, which means you know that there's going to be a background check. And then the eighth is the testing standards, which are English fluency and US civics. Those can be maybe thought of as two standards for the English fluency test. It's not a TOEFL exam or an IELTS exam. It's actually done in front of the immigration officer right there. And he or she makes a judgment based on your ability to speak and read English. And the civics test, they do a civics test similar to the one that you can find at the USCIS website. So those are the standards. And we can you know, we can talk a little bit about some of the rules and exceptions that might apply. Those are courts or general standard. Okay, so that gives us is a really good idea of the criteria and what's involved to be able to apply for citizenship. How does the US government decide moral character? Chris, I know you said a background check. But tell us a little bit more about that.
Yeah, so with the moral character, one thing they're doing is they're making sure that you if you've been arrested, it's for a sort of what I would call a low character reason, not a high character reason. And so that's really the key thing. So if you've got a misdemeanor, or a parking ticket, or a speeding ticket that is not going to that is going to that is not going to be a problem. The bars have the what we call Immigration bars, and by a borrowing, meaning this prohibits you from being able to get your naturalization. So there's a handful of them. So murder, if she's been convicted of murder, God, I hope this never happens. Certainly convicted that that obviously means you do not have good moral character. And that's a permanent bar, meaning you can never ever, ever become a US citizen. There's the second one is something called an aggravated felony. And there have been an enormous number of guidance memorandum from the US government, and court cases. And so I'm not going to go into in fact, candidly, if you've been convicted of a felony, you will definitely want to hire an attorney to find out does it reach the standard of an aggravated felony, as opposed to a non aggravated felony. And you know, you could go on the USCIS website, and there is there's 20, or 30, sort of standards, and then each of those can be aggravated.
And we can see, you know, depending on how bad or good the crime is, there's, you know, if you've been, you know, a lot of these are really terrible things to talk about. But if you've committed genocide, torture, persecution of people, these are the kinds of things that will also bar you. So those are the big permanent, permanent bars, keeping one from, you know, from being a permanently becoming a US citizen. There are a number of other bars like controlled substance abuse, if you've been jailed for less than a year, which is usually the felony standard, but more than 180 years, have you been committed? Have you been convicted of false testimony or fraud, prostitution, smuggling, some gambling? There's a variety of things like that, which again, you know, I'm not going to go through all there's probably 20 of those as well, those are non permanent bars. And so if you've been convicted of some of these still serious crimes, but lesser crimes, we essentially have to ask the US government to overlook it because of some reason, or because some period of time has passed between the time the offense was committed, and the time you're getting ready to apply for permanent residency.
Okay, well, so it's really involved. And if there has been some issues in your past, very important to speak to an immigration lawyer. That's right. Chris, can somebody stay on a green card indefinitely? Like if they decide for whatever reason not to become a citizen? Yeah, so that's a really good question. And it's one we get the answer is yes, we have had some clients of the law firm who have been permanent residents for 2030 4050 years. So why would someone turn you want to move from permanent residency to US citizenship? Let's just take a step back. Before we answer that question, which is, I generally like to say that there's four categories of people in the United States. Now, I'm simplifying this, but I think this covers a lot of situations. And so it's a good rubric to think about it. So at the top of the ladder, we have US citizens, and there's essentially two ways to become a US citizen, you can be like me, which is you can be born physically on US soil. And frankly, as long as you're born on US soil, it doesn't matter if your parent was from here or not, whether your parents documented with your parents an h1 B, or green card or anything else, or even illegal in the United States. If you're born on US soil, you're a US citizen at the time you're born. All you need is to show that that person tunicate saying that you were born on us.
So there's another way which is the way we're mainly talking about today and these are for people like you Tanya Of course, which is you can move through the immigration process and eventually become a US citizen. The next tear down are green card holders or permanent residents or what we call in the industry immigrants we specifically use that term I'm immigrant. And as your question implies, you can stay in that category of green card holder, really for the rest of your life. So you can come the United States become a green card holder when you're I don't know, 25 and literally stay in the United States as a green card holder forever. The last two, by the way, are just temporary visa holders, those are tourists, students, temporary workers, etc. And then the last category, of course, are the undocumented or those who are illegally here. So what happens if you stay in the Green Card category and do not move up to the US citizenship category? Well, again, to some degree, nothing, but there are some downsides. So let me just go through a couple of downsides, Tonya. First, it's your illegal to vote if you're ineligible to vote. In fact, if you vote in a federal or local election, that can be a bar to you becoming a US citizen down the line. So it's very important to know your green card holder, even if you're a green card holder for 20 3050 years, you're still eligible to vote, only US citizens are eligible to vote.
