The American Immigration Council is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. “Why don’t they just get in line?”
It’s a question often directed toward undocumented immigrants living in the United States, a pointed challenge on why someone didn’t come to the country “the right way.”
The short answer: there is no “line” available for most immigrants. The pathway to American citizenship for the vast majority is long, complex, and financially draining.
The challenges of becoming a U.S. citizen
Both temporary and permanent immigration is generally limited to three different routes: employment, family reunification, or humanitarian protection. Each of these legal avenues is highly regulated, with strict numerical caps and eligibility requirements.
What were once difficult pathways to citizenship, however, have become all but impossible under the second Trump administration. Since taking office for the second time, President Donald Trump has imposed new restrictions on virtually all types of immigration.
From new employment restrictions to terminated humanitarian protections, it has become more difficult for people to come to—and stay—in this country legally. Even many of those here with authorization have since been pushed off the path to citizenship.
The Trump administration has simply stopped processing applications for certain groups of noncitizens, including refugees, asylum seekers, and beneficiaries of parole programs. It seeks to reduce how long a work permit is valid for, increasing the risk that work permits will lapse while stuck in processing backlogs, and to impose astronomical fees each time a noncitizen renews their status.
As the Trump administration makes it harder to access legal immigration avenues, more people will fall through the cracks and be unable to achieve legal status, let alone U.S. citizenship.
How long does it take to become a U.S. citizen?
The amount of time it takes to become a citizen—from eligibility for a green card to naturalization—largely depends on a variety of factors, including a person’s country of birth, their pathway, and processing times at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
For example, an immigrant from Mexico may be forced to wait anywhere between five and 25 years to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. If they’re an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen—like a spouse, parent, or minor child, the total timeline is usually about five to seven years. This includes the wait for a green card, the residency requirement, and naturalization process.
By contrast, most family-based immigration from Mexico involves much longer wait times. Spouses and minor children of legal permanent residents often wait two to four years for their own green card, resulting in a total of eight to 10 years before naturalization.
Adult children and siblings of U.S. citizens face the longest delays, with visa backlogs that can exceed 20 years. When combined with the five-year residency requirement and naturalization process, these applicants may spend 25 years or more before becoming U.S. citizens.
Other immigrants face an impossible wait time just for green cards. According to a 2018 report from the Cato Institute, the processing time for certain high-skilled immigrant workers from India was 150 years.
Those who make it to the citizenship test will now be required to take a more difficult and longer test. On September 17, Citizenship Day, USCIS announced that it is reimplementing changes to the test it made during the previous Trump administration.
But irrespective of where a person comes from or how they plan to get here, the reality is largely the same: the time, money, and resources it takes to become a U.S. citizen is a daunting, years-long endeavor. Families, livelihoods, and the U.S. economy suffer as a result.
Immigration declines, but there’s a way forward
From January to June 2025, the immigrant population in the United States shrunk by over 1 million people. It’s the first time since the 1960s that the U.S. immigrant population has been in decline, caused by deportations and people leaving the country.
Immigration reform may seem like an impossible goal right now. But there are pragmatic ways forward. Providing greater access to work authorization, streamlining the immigration court system, reducing the processing backlog, and expanding legal pathways can help the U.S. bounce back from this decline.
This Citizenship Day, it’s important to recognize our country’s long—and complicated—history as a nation of immigrants. But it’s equally important to look ahead. While most of today’s debates are gridlocked, history shows that immigration reform is still possible. With growing recognition of immigrants’ contributions, there remains a real possibility for progress in the years ahead.
