US Citizenship

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he plans to offer a gold card visa with a path to citizenship for USD5 million, replacing a 35-year-old visa for investors. "They'll be wealthy and they'll be successful, and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people, and we think it's going to be extremely successful, Trump said in the Oval Office. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump Gold Card would replace EB-5 visas in two weeks. EB-5s were created by Congress in 1990 to generate foreign investment and are available to people who spend about USD1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people. Lutnick said the gold card actually a green card, or permanent legal residency would raise the price of admission for investors and do away with fraud and nonsense that he said characterize the EB-5 program. Like other green cards, it would include a path to citizenship. About 8,000 people obtained investor visas in the 12-month .

President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday said it's appealing a Maryland federal judge's ruling blocking the president's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for people whose parents are not legally in the country. In a brief filing, the administration's attorneys said they were appealing to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. It's the second such appeal the administration has sought since Trump's executive order was blocked in court. The government's appeal stems from US District Judge Deborah Boardman's grant of a preliminary injunction last week in a case brought by immigrant rights groups and expectant mothers in Maryland. Boardman said at the time her court would not become the first in the country to endorse the president's order, calling citizenship a precious right granted by the Constitution's 14th Amendment. Tuesday's appeal is the latest volley over the president's birthright citizenship order, which has generated at least nine lawsuits nationwide,

Donald Trump criticised the current US immigration policy, stating that unqualified individuals and their children were benefiting from a system that was never meant for them

A group of Republican Senators has introduced a bill in the US Senate to restrict birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants and non-immigrants on temporary visas. According to Senators Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Katie Britt, who introduced the bill, the exploitation of birthright citizenship is a major pull factor for illegal immigration and a weakness for national security. The US is one of only 33 countries in the world with no restrictions on birthright citizenship, they said. The legislative move comes after an executive order on the matter, signed by President Donald Trump on the first day of his presidency, has been blocked by a federal judge in Washington state. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that in 2023, there were 2,25,000 to 2,50,000 births to illegal immigrants, amounting to close to seven per cent of births in the US. It is long overdue for the United States to change its policy on birthright citizenship because it is being abused in

A powerful US lawmaker has criticised the policy affecting children of H-1B visa holders who "age out" their immigration status upon turning 21. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. Children of H-1B visa holders who turn 21 before their parent secures a Green Card can lose their dependent status and age out of the ability to obtain a permanent resident card. A Green Card allows a non-US citizen to live and work permanently in America. The extensive Green Card backlogs for high-skilled workers mean that H-1B visa holders must wait decades and even centuries before a Green Card is available to them, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, senior Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, said during a Congressional hearing on restoring ..

Current laws allow almost everyone born in US to become an American citizen automatically, called 'birthright citizenship' and is based on the idea of jus soli, which means 'right of the soil' in Lati

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship regardless of the parents' immigration status. US District Judge John C. Coughenour ruled in the case brought by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, which argue the 14th Amendment and Supreme Court case law have cemented birthright citizenship. The case is one of five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and a number of immigrants rights groups across the country. The suits include personal testimonies from attorneys general who are US citizens by birthright, and names pregnant women who are afraid their children won't become US citizens. Signed by Trump on Inauguration Day, the order is slated to take effect on February 19. It could impact hundreds of thousands of people born in the country, according to one of the lawsuits. In 2022, there were about 255,000 births of citizen children to mothers living in the coun

Trump erroneously said the United States is the only country that offers birthright citizenship. In fact, more than 30 countries do, including Canada, Mexico

The change, set to take effect in 30 days, would upend more than a century of US policy and court interpretations of the US Constitution

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end birthright citizenship as soon as he gets into office to make good on campaign promises aiming to restrict immigration and redefining what it means to be American. But any efforts to halt the policy would face steep legal hurdles. Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the United States automatically becomes an American citizen. It's been in place for decades and applies to children born to someone in the country illegally or in the US on a tourist or student visa who plans to return to their home country. It's not the practice of every country, and Trump and his supporters have argued that the system is being abused and that there should be tougher standards for becoming an American citizen. But others say this is a right enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, it would be extremely difficult to overturn and even if it's possible, it's a bad idea. Here's a look at birthright citizenship, what Trump has said about