The next problem, I think, or at least the deficiency, if you stay in the Green Card category is I don't think you're getting the full American life because of things like voting because of, you know, just the pride that a lot of people have in the United States. So that's another one. A third one is if by some chance you commit some, you know, some of the horrible crimes that we talked about in the last question. If you're a US citizen, you serve your penalty, which might be a fine, or it might be jail time. And those are obviously horrible outcomes. But when you're done serving your penalty, then you are still eligible to be in the United States, because you're a US citizen. If you do commit some of those offenses, not only you may be barred from US citizenship, but you are also potentially barred from staying in the United States, meaning you can be actually deported if you do these things. So. So that's the downside of staying in the Green Card tear as opposed to moving into us permanent residency.
Okay, so yeah, so that that really lays it out very clearly, Chris. So can somebody be have dual citizenship? So for example, like I came from South Africa, do you have to give up your citizenship of your home country? So this was a good lawyer answer, Tonya, the answer is yes. And, okay. And so here's how it works. About that, Chris, I'll expand on that rather than giving that support. Right. So, so US citizens, or excuse me, so if you if you apply for US citizenship, as a general rule of thumb, you do not have to give up your foreign citizenship. From America's perspective, America, generally speaking, is comfortable with you holding both American citizenship and say Filipino citizenship or American citizenship and Canadian citizen citizenship. It's not uncommon in the United States is fine with that. And frankly, when you enter, let's say, Canada, you can share your Canadian passport. And when you enter the United States and use your US passport, and that'll probably make your entry into those countries for tourism reasons or what have you. Very straightforward. Okay, so that's one thing. Now, sometimes the other country wants you to give up their passport.
So for instance, India, I know, they do not like their citizens to have dual citizenship. And so if you are an Indian national, and you apply for American citizenship, US citizenship, the US says, we're fine if you want to hold both the Indian passport and the American passport. But India says nope, once you become a US citizen, we require you to give up your Indian passport and give up your Indian citizenship. So it's really a country by country analysis. But again, as a general rule, America is comfortable with you holding two passports, but some other countries are not. And so it really is going to come down to what your other country of nationality is. And sometimes that can even change Criss, because I'm just thinking of my personal situation. When my sister came to America before I did a few years before when she became a citizen, she wasn't allowed to keep her South African passport by South Africa. And then when I became a citizen, we were allowed to. So sometimes it can even change over a period of time, and that's something that you would need to find out.
Right. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So South Africa and urine since they changed their laws over time, you and your sister were coming around. So yeah, so this is something that, that yeah, that you'll you know, if you're thinking of doing the dual citizenship route, you'll want to continually check to see even if it's ineligible and 2022 You might be able to do it and 2025 or something no Yeah, exactly. So we didn't, we hadn't flew fun and a little quiz talking about the citizenship civics exam. What happens if you fail when you go to interview? Yeah, so the good news is, in all the years I've been doing this, I'm not sure I can recall somebody failing it. And the reason is, is because people smartly prepare for this thing. In fact, I can't even think, and I've been doing immigration law, this will be my 25th. Year in 2023. I can't even think of someone failing the English fluency exam. Because, you know, you sort of know if you can speak English. And with respect to the civics exam, you know, a lot of the, you know, it's studying for a test, but it's not the NCLEX it's not that difficult to test you do need to put the time in. And Frank, I think it's a good idea that if you're going to pursue, you know, American citizenship, I think it's important you understand our culture and our civics and the way our government works and these kinds of things. So, but having said that, if you fail it, you can go ahead and reapply for citizenship, and you will again, have to take the English exam.
Okay. Okay. So it is possible. But you're right. I think, for any immigrant to get to that stage, I don't know anyone who's not going to be spending the time studying. And it's I actually found it very interesting. Yeah, it's interesting stuff, right. There's also an, it's probably worth saying there are some exemptions to the English exam and the civics test. So for instance, if you are over 50 years old at the time, you file for your naturalization, and you've been a US permanent resident for 20 years, what they sometimes call the 5020 exception, you actually do not have to be able to speak fluent English, but you do have to pass the civics exam. There's also a 5515 rule, which means if you're over 55, and you've been a US permanent resident for 15 years, you also do not have to pass the civics exam, or excuse me, the English exam, you do have to still take the civics exam, but they will give you that American civics exam in your native language, or and or you can have an interpreter. Now, if you're 65 years old, and you've been a permanent resident for 20 years. So you would already meet the English fluency exemption because you would meet the 5020 rule. They're also play the US government official who takes you through this who adjudicate your case is supposed to give you sort of additional consideration. If you don't quite do Okay, on the civics exam. So there's some exceptions there. And then there's a couple of other exceptions, like if you have some medical condition, or mental or physical disability, there's also exemptions and exceptions to both civics and English.
