Vice Versa

I am now a proud dual Citizen…

Dany Claeys is correspondent in Charlotte, NC for myAmerica.be. About 25 years ago he moved to the United States and since then has acted as a bridge between Belgian and American cultures." He recently became a US citizen.

About 25 years ago we both moved from Belgium to the Unites States to work for a subsidiary of Belgian company. There is a whole alphabet soup of Visa types to enter the US, but most important is to get an “Immigration Visa with the permission to work”. The most frequent Visa used by employers is the L-1 intra company transferee Visa, which allows transfer of employees to their US subsidiary. Since we both worked for other companies in Belgium, we both came to the US under an E-1 Treaty Trader investor Visa.  All these employer sponsored work Visa are relatively simple to obtain, but all of them typically have a restriction in time (3-7 years) and allow you to only work for the company which sponsored the Visa.

Green Card Lottery

So in order to live and work in the US permanently and to be able to work for any company or have your own business, one has to get the infamous Green Card, which in reality is blue on white and classifies you as a “Resident Alien”. Obtaining a green card is a bit more difficult, even if it is company sponsored. However there is also the annual green card lottery. This lottery was instituted for citizens of mostly western countries to balance the immigration waves from non western countries. The lottery process was intriguing as we soon found out that one could apply multiple times and as such during the application time window we mailed tens of applications for each of us… And yes, my always lucky wife won the lottery and since February 88 we both have the coveted green card. (In the mean time the process has been changed to allow only one lottery entry per year…).

Estate Taxes

Though the Green Card pretty much gives you the same plights and rights as a US citizen, we did found out later some annoyances and restrictions. Besides not being allowed to vote for any US, State and Local elections, it also has some negatives on Estate Tax laws. For green carders, the US does not allow the “marital exemption”, meaning that spouses have to pay estate taxes on whatever they inherit from each other! The idea behind is that “widowed foreigners” might move back to their home country and the US might miss out on their estate taxes. In addition the rules for non US citizen residents are also different for gift taxes and state estate taxes in certain states. There are some ways to circumvent this by setting up a QDOT trust (Qualified Domestic Trust), but none of this is necessary when becoming a US citizen.

Green card residence restrictions

While I am the proud owner of a permanent green card, since 9/11 green cards are only issued for 10 year periods anymore. Per my immigration lawyer, these are extendable for a subsequent 10 year period, but it is difficult to find detailed information on conditions for re-qualification. Also several US immigration officers have told me to apply for a new (10 year) green card for conflicting reasons. One told me the permanent green cards will expire (not true per my immigration lawyer), another told me because new green cards have more information on the swipe strip; another told me because my picture is outdated… So far I have been able to hold on to my permanent green card. Another obscure rule is that you can loose your green card if you stay outside of the US for a long period. Again this period is nowhere exactly defined, but generally more than 6 months to a year outside the US triggers questions. Again there are all kind of ways to prove your permanent resident status upon re-entry (tax filing papers, owning property, current US drivers license, etc.), but again all this is not necessary when becoming a US Citizen.  

Royal decree of June 9 of 2007

While it was possible before to become a US citizen (living 5 years on a green card in the US, without any 6 month gap is sufficient), before June 9 of 2007 it would have meant to loose your Belgian citizenship. While we have the intention of staying in the US for a long time, we would like to keep the option open to one day return to Belgium. However on June 9 of 2007, the Belgian Government finally issued a royal decree (Koninklijk Besluit) allowing dual citizenship for most countries, including the US.

Filing the N-400 Naturalization Application Form

As soon as we heard the news, we started to work on filing our applications. The US Government websites are pretty well organized and soon we started to complete the downloaded N-400 form. Completing this form is relatively simple, though it has some interesting questions. My favorite ones are: have you ever been a habitual drunkard and have you ever been a member of the communist party? However Part 7 of this form requires you to document all times outside the USA, since you received your green card, complete with exact leave and return date and each country visited. This is a huge task, as it meant documenting my exactly 211 trips outside the USA over the last 20 years. As it is an impossible task to get this 100% correct, I was advised to mention “to the best of my knowledge” on the form. We filed in July 2007.

Finger printing and Interview

In September 2007, only two months after my application, I received an invitation to present myself for a finger printing session at the local immigration office here in Charlotte, NC. This was a non event and went as smooth as one could expect. I was in and out in a half hour. Once they have your finger prints, a complete background check is done. Finally almost a year after we filed our application, we received our invitation for the infamous US Citizen interview for September 2008, here in Charlotte in the Home Land Security Office building. Since the time between application and date of filing was just under 20 years, I had the pleasure of having to undergo also an English language text, which the friendly lady immigration officer stopped after dictating one sentence and me reading one paragraph. Then on to the US History exam. On the internet, one can find the 100 typically asked questions, so we studied them carefully, as some are very easy (colors of the US flag) and some are tricky (name the original 13 colonies). After 6 questions with correct answers, she stopped, as one has to only have 6 out of 10 correct. After that you have to answer under oath all the questions on the N-400 application, including the one if you are willing to bear arms to defend America. After about spending about one and half hour, I walked out with my form “Approved for US Citizenship”

Taking the Oath

Then the next step is taking the oath, which for some immigrants is a real emotional affair, but in our case, the next step in this 15 month ordeal. Since they take your green card away after the Oath session, and it takes about 10 business days to get your US passport, one has to plan a bit to make sure there is no need for International travel in the 2-3 weeks after the Oath ceremony. Due to some trips to Canada and Belgium, I had to delay the oath ceremony till Oct 28. This means I was too late to do the normal registration procedure, but could still participate in the US Presidential Elections, since North Carolina has early voting, including one stop vote registration and voting. This could be done till Nov 1, so I was able to become a US citizen, register to vote and vote al in the same day! And since the polls in North Carolina are almost even, every vote might count…
So after 15 months, I am now a proud dual Belgian and US Citizen!!