Think you're Polish (and live in the USA)?

Harry is Polish since he lives in Poland.

of course he is if you follow his logic.

There should be a contest like So You Think You Are Polish :)

The country as an institution or certain people in it? I certainly wouldn't fight for something as abstract as a nation-state. If that means I don't deserve a passport, it means that you don't either: for mean years the UK was under attack from the IRA, did you take up arms to defend it? And did you sign up for the army the day the Falkland islands were invaded? Me neither.


I don't consider myself any nationality: I'm just me. I won't categorise or identify myself with other people just because we were born in the same nation or whatever. Do you identify yourself with Charles Bronson: you are both Welsh.


I am using a British passport at the moment but to me it really is just a piece of paper, one that can be useful at times and annoying at others.


No, I would be Polish if I asked Poland if I could become Polish and my application to become Polish was accepted. If I did apply, I would be accepted but at present I have no plans whatsoever to apply.

i dont really see many downsides to having a British passport

Some people confuse two things - a nation and a fatherland.

As Henryk Elzenberg once wrote (more or less, I quote from memory):

"Nation consists of several millions of average entities, with a percentage of fools, scoundrels,
idiots; a mass susceptible to manipulation of all kinds, capable of evil, crime, mass psychosis.
Loving entire nation is nonsensical; you can only love - without being blinded by it - some
certain, usually modest, virtues of it, and certain of its representatives.
However, with nation there is connected a fatherland, and that's a completely different
matter. Fatherland is an ideal entity, something that was drawn from non-existence by the best
of the best in a given nation, something that floats above people, a great symbol, great fire
at which all the longings and aspirations are gathered. You can quite easily alienate somebody
from his nation, but you can't seriously try to deprive man of his fatherland."

That's why, in my opinion, there's nothing wrong in being proud of one's fatherland (in the
sense described by Elzenberg.)

It would certainly be easier to live in Poland with a Polish passport.

I'm still pretty certain that I'll stop using a British passport if/when they start fingerprinting people as part of the application process.

Depends on where you are travelling e.g. extremists are likely to hold you accountable in some shape or form as being an ally of the US. Britain could be seen as hostile in its own right by some. More likely to be kidnap victim etc.

Whilst usually nothing to be alarmed about for most people,there are certainly less, shall we say, provocative passports to hold in Europe.

I keep hearing about that, but my mother is getting both US SS and Polish retirement without many problems.


you can be quite amusing


oh, it is about advantage. In my heart we should not need any passports at all.

At this point, it would take an emmigration lawyer to restart my US citizenship proceedings. So, for me to hand some money to a shyster, advantages would have to be pretty clear.

Are you on the wanted list then harry?

that reminds me: I was freakin' fingerprinted at the airport getting into US two weeks ago! WTF??

Nothing new there. Since 9/11 as far as I know.

It's the reason I have not visited the states since, and won't be doing so again - unless this changes.

Purely on principle by the way - not that I have "a past" or anything like that : )

hmm.. I have popped in and out at least a dozen times since, this was the first fingerprint incident. They took face photos, too! Probably for their new face recognition project.

Plus, they went through my luggage with a fine toothcomb, even unfolding old tissues in my dirty laundry pockets and sh!t.
Musta been on high alert for Polish terrorists with sniffles ;)

Which brings the whole circle neatly back around again...

Are you a US citizen? : )

If so, maybe that's why you didn't attract as much security before.

no, nothing's changed on my end.

Slow down! They first gotta check you out, personally i think your application would have been revoked.

Just googled it - fingerprinting applies only to "visitors" so as (I assume) a permanent legal resident, your security risk would be categorised lower?

Although doesn't explain you being fingerprinted now. Maybe just some over zealous tit.

Thanks, Teffle. Yes, I am a permanent legal resident, but somewhere, in the annals of some US database, my file is growing steadily... I'm sure my facebook account is linked in by now. ;)

Depends which one you're talking about.