Wow, that's very interesting. I did not know a lot of those things, Chris, and you were worried this was going to be boring, but this is really interesting. Well, I'm hoping you don't ask me some questions. We've, our viewers have been answering. And then I think, who was it says Shannon got 100% score. So there you go. And so Priyanka is asking what are the beneficial differences of having a green card and citizenship? And I know that you've spoken about that, Chris. But I wanted to speak specifically about being able to sponsor a family member. Because, yeah, a lot of a lot of people really want that citizenship, because it just gives peace of mind. As Anna said, being able to vote is huge. But one of the other advantages is that you can actually sponsor a family member, who can you sponsor? Can you tell us a little bit more about that process? Yeah, really? Good question. I'm glad you brought that up. So let's start with who you're able to sponsor. So the idea here is if you're a permanent resident, you're actually able to sponsor some of your family members for a green card. And if you're a US citizen, you're actually able to sponsor a whole range of family members, and we'll go through them right now. So if you are a permanent resident, you are allowed to sponsor your, what we call an after acquired spouse. So let's think about this for a minute.
Again, we're talking about permanent residency here. So if you're going through the green card process, your spouse automatically he or she, they're with you in this process, as long as they're your spouse from the beginning, at the end of the process. And so they will take and receive their green card at the same time as you and your children who are under 21 will also take and receive the green card the same time as you but what if you have an after acquired spouse so now you've gone through the process, but maybe you're single or even you were married, and now you're divorced. Now fast forward A few years, and you marry, you marry, but now you're your spouse to be is overseas? Well, you're actually able to sponsor them under the green card process, not through the employment based process that you went through. But through the green card process. And we it works a little bit like your nursing case, there's a sponsor, which in your nursing case might be your hospital or your health care facility. In the green card case, the sponsor is you, the US permanent resident, and the beneficiary is not you, the nurse, but it's you The after acquired spouse. Similarly, if you after acquire children, same kind of thing, so maybe you get a children who are overseas stepchildren, that sort of thing. Now, that's the only level that you're allowed to sponsor as a permanent resident. But it greatly expands as a US citizen.
As a US citizen, you're also able to aspire to sponsor and file for an overseas spouse. So if I'm single, and I marry a Filipino girl, I can file for her green card as a because I'm a US citizen, and she becomes immediately eligible, which means it's almost like she's always current, which means it's just really the only time constraint is the amount of time it takes the petition to be approved and the visa NVC to schedule the interview in Manila. So that's a spouse, I can also sponsor my overseas parents with immediate eligibility, which means again, it's like they're immediately current. So if my mom and dad were foreign nationals, because I'm a US citizen, I could sponsor for them. And then maybe nine months or so, they would go to their interview in Manila, London, Rome, Australia, wherever they're from, and they would immediately get theirs. So the parent rule is not eligible for green cards. Also, as a US citizen, you're also allowed to sponsor children, both under 21. And this is important, and also over 21, you're also able to sponsor over 21 married, so even if they're married, that that's a slower path, and if they're unmarried, but it also is eligible. And you can even sponsor brothers and sisters, siblings, as US citizens. So again, real quick, if you're a US citizen, you can sponsor spouses. You can sponsor children, both under 21. And over 21, both married and unmarried. And you can sponsor brothers and sisters, and a parent. And the parent sorry, yes, right. Yeah.
