Citizenship Requirements for South African Citizens

D

Dietrich

New Member
Hello friends,

I am a 21 year-old South-African citizen. I have lived in South Africa all my life but wish to become an American citizen. I do not know what is required of me and how to make this dream happen. I came here because of the vast knowledge contained in these forums and I hope that you can help/advise me. Any helpful input will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
 
If either of your parents was a U.S. citizen at the time of your birth, you would investigate if that parent was qualified to transmit USC to a child.

Otherwise you have to immigrate first and then apply for naturalization some years later.
 
Hi BigJoe,

My parents are both South African citizens, and so are my grandparents. What are the steps to follow to immigrate without citizenship and what are the requirements?
 
Most people in the world have no chance to immigrate to the US. The US doesn't have a points system like Canada or Australia where you can almost automatically qualify to immigrate based on having a set of personal, educational and professional attributes that add up to a certain number of points.

To immigrate to the US, you need to have a close US-based relative (sibling, parent, spouse, or adult child) sponsor you, or have skills that would qualify you for an employment-based green card (and you need a company to sponsor you, in most cases), or be a refugee or asylee fleeing persecution by your country and hope that you can convince the US govt. of the severity of your situation. Or enter the Diversity Lottery (the next round accepts applications this October), of which only 50,000 green cards per year are granted out of the millions who apply. Or meet one of the more remote exceptions such as certain provisions for children of diplomats.

Depending on the category through which you immigrate, the green card process can take anywhere from a few months to more than a decade, due to annual quotas. Then after being granted the green card, you must live in the US for another 5 years* to qualify for US citizenship.


*there are exceptions that allow for faster than 5 years, such as marriage to a US citizen or military service.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thank you Jackolantern for your reply.

To summarise, you're saying that the only way to immigrate to the USA is:

1. Have a close relative sponsor you
2. Be a refugee or seek asylum
3. Enter and win the lottery
4. Get an employer to sponsor you

In my case:

1. I do not have any relatives in the USA - we are all South Africans.
2. I cannot seek asylum or claim to be a refugee - a fellow South African was granted refugee status in Canada due to the genocide and racially motivated policies currently taking place in South Africa. He was however sent back to South Africa when the South African authorities intervened (obviously in an attempt to stop others following suit).
3. Trying to win the lottery is unfeasible and unrealistic.

Thus the only option available to me according to you is to get an American company to sponsor me. Do you perhaps know where I can find a list of sough-after qualifications and what the procedure involves?

There must be other ways of doing this. I have heard of countless people moving to the United States, and they were definitely not all refugees or relatives of American citizens.
 
Dietrich said:
There must be other ways of doing this. I have heard of countless people moving to the United States, and they were definitely not all refugees or relatives of American citizens.
Click to expand...

How well do you know those "countless people"? Most of them probably did have US relatives, but you just didn't know it. The vast majority of legal immigration to the US is family-based.

And how many of them immigrated permanently and legally? Some of those "countless" individuals probably are in the US only temporarily with a student visa, and some others entered with a tourist visa and overstayed.

It is very difficult to get an employer to sponsor you directly from outside the US. A more typical path to employment-based immigration is to first study in the US with a student visa, then upon graduation get hired by a US employer with a temporary work visa such as H1B, then convince the employer to sponsor the green card. And then you have to hope they don't lay you off before you reach the final stage of the process, otherwise you have to leave the US or restart the green card process from scratch with another company.

Another path is to work for a multinational corporation that has branches in the US, and get them to transfer you to the US. That's how I got my first work visa. Then I changed jobs to another company that sponsored my green card.

If you have "extraordinary ability" in the arts, sciences, business, or sport you can self-sponsor your employment-based green card. That's how many famous actors and singers, top scientists, world class athletes, and big businesspeople have immigrated.

I forgot to mention the EB5 investor green card, which is another route for self-sponsored employment-based immigration. It requires you to invest at least US$1 million ($500K in certain designated rural or underserved areas) in a business and create at least 10 US jobs.

But the bottom line is that for most people there is no realistic avenue to immigrate to the US. If it were realistic for most people, the US population would be like India or China. Legal immigration to the US is only about 1 million per year.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Jackolantern,

Thank you very much for your response - It includes exactly the type of information I was looking for. Do you mind telling me what your profession is? I am sure you worked very hard to get to where you are now. How has your experience been so far? It seems like the government takes care of its people relatively well there.
 
Most of people I know came as students or through the cultural exchange programs(especially germans) and eventually married legitimately, or got work after school.......
 
Dietrich said:
It seems like the government takes care of its people relatively well there.
Click to expand...

Where did you get that false impression? Perhaps the US govt. provides better benefits than South Africa, but US government benefits are among the worst when compared to other countries of comparable wealth.
 
I am not sure what you mean with the goverment take care of you? on what? health? you must have health insurance pay by you must employers offers them but is not for free neither cheap. Job? you and only you are responsible to prepare yourself in life with a good education, finish school with good grades and get a job. And if you deal with US immigration you better know the rules from top to bottom. A mistake today can come in later. Even if it's something like an arrest or detention during a college party. You are never going to be measure with the same rule as a citizen until basically you get naturalized.


As Jackolartern has stated, many people seem to believe that people from other countries "just go" to the US and find a job. There are many who simply overstayed and work illegaly. The immigration rules are changing and many companies now must use E Verify so the Department of Homeland Security checks that everybody is authorized to work. Immigration rules are changing all the time, and lately are more to tight things up.

It is just not as easy as people may think. Is not that one day you wake up and you would like to move to the US, well there are rules to follow and requirements...and if you don't fit in any of those requirements then, legally speaking, you can't immigrate as you wish.

Not to diminish your wishes to immigrate, but each country puts their own rules. You can visit the main US immigration portal that is uscis.gov there you can find how you can immigrate if you wish (explained originally before here) but with more details.

Good luck,
 
Dietrich said:
It seems like the government takes care of its people relatively well there.
Click to expand...

If that is the assumption you are making, I suggest you first learn more about this country. Do not land up (legally and even illegally) hoping for a fantastic life but then you wish you never came. I am not saying things are bad, but it is good to have the right perspective and know the potential at the higher end and the troubles at the lower end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top