The United States of America is the superpower and the best country in the world to live in. A lot of people from all over are interested in getting citizenship in America. The same is the case with the Indian nationals. They are also interested in getting a green card i.e US citizenship to enjoy various benefits of being a USA citizen.
How to Get USA Citizenship
Basically, there are 4 different ways to get USA citizenship for Indian nationals. Though it is easy to enter the USA for Indians by getting their US Visa Online that is also called ESTA or eTA. In this article, you will learn how to get USA citizenship for Indian nationals.
The 4 ways of getting citizenship in the USA are listed below:
- Citizenship through Birth
- Citizenship through Acquisition
- US Citizenship through Derivation
- Citizenship through Naturalization
Citizenship through Birth
Most of the Indians who love to visit America, want their baby to be born in the United States. The reason is that a baby born in the United States will become a US citizen immediately. So when your child is a US citizen, you can easily travel to the US on a visit visa or other types of visa.
But keep in mind that if you don’t have US citizenship and your child is born in the US, you will not get a green card. Your child will be able to invite you or sponsor you after the age of 21.
People knew that they will not get US citizenship when their baby was born in the United States. Even then they prefer to give birth to their child in the United States because the baby will have all the rights of a US citizen and later on, parents can also apply for the green card.
If you are interested to move to Canada as a US citizen, then check these requirements for Canadian citizenship.
Citizenship through Acquisition
When both parents are US citizens and they gave birth to their child outside the USA, they need to immediately report this to the nearest US embassy. The embassy will issue a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) that will be considered as an official document for the child to claim USA citizenship.
Getting USA citizenship through Acquisition is somehow complicated. There are many changes made in this law during the last few years. So, it is good if you search for the latest citizenship laws of the USA before you gave birth to your child abroad.
Both US citizens should be legally married as well at the time of childbirth. If they are not legal husband and wife, there will be more complications in acquiring citizenship.
Citizenship through Derivation
If the parents have US green card or US citizenship, then the child can automatically drive US citizenship provided that he is under 18 years of age. In this case, parents should have permanent residence (PR) status as well.
A child who is foreign-born can derive the US citizen if he meets the following criteria:
- The applicant child must have USA permanent residence (PR) status, i.e “green card” holder.
- Both or at least one parent must be a Citizen of the United States.
- The child must be living in the US under the custody of a legal US citizen parent or guardian.
When an Indian child meets the above criteria, he is good to drive US citizenship. Note that, one can’t derive US citizenship from step-parents.
Citizenship through Naturalization
Naturalization is a category that is widely used by many Indians to get USA citizenship. If you are a person who is not USA-born and have no parents or baby with US citizenship, then Naturalization is the only option for you.
With this category, you voluntarily decide to become a USA citizen. Many people are willing to know how to get USA citizenship for Indian nationals through the naturalization process. Only those who are 18 years of age or above can apply for USA citizenship.
But before they can apply, they need to meet some eligibility criteria. First of all, they need to fill the USA visa application because they need to live there to get permanent residence (PR) status.
After that, they need to meet any of the following criteria to get USA citizenship:
- 5 Years of physical living in the United States as a permanent resident of the USA.
- Those who have US citizen spouses should have 3 years of a permanent resident.
- Qualifying service in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.
Permanent residents who fulfill the above criteria may apply for USA citizenship. If you need more details about this, you can ask us using the comment section below.
My name is Rashid Nawaz. I have completed my degree in Mass Communication from South Asia University, Lahore, Pakistan. I have started my career as a News reporter and editor from the local Newspaper and now I am writing for different News websites, The Daily News Times is one of those great sites.