The pursuit of living an American dream isn't always as shiny as it looks from outside for the Indian immigrants. While navigating the complex US immigration system, it can be fraught with obstacles. The path to permanent residency and citizenship can be long, uncertain, and emotionally taxing, often putting a strain on personal and professional lives. For many people, the H-1B visa is a conundrum. While a popular route for skilled Indian workers, it comes with its own set of challenges as it has a limited availability. The annual cap on H-1B visas means that many qualified applicants are left out due to the lottery system. Ajeet who came to this country realised that the H1B route wasn't meant for him. He calls the US immigration system broken. I call this the broken immigration system. India is such a large country and we are given the same seven per cent quota as any other small country. How is it fair? I figured the H1B system is a lottery system and it won't work for me. He c

A report from The Washington Post suggests that Musk may have worked in the US illegally in the 1990s

The programme, named "Keeping Families Together," aims to remove the barriers that have long plagued noncitizen spouses of US citizens

As registration opened on Monday for an estimated 500,000 spouses of US citizens to gain legal status without having to first leave the country, Karen and Xavier Chavarria had nothing to celebrate. Like many others, Karen left the United States voluntarily in her case, for Nicaragua as the price of living in the country illegally, planning to accumulate enough time away to be able reenter and reunite with her husband, Xavier, on a path to citizenship. Joe Biden's offer of a path to citizenship without having to first leave the country for up to 10 years is one of the biggest presidential orders to ease entry for immigrants since 2012, when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme allowed temporary but renewable stays for hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States as young children with their parents. To be eligible, spouses must have lived in the United States continuously for 10 years as of June 17, 2024, and been married by then. The Biden ...

President Joe Biden is planning to announce a sweeping new policy Tuesday that would lift the threat of deportation for tens of thousands of people married to US citizens, an aggressive election-year action on immigration that had been sought by many Democrats. Biden was hosting a White House event to celebrate an Obama-era directive that offered deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants and will announce the new programme then, according to three people briefed on the White House plans. The policy will allow roughly 490,000 spouses of US citizens an opportunity to apply for a parole in place programme, which would shield them from deportations and offer them work permits if they have lived in the country for at least 10 years, according to two of the people briefed. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the announcement publicly. The White House on Monday declined to comment on the announcement. Families who would

As many as 65,960 Indians officially became US citizens, making India the second-largest source country for new citizens in America after Mexico, according to a latest Congressional report. An estimated 46 million foreign-born persons resided in the United States in 2022, approximately 14 per cent of the total US population of 333 million, according to American Community Survey data from the US Census Bureau. Of these, 24.5 million, about 53 per cent, reported their status as naturalised citizens. In its latest US Naturalisation Policy report of April 15, the independent Congressional Research Service in the fiscal year 2022, 969,380 individuals became naturalised US citizens. Individuals born in Mexico represented the largest number of naturalisations, followed by persons from India, Philippines, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, it said. Based on the latest available data, CRS said in 2022, as many as 128,878, Mexican nationals became American citizens. They were followed by Ind

According to documents obtained by Page Six, the Duke of Sussex listed the US as his "new country/state usually resident," a notable change from his previous ties to the UK

Gangs attacked two upscale neighbourhoods in Haiti's capital in a rampage that left at least a dozen people dead in surrounding areas. Gunmen looted homes in the communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise on Monday, forcing residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police. The neighbourhoods had remained largely peaceful despite a surge in violent gang attacks across Port-au-Prince that began on February 29. An Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of at least 12 men strewn on the streets of Ptionville, located just below the mountainous communities of Laboule and Thomassin. Crowds began gathering around the victims. One was lying face up on the street surrounded by a scattered deck of cards and another found face down inside a pick-up truck known as a "tap-tap" that operates as a taxi. A woman at one of the scenes collapsed and had to be held by others after learning that a relative of hers was killed. "Abuse! This is abuse!" cried out one Haitia