Torvalds Becomes an American Citizen

netbuzz writes "Having brought his open-source work and family to the United States from Finland some time ago, Linus Torvalds has marked an important personal milestone by attaining US citizenship. A casual remark on the Linux kernel mailing list about registering to vote led to the community being in on the news. Torvalds has acknowledged being a bit of a procrastinator on this move, writing in a 2008 blog post: 'Yeah, yeah, we should probably have done the citizenship thing a long time ago, since we've been here long enough (and two of the kids are US citizens by virtue of being born here), but anybody who has had dealings with the INS will likely want to avoid any more of them, and maybe things have gotten better with a new name and changes, but nothing has really made me feel like I really need that paperwork headache again.' In that post he also expresses dislike for the American style of politics in which he will now be able to participate directly."

Comments

Re:immigration category

[Rene S. Hollan]

H1B is a non-immigrant visa, good for three years, renewable for another three, and then year over year as long as a permanent residency adjustment of status petition has not yet been adjudicated.

To become a naturalized citizen, one must be a lawful permanent resident first, for five years. To become a lawful permanent resident, requires an immigrant visa, basically, a "Green Card". To get a Green Card, that is not based on family sponsorship, but employment sponsorship, one is placed into several prioritized categories:

EB-1: Persons of National Interest or Extraordinary Ability (Nobel prize winners, etc.);

EB-2: Persons with Advanced Degrees;

EB-3: Skilled Workers;

EB-4: Special Immigrants;

EB-5: Visa Investors ($1M and creating ten American jobs, or $500k and investing in a rural area paying 150% of the national wage).