And that topic is really very dear to my heart. Because as a US citizen now I recently sponsored my own mother. And she, I think was two weeks ago, there's a picture of her holding her red, white and blue flowers. She became a green card holder, so that your mother or your sister Tanya, I'll tell her that, Chris. She'll be very beautiful. Wow. That's amazing. And the amazing thing is that I have a grandchild in the same week. So Danielle, oh my god, congratulations to Daniel. Holiday miracle. I first it was so weird, because in the first, in one week, my mom became a green card holder. And we had the first born American in our, in our family. So it was really joyous. That has been wonderful. One December has been a joyous for you for sure. That's what we want for all our viewers or so. And yeah, so it's a great benefit of being a US citizen, which is amazing. And, Chris, last question was I'm just looking at the clock in terms of citizenship. If you have, for example, a parent that's in the United States or a parent that's in their home country or a spouse or a child, is that the same process? Yeah, it's a similar process. That's right. It's a similar process. A lot of immigration is sort of conditioned on this idea that we have a sponsoring either an entity like a company or a sponsoring spouse or US citizen or something like that. And then the sponsor petitions on behalf of what we call the beneficiary, which might be the child might be the spouse might be the parent might be the nurse if it's an employer, and so yes, all structurally it all works about the same.
Okay, so if you have if you are a US citizen and are looking to sponsor one of your family members, please also check out one of our guidebooks on Connetics USA, we have one for the consular green card process, one for the adjustment of status green card process, and also one about the TN process, the process for Canadian and Mexican citizens. And that reminds me I know at the beginning of the show I promised PJ that even though it wasn't a citizenship question I was going to ask you, Chris, and the question, is there any chance that the US immigration officer to deny renewal of a TN Visa for an RN nurse? If the officer learned that I applied for the green card? By the way, I'm an Indian born Canadian citizen. So that answer is yes. Okay. There was a chance I'm answering his question very precisely, which were her question. I'm not sure the gender but yes, the answer is yes, they can deny it. Having said that, we do it all the time in our law office, it can be if it's done properly, the risk goes to almost zero. So I do think you will want to talk to a US immigration attorney. I'm happy to email me I'm happy to try and help you out with it. So there, it so the answer is yes, there's a real risk. But if it's if it's framed properly, it can be done. It may be a little inconvenient for maybe some travel restrictions, things like this. But we can get that kind of a case approved almost all the time.
Okay, thank you, Chris. So, PJ I didn't forget. So I wanted to make sure that we answer your question. I know we have some other questions in the chat that we have not been able to get to today, whether it's on immigration, and I'm just looking at the chat, immigration or English. So our team will definitely go into the chat and answer those questions for you. And because we want to make sure that you have as many answers to your questions as possible. Yeah, I'm telling you, if any of the listeners have any naturalization or family based questions, if they want to go ahead and email me, you can find me pretty easily via Google. I'm happy to try to answer any questions via email. Thank you, Chris. So we really appreciate that. Wow, that is an amazing gift to all the onwards and upwards viewers, and we will post Chris's email into the chat if you have specific immigration questions. But with that said, thank you so much for joining us, everybody from all around the world. Thank you to Anna and Rona, for sharing your inspiring stories, what a great message of hope and blessing that you shared with everybody around the world.
And thanks as always to Christmas Cielo for your partnership and your collaboration. And we love having you onwards and upwards. And thank you for sharing your knowledge with everybody around the world. Before you leave just a reminder of some upcoming shows. So we have on Connetics and onwards and upwards shows every Friday morning. On the 23rd we have a Christmas special show. And on the 30th we have the best onwards and upwards moments in 2022. I can't believe we are at the end of the year. But we have a great year ahead in January already planned for everybody. And on the sixth of January. I'm hoping that Chris will be back. And we will have the immigration Q&A that we have every month. On the 10th of January we have the Lefora talk show where we have a clinical Q&A So that will be on political differences between United States and other countries. On the 13th Wait for this we have a big announcement Curt Connetics Career Day.
So please stay tuned. We have a very exciting show for the 13th of January. On the 20th we're going to be focusing on one of our most popular states in stateside California and then on the 27th That's tax season. So you're gonna learn about how to pay your taxes and what is involved in Texas in the United States. And then on the Connetics college every Monday, we have our awesome partners as spire who's doing an NCLEX class, swishing a PTE class. We've got IPASS doing an NCLEX Niners and IELTS class are lots of shows coming up and last but not least Connetics initiatives. So please don't forget that all Connetics nurses get a free English scholarship. And I did see a question about English in the chat. So if you're not trained in English, you will need to take an English exam at the summary Okay, and then we've got NCLEX scholarship for selected nurses $1,000 referral fee extended to January 31. Listen to our podcast nursing in America, we have a direct hire for nurse aides. Watch our show every Friday Connetics college every Monday and if you are med tech or medical lab technician or other allied needs, please apply to Connetics USA because we have many employers that are looking to hire you in the United States. So thank you everybody for joining us and see you next week. Onwards and Upwards everybody. Have a Happy Holidays everybody. Holidays. Bye bye