Access To Citizenship
Usually permanent residents may apply for citizenship by naturalisation after a period of residency in the country concerned. Dual citizenship may or may not be permitted.
In many nations an application for naturalisation can be denied on character grounds, sometimes allowing people to reside in the country but not become citizens. In the United States the residency requirements for citizenship are normally five years, even though permanent residents who have been married to a US citizen for three years or more may apply in three years. Those who have served in the armed forces may qualify for an expedited process allowing citizenship after only one year, or even without any residence requirement.
Read more about this topic: Permanent Residency
Famous quotes containing the words access to, access and/or citizenship:
“Whilst the rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue of their access to reason, their rights in property are very unequal. One man owns his clothes, and another owns a country.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Whilst the rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue of their access to reason, their rights in property are very unequal. One man owns his clothes, and another owns a country.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills.”
—O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] (1862–1910)