How Easy Is It To Immigrate To Trump’s America?
They say it’s the land of the free, the land of opportunity and one of the easiest place to get chicken served with waffles or a cheeseburger sandwiched between two doughnuts. There’s no doubt about it, America can be a fascinating place when looking in from the outside. To foreign eyes, the US is a land of wealth and opulence, populated almost entirely by beautiful people. America is where fortunes are made and earned rather than inherited. It’s the land in which democracy is protected and the free market is thriving. It’s the land in which many of the greatest immigration success stories from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Superman have originated. After all, the United States were founded by migrants of various disparate nationalities before forming the cultural melting pot that is America. The constitutionally protected freedoms of US citizens should, in theory, allow them to pursue happiness in whatever way they define it without fear of persecution or bigotry. In theory.
Many who have gazed admiringly from afar may wonder how President Donald Trump’s year and a quarter in the White House may affect their chances of moving to the US (or even whether Trump’s America is the kind of place they’d want to live in the first place). Here we’ll look at some of the more troubling elements of US rhetoric that may affect you if you want to look into moving to the United States as well as what you can expect in the immigration process.
Trump’s many walls
Although there have been many staunchly conservative presidents in recent memory such as Ronald Reagan and both Bushes, none has been quite so avowedly anti-immigration as Donald Trump. While his platform has been unabashedly focused on putting American born people, businesses and jobs first, he has also drawn ire from human rights groups for his restrictive and flagrantly Islamophobic stance on immigration. Not only has he proposed to ban entry of immigrants from Muslim countries, he’s still talking about his proposed wall around Mexico and supporting acts of legislation that could make entering the United States legally allbut impossible unless you have won a Nobel Prize or an Olympic Medal… no seriously!
The RAISE Act (setting a sky high bar)
Last August, President Trump expressed his support for the Reforming immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act. This is the brainchild of by two Republican senators, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia and as this Time magazine article will attest, it’s a proposed “points based” system that’s virtually impossible to pass. Even if you are fluent in English, have a Bachelor’s degree from your native country and will walk into a job that pays up to $77,900 a year, you will still fall short of the proposed act’s unrealistic and punishing criteria. Even if you come to the country with serious money to invest in a business, it’s unlikely to help your chances unless you’re bringing over $1.8M with you to invest.
It seems that the only things that could swing it for you would be if you won a Nobel Prize or an Olympic medal. I wish I were making this up! Having won an olympic medal in the past 8 years is worth more on the proposed points based system than having a PhD in science, technology or mathematics. In Trump’s America, the ability to throw a discus really, really far is of greater economic and social value than the ability to invent a car that runs entirely on sustainable energy.
Fortunately, this ludicrous proposed act has yet to (and probably never will) be passed into law. If you have a burning desire to pursue the American dream, you still can even if you’re from an Islamic republic (although, unfortunately, it is harder). Here’s a little of what you can expect…
Pursuing Citizenship
There are currently three ways in which you can obtain US citizenship, not including naturalization, which we’ll discuss shortly. These may or may not be for you depending on your personal circumstances, your education, your skillset and whether or not you have any family who are ordinarily resident in the UK. The options are as follows;
Green Card Through Family- This is among the most common grounds for pursuing a Green Card (a permit that allows you to live and work permanently in the United States). You can apply for this if you are immediately related to or marry a US citizen (although expect close scrutiny of your relationship if you marry a US citizen as the Immigration and Naturalization Service keeps a close eye on so-called Green Card marriages to ensure that they are not a sham.
Employment Based Green Card- If you’ll be travelling to the US to work, you’ll be contributing to the economy which can only help your chances of applying for citizenship. However, the criteria for employment based green cards is quite stringent. You need to have an employer who is not only willing to offer you a permanent job in the US but will be willing to sponsor your Green Card application. You will also be expected to have a degree in a specialty occupation. You can also apply for a Green card as a freelancer through self petition although this is usually reserved for “Aliens of Extraordinary Ability”… Like Superman!
Green Card Lottery- The Diversity Visa lottery program is designed to help citizens of under represented countries access to US citizenship. Every year 50,000 Green Cards are issued to people who take part in the program and have no other means of gaining US citizenship.
Naturalization
The process of naturalization is different to that of immigration and while naturalized Americans get a naturalization certificate it is not exactly the same as a Green Card although it offers basically the same rights and privileges. Naturalization is a long administrative process culminating in a final interview and it is advisable to have a lawyer guide you through each step before, during and after the interview. If you have been a permanent resident in the US for the last 5 years on a student or working Visa, this may be a viable option for you.
While Trump’s tenure as President may not be known for its welcoming approach to new immigrants, there’s still a fair shake for people of skill and determination go grab their own slice of the American dream.
