Citizenship is something many of us take for granted. The rights to vote or to obtain a U.S. passport are guaranteed to us when we are born. We don’t have to work for it like some people do. International students and other immigrants looking to become permanent residents or citizens have to cut through a forest of red tape to apply, and sometimes must spend years playing the waiting game with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Ebenezer Obadare, assistant professor of sociology and a native of Nigeria, works at the University on an H1-B visa, which he received when he arrived in the United States. According to the USCIS Web site, H1-B visas are reserved for those employed in “specialty occupations,” or jobs that require formal education or experience.

Obadare has spent the last year and a half waiting on his petition to become a permanent resident. He likens the process to chasing the bureaucracy. He says that once he submitted his application, he was assigned a registration number that allowed him to monitor the process online. After that, he says that USCIS does numerous background checks, which slow the process down.

“There’s nothing you can do about it,” Obadare says. Any attempts Obadare makes to speed the process up are met with resistance, as well. All phone calls are answered by a machine, which does little to actually answer questions. Obadare says he understands that the United States has become much more security-conscious the past few years, but he can’t help but feel frustrated by the process.

“You wonder why, in a country like this, you couldn’t make the process more humane,” Obadare says.

According to Lauren Reinhold, a Lawrence immigration attorney, Obadare was lucky just to receive an H1-B visa. Reinhold says the U.S. government gives out only 65,000 H1-B visas each year. While that seems like a lot, Reinhold says that in 2007, more than 133,000 applications for H1-B visas were submitted within two days of becoming available. In addition, she says the U.S. government gives out 20,000 other H1-B visas to those with master’s degrees or above, a category that Obadare falls into because he has a Ph. D.

The process doesn’t get any easier after obtaining an H1-B visa. Reinhold says people seeking green cards, which grant the holder lawful permanent residence, face a wait of up to four years, even those with high-level or specialty degrees. After that, there’s the application for full citizenship, which can take another year.

Grant Huang, St. Louis senior, received his citizenship two years ago. He has been a permanent resident of the United States since he came to the country at the age of 12 from Taiwan. Huang says the process took a year, and involved multiple trips back to his hometown of St. Louis—where he started the process—for interviews and fingerprints. Huang says the benefits are worth it. Before gaining citizenship, any international travel required temporary visas that cost him time and money. Now, with his U.S. passport, Huang says international travel is a lot cheaper and easier.

International students interested in remaining in the United States after graduation should start preparing early, Reinhold says. She recommends they seek out an immigration attorney during their freshman year, preferably one who is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Reinhold also suggests that these students get their degrees in technical fields, which would make the H1-B visa application easier. She advises students to seek additional assistance from the International Student & Scholar Services office on campus as well. Students closer to graduation can also choose to continue their educations, or seek employers that will sponsor them for an H1-B visa. Reinhold says the No. 1 thing students must do is be prepared and always have a backup plan.

The path to U.S. citizenship is a long and difficult process for immigrants, and while there isn’t much that can speed it up, working with the right people and planning ahead can make the burden a little easier to bear.