“I want to be one of the first ones to congratulate you on becoming a U.S. citizen. Let me see those flags one more time. Fantastic! Fantastic!” declares an official at the oath ceremony.

The naturalization ceremony is the end of a long and hard journey. It takes determination and tenacity to make it all the way from immigrant to United States citizen. The United States is the preferred destination of people looking for a better life.

Many decide to stay, so they apply for a green card -- the permanent residency status. But a green card, it turns out, doesn’t guarantee permanency.

Immigration Attorney, Alma Rosa Nieto says, “A permanent resident can lose his permanent residency. I tell clients that having a Green Card is almost like flying a kite- it could fall and you can lose it at any point in time.”

“One of the reasons you can lose your permanent residency is if you commit a crime. For example, you may have gone to a party, had a little too much to drink, and you’re stopped. As a result, you have a drunk-driving arrest and a conviction. That could hurt you in the future, if you’re a permanent resident, either to get your citizenship or to continue as a permanent resident. However, a United States citizen will never be deported. So, of course, United States citizenship guarantees the right to live in this country indefinitely,” says Nieto.

Reasons for Applying

• Avoid deportation
• A sense of belonging
• Right to Vote
• Government Jobs
• Sponsor Family
• Passport & Travel

That fear of being deported – in itself – is a reason many seek U.S. citizenship.

Many others go through the naturalization process so that they can vote.

Octavio Pescador at the UCLA Center for Community Learning says, “A citizen of a country has the right to elect who governs his or her neighborhood, and his or her city, state, and country. That is a fundamental obligation on the one hand, but also, the right of someone who belongs to a nation state.”

Blanca Vargas Chaplain from the League of United Latin American Citizens, also known as LULAC, says, “When you have the opportunity to vote, you have the opportunity to choose the candidate you want to be elected. That particular candidate is going to be able to represent you adequately, or appropriately, and this particular candidate that you are voting for is going to be accountable for the needs of your community. It’s not only for yourself, as a voter, but for the entire community in the areas that you reside.”

The other reason people give for wanting to become a citizen – they want to remove the stigma of being an outsider.

They say they want to walk shoulder-to-shoulder alongside other U.S. citizens.

“It gives a human being a sense of empowerment and it re-dresses many of the grievances that the countries of origin, directly or indirectly, have cost individuals psychologically. So it gives them a sense of belonging and empowerment. There’s a saying in Spanish that some people use when trying to explain the need to belong, they say they feel, ‘Neither from here nor from there,’” adds Pescador. The fact that they have acquired citizenship gives them the possibility to say, “We belong to a particular country and a particular society.”

Experts tell SaberHacer.com there are other benefits of becoming a U.S. citizen, such as being eligible to apply for any of tens of thousands of government jobs, or jobs that require security clearances.

“Lawful permanent residents cannot be educators. They cannot work in the police force. They cannot work in federal jobs like the post office or in defense jobs. So, these are jobs many times that are very well paid and Latinos have the possibility and the education to infiltrate. However, if they do not have citizenship they may not hold these positions. So this opens up the field of new possibilities,” says Nieto.

And after many newly naturalized U.S. citizens settle into their jobs and into their new lives, they’re eager to share the lifestyle with other family members still living in the other country. Bringing them to the United States is a much easier task for someone who is a U.S. citizen. “As a permanent resident, you are limited. You can only immigrate or give a Green Card to a spouse or to unmarried children. As a United States citizen, you can immigrate your mother, your father, your brothers, your sisters, and your children that are married- including their spouse and their children. So, it opens up a bigger window for people to reunite with family,” adds Nieto.

Finally, United States citizens can apply for a U.S. passport. “It’s very important. Many people in our community want to go back home after they retire. They want to own homes and they want to live back home. As a permanent resident, if they’re out of the United States more than a year, they will lose their Green Card. However, as a United States citizen, they can live back home in Latin America or any part of the world and not fear that they will lose their United States citizenship. Indeed, becoming a citizen can be a daunting task, but almost every new citizen agrees that it was worth the effort – no matter how long it might have taken,” emphasizes Nieto.