People Immigrant to United States of America - Essay Example

People Immigrant to United s of America Immigrants are the people who move into a country legally or illegally. Since time immemorial, the United States of America is widely known as the land of opportunities in many developing countries. This is because of its diverse resources, diplomacy, and equality. However, the undocumented immigrants in the United States are aliens who got to America through unlawful means or stayed past their termination date of visa. The America government observes that Immigrants are an essential aspect in strengthening the American economy.

This is because the immigrants have ventured in businesses, labor force, and even in leadership positions. Thus, the America government has initiated laws, controls, mechanisms, and modes of immigrating to America. These conditions are not universal in all countries. One will need a visa or a green card to enter the United States of America. Many organizations like immigration direct and American embassies have been facilitating the immigration to America. However, the question whether it is easy to migrate to America is debatable.

This paper will thus argue on how easy and how hard it is to get a green card to the US. Obtaining a green card is much easier than it was years ago. In 1968, the American government enacted a law that eliminated earlier discrimination based on residence, sex, race, and place of birth. The legislation also abolished restrictions on Oriental US immigration. This opened the door to all who wished to immigrate to the US. The centralization of all citizenship, immigration and naturalization issues to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was a good idea.

This enables application of green cards at a central point with ease. Additionally, ICE has devised many ways of applying for green card. A relative can sponsor you to get a green card, a qualifying US employer can also sponsor a green card, and one directly qualifies for a green card upon marrying a US citizen (Guerin and Press 15). A refugee can also apply for green card after having stayed in the US for one year. The process of applying for a green card is nowadays easy in that one can apply for a green card online.

It is also easy to renew a green card once it expires or even remove the conditions attached to a conditional green card. In fact, the green card status is changeable to permanent residence upon request (Immigration direct Web). However, it has realistically proved to be very hard to immigrate to America. The American government has put restriction to qualifying for an American visa or green card. The US government has even gone ahead to forbid individuals from entering its territory. In 1952, the America enacted an Act that imposed limits of immigration to US.

These were on a per-country basis and gave priority to people with skills and family members. This made it hard for non-citizens without family members in America or no skills to access America. The congress recommends stringent measures in qualifying for a green card. For an immigrant to qualify for any green card, he must prove his inadmissibility. This includes no criminal record, be in the US legally, no visa frauds, and no communicable diseases. Not many immigrants have been able to prove their inadmissibility hence the denial of green cards (Bray et.al 34). For one to qualify for a green card, you must be a family member to a US citizen who is a permanent resident, qualify for a specialized job in the US, be a refugee or a religious worker, or demonstrate your ability to invest lots of capital in US companies.

It may be hard to satisfy any of these conditions and hence the denial of the green card. In fact, for one to qualify for marriage-based green card, one must prove the legality of the marriage, must be marriage to an opposite sex and the spouse can only marry once. Absence of such documents from the mother country, a green card on marriage-basis is not applicable. Additionally, you must have met the citizen two years earlier, and you must provide documents proving the existence of an intimate relationship.

The long wait continues even after proving the existence of a marriage (Doskow and Marcia 20-24). In addition, when your spouse is already is the US the process gets more complicated. A person in already in the US is not entitled to a fiance green card. Similarly, the location where an immigrant can apply for a green card depends on whether the immigrant is in the US already and whether he is there legally, or whom they are marrying. Additionally, the process of applying for one is long and even if you qualify, the processing takes years.

These limitations make it hard for immigrants to obtain green cards in the U.S. Although America has the greatest number of immigrants in the world, the total number of immigrants per year is decreasing. The ratio of US immigration relative to the population is very small (US immigration Web). In fact, the number of immigrants living in the United States in 2007, 2008, and 2009, was only constant (Batalova and Terrazas Web). In conclusion, I support the measures put by the US government in regard to immigration though some of the rules are so stiff.

Works Cited Batalova, Jeanne and Terrazas, Aaron Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States Migration information, 2010 Web 27, February 2012. Bray, Ilona et.al. How to Get a Green Card London: Nolo, 2010. Print. Doskow, Emily and Stewart, Marcia The Legal Answer Book for Families. London: Nolo, 2011. Print. Guerin, Lisa and Press, Nolo Nolo’s Guide to California law London: Nolo, 2011. Print. Immigration Direct. Green cards Immigration direct, 2012.

Web 27, February 2012. US immigration. US immigration facts Rapid immigration, 2012 Web 27, February 2012 rmmigration .