I'm Proud to be an American

Citizen, that is. My husband however, is not one. No, he's not in the country illegally, he's a legal alien resident, which means he came here the right way. We're in the process right now of getting his citizenship. We attempted to do this while he was in Iraq, but they sent him on his way with a stack of paperwork. However, today he actually sat and spoke to someone who gave him the correct paperwork & advice on filling it out -- which by the way I will be filling out since I have 'pretty handwriting'. He was also told that he would still have to take the Citizenship Test, which he will have to travel to Memphis to take. He was told he would be asked 5-10 questions by a person, but someone told him that when they took the 'test', the examiner asked him how long he had been serving and didn't even ask him test questions, he was approved immediately. We're hoping that the case will be similar with my husband, as you have to answer all questions correctly. After nearly eight years of service, I hope that make up for his lack of remembering stuff.

It's not that he is uneducated or doesn't know anything about America, afterall he's been living here for 18 years. It's just that he 1) hasn't been in school for 7 years, and 2) History wasn't his best subject. We took a look at the 100, yes 100, possible citizenship test questions and some of them are absurd! I'm not a betting woman, but I'd put money on it that the majority of Americans could not answer all 100 of those questions correctly. So, needless to say, it will take some quizzing on my part to help prepare him for this, if they do indeed ask him the 5-10 questions.

I'm excited for him though. I'm glad we're finally starting this process up. It will help him with job prospects once he's out of the military and really just in daily life. On a side note, I think that if a LEGAL non-citizen serves in the military for four years, they should automatically be granted citizenship. I understand the paperwork...but seriously, 20 pages of the same information, my hand hurts already :]