Reason.com has this hilarious (not so much for the legal immigrants) flowchart on the various ways legal migration to the United States works, or does not. [Reason.com] (ht: @Patrix on Twitter)
Unless you happen to be a US citizen’s spouse or child, in which case it takes a minimum of 6 years,
- If you’re a Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming or David Beckham, get in line for 6-7 years to become a US citizen
- For spouses and children of lawful residents: 11 to 13 years
- For skilled H1B workers it takes anywhere from 11 to 16 years to become a citizen
- Unskilled workers have no visible methods of becoming a US citizen
Bottom line: Instead of bringing in highly motivated skilled and unskilled workers and allowing them to integrate into the mainstream, the current immigration system either encourages them to follow the route of illegal immigration or keeps them out of the country (reverse brain-drain) or marginalizes the ones already in the country by treating them as second class citizens for the better part of two decades.
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