• The Statue of Liberty has always represented the willingness of the United States to welcome legal immigrants.statue of liberty image by Pix by Marti from Fotolia.com
  
  Many people around the world want to live and work in the United States. The United States has strict laws governing immigration into the country, and legal immigrants must conform to requirements set out in various legal statutes. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is responsible for enforcing the Immigration and Nationality Act, which was created in 1952 and has been updated extensively since.
  
  

Married Persons

• If a person is married to a U.S. citizen, it is possible for that person to be granted U.S. citizenship. Section 319 of the Immigration and Nationality Act states that such an applicant must have resided in the United States for three years immediately prior to the application and during that time must have been living in a condition of marriage with the spouse, who must have been a U.S. citizen for the whole of those three years and must have been physically present in the United States for at least half of those three years. Exceptions to the physical presence provision may be waived in the case of U.S. citizens employed by the U.S. government and who are regularly stationed abroad during the course of that employment.
  
  

Loss of Nationality

• The U.S. government reserves the right to revoke citizenship from citizens, even those who are citizens by birth. The circumstances which might lead to a citizen losing U.S. citizenship are laid out in Section 349 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Any U.S. citizen who, after the age of 18, applies to become, or does become, a citizen of another country can lose U.S. citizenship. This also applies to U.S. citizens who serve in the armed forces of another country that is at war with the United States. Acts of treason by a U.S. citizen will also result in loss of citizenship under this provision of the act.
  
  

Oath of Renunciation and Allegiance

• Before an immigrant can be naturalized as a U.S. citizen after an application, the Immigration and Nationality Act states that the applicant must take an oath in a public ceremony. The oath requires the applicant to support the Constitution of the United States and to support the Constitution against all foreign and domestic enemies. The applicant must also swear to renounce allegiance to any other country and to bear arms in U.S. service if lawfully required to do so. Applicants holding hereditary titles in other countries must also renounce those titles under oath.