I've already passed all the checks a number of times thanks.

Wow, what a crazy thread :-)
I think that someone mixed ethnic origin with citizenship (which because of Poland homogeneity tends to be treated as the same thing when in fact it isn't)...

Well those are not clear concepts but the closest concept to me is:
-> citizenship it is a role in a social deal between the rulers and society, close to the contract, you sign up, you get the rights of society member, but you can sign off and make new deal in another society if they need you :-)

-> ethinc origin - in the biggest picture blood and genes but also cultural genes... anyway here is the part when some betrayal accusations can be applied... On the other hand I didn't come by on concept in Polish culture of condemning emigration (with exception of war or other emergency states...)

Why is that? I think you can file your application at any time and any number of years after you received your green card, and it's quite speedy these days. The application is quite long, but nothing what you couldn't do by yourself.

You wouldn't be Polish ethnicity. You would British-Polish.

How is that amusing? Voting should be mandatory. Those who do not vote because they do not want to or because they do not want to become citizens are nothing else than societal leaches. Not amusing at all.


That's pretty common in many places around the world and will become even more common. Everytime I fly into Japan, Korea and lately Singapore you stand in front of a tiny camera and a table with two glass covered areas that are for your finger prints. You show up, put your fingers on the glass table, smile and keep going.


Marynka is right. Unless you have committed a felony, as long as you have a green card applying for your citizenship is fairly easy. You don't need an immigration attorney although it'd probably make things easier for you. You fill out the paper work, get it notarized at the Post Office for example and wait. Eventually you'll have an "interview" where they'll ask some basic civics questions and then they schedule your swear in ceremony. Nothing to it inless you have some major skeletons in your closet.

PS. Six months ago I was invited to my friend's mom's swear in ceremony. She was born and raised in the UK but had lived in the US for some 30 years as a permanent resident (green card holder). She finally decided to become a US citizen and had no problems at all even though it'd been some 30 years since she became a permanent resident.

again, so what are the advantages? And don't say so I can vote, 'cause that just makes me laugh.


Because if your papers are lost, you cannot reapply until they try to find out what happened to the last application. And they can fvck with you like that for years, or untill you pay a lawyer.

My mother has lived in the US for over 30 years and never saw a need. She still votes back home. It just depends on if you feel the need to vote in the US.

1.No more dealing with the USCIS
2.You get to vote and can get elected
3.you are eligible for certain government jobs and benefits.
( you can get a government job without US citizenship, although citizens will be given first preference.)
4.As a US citizen you can stay out of the country as long as you like
5.will not be deported if committed certain crimes
6.more options to make a petition of a relative
7.you can get a US passport (which let you visit a lot of countries without visa)
8. if you live out of US, you can enter wherever you want
9.if you paid the SS and have the credits required to get it, you can get the money in any country.

wikilaw3k.org/forum/Immigration/What-is-the-advantage-of-US-citizenship-compare-to-permanent-residency-Greencard-448107.htm

You can vote for the Presidential candidates but you can never become President if you were not born in the US.

Well, if voting makes you laugh then you probably shouldn't become a US citizen. I know it's a joke to you but it is important to me. Too many deadbeats in America already...

PS. You've gotten some bad legal advice. People lose their green cards all the time and it's not that complicated to apply for a replacement followed by a citizenship application.

skysoulmate


so predictable.. I was giving you too much credit.


that one falls on the con side. I'm afraid I can be bought ;)

If it came out as me being rude than I apologize, wasn't my intention even though rereading it now I can say I sounded pretty mean.

However voting is important to me, it's a core value to me, you know some things I just believe in and it's hard for me to discuss something when there's no mutual groud to stand on. I didn't join the military for the money you know. Either way, yes being able to vote is the most important aspect of being a citizen to me. So basically I butted out of this discussion not to be mean but because we don't have the same set of values on this issue, that's all I meant by it.