GC v/s Citizenship

[longGC]

This is the most discussed question among GC holders. It may have been discussed in this forum before but if someone can show me link then please do so.

There are pros and cons. Please add your own expereince or knowledge so that people can benefit from this knowledge.

The advantages that I know of are,

1. One can vote.
2. One can apply for some jobs restricted only for Citizens( some Government jobs need Security Clearance Certificate)
3. One can travel to many countries with out a need of a visa. For example, most countries in Europe.
4. One can sponsor nearest relatives such as father, mother, brother, sister, unmarried children for Green Card.
5. One can stay outside US as long as he/she wishes and the entry back to US can not be denied in majority of cases.

Some disadvantages are,

1. You need a visa to travel to India. Godd news is that visa with validity of 10 years is easy to obtain.
2. You can not own property in India. The good news is that India has started giving Dual Citizenship for people of Indian origin.

Please continue the list and correct me where I am wrong.

[rg585]

Originally Posted by longGC

This is the most discussed question among GC holders. It may have been discussed in this forum before but if someone can show me link then please do so.

There are pros and cons. Please add your own expereince or knowledge so that people can benefit from this knowledge.

The advantages that I know of are,

1. One can vote.
2. One can apply for some jobs restricted only for Citizens( some Government jobs need Security Clearance Certificate)
3. One can travel to many countries with out a need of a visa. For example, most countries in Europe.
4. One can sponsor nearest relatives such as father, mother, brother, sister, unmarried children for Green Card.
5. One can stay outside US as long as he/she wishes and the entry back to US can not be denied in majority of cases.

Some disadvantages are,

1. You need a visa to travel to India. Godd news is that visa with validity of 10 years is easy to obtain.
2. You can not own property in India. The good news is that India has started giving Dual Citizenship for people of Indian origin.

Please continue the list and correct me where I am wrong.

1) You can actually own property with the PIO card itself.

2) It is true that you can travel to a lot of countries without a Visa, but in todays day and age, you maybe at risk carrying an American Passport. Once you have Dual-Citizenship, then it is less of a problem, since you can always show your Indian Passport.

[sadiq]

More Pros:

1. You cannot be deported without a lengthy legal process to first strip you of citizenship.
2. You cannot be detained indefinitely without cause. PRs can under security risks. A US Citizen must first be classified as an enemy combatant. (not a totally frivolous point in this day and age).
And my favorite
3. You are finally an American for all that it means. One can only be an Englishman or Irish by birth. But the minute you finish taking the oath, you’re as American as the next person (of course you can’t be president and have to wait the minimum time frame before being eligible for congress, but that’s another story).

Like JoeFs, my country also permits dual citizenship, so I could not think of any cons.

Rgds,
Sadiq

[Pungiwalla]

You will be eligible for social security benifits...if social security is still there.

[prospeed]

As a GC holder - you can still vote for the local elections. Only for state and federal elections (and few others for which you need to be a citizen), you need to be a citizen.

[sadiq]

You cannot vote in local elections (i.e. school board) in all muncipalities. It depends on the area.

Rgds,
sadiq

[daihard]

The biggest issue with becoming a US citizen for me is that I will automatically lose my Japanese citizenship if I do so. Japan is one of the countries that do not recognise dual citizenship.

[hadron]

Actually, if you are a citizen you can collect SS even if you are not in the country. As a PR you can only collect SS if you are in the US (or at least maintain a mailbox here).

[daihard]

Originally Posted by hadron

Actually, if you are a citizen you can collect SS even if you are not in the country. As a PR you can only collect SS if you are in the US (or at least maintain a mailbox here).

Are you sure about that? A friend of my father's is back in Japan after retirement and he's still collecting SS.

[hadron]

It might be different depending on the country.
The US is part of a number of treaties on this matter and depending on the country you are from, it might be different. I know that for the EU space, these are the rules I ran accross when I tried to find out.

[hadron]

I was wrong with the statement that you don't get SS as a non-citizen. BUT, if you are a citizen things are clear-cut, you get the complete rate no matter where you are (spare North Korea). It is definitely worthwhile to read through the regulations at the links you provided, there are situations were it makes a difference whether you are US citizen or not.

> There are also totalization agreements with a lot of countries in
> Europe that allow you to have your time worked here be counted
> for benefits there.

That is true, the times worked here are counted towards eligibility. The payments you made however might not count towards the entitlement in that country.
Cave: There is something called the 'anti-windfall provision' for certain countries. Sweden for example had a traditionally very generous retirement system. If you receive payments from the swedish retirement system and SS at the same time, your SS might be cut.'

Again, there are hordes of lawyers specializing on international retirement law. The sums we are talking about can be substantial. For example, if you have eligibility from your home-country, you might jeopardize it by dropping your citizenship once you assume US citizenship.