Green Card

No Irish need apply? Ingratiating yourself with US employers

“I have almost completed my master’s studies in Ireland, and once I’m done I would like to emigrate to the U.S.  I’ve familiarized myself with the general process of gaining a green card, but I was wondering how open are American employers to employing Irish people? I understand I need to be sponsored by an employer in America, but would many employers feel it worth the hassle to employ a person requiring sponsorship?”

It's a hard question to answer in general, but it’s safe to say that yes, there are U.S. employers willing to go through the process of sponsorship for foreign employees, even though the recession has taken grip here as well and native U.S. citizens are unemployed.
Yes, as you say the sponsorship process can be a hassle – we’ve done it here for Irish hires in the past, and the process can be quite involved, not to mention expensive between paperwork filing fees and lawyer costs.

You mention sponsorship for a green card, and as you say, you’d need an employer to initiate this process on your behalf.  (There are cases where workers do not need to secure sponsorship to obtain a green card, but the applicant must have what’s known as “extraordinary ability” which definitely doesn’t apply for recent college grads like yourself.)

Citizenship denial - ineligibility due to absence from US

Registry Legalization - Immigration grants for undocumented

“I was reading on a website about a way that immigrants who are undocumented could get legal if they had been in the country since the 1970s.  I didn’t do much research because it seemed ridiculous.  Is this true? Why would such a law exist? It seems like it wouldn’t help anyone.”

A law called registry definitely does exist, and has been on the books since its creation way back in 1929. Registry allows undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to apply for legal status provided they meet certain criteria, chief among them a continuous residency requirement since the registry date on the books.

Those who can avail of registry must have entered the U.S. prior to January 1, 1972 and have lived here ever since. At this point in time, 38 years on, it’s highly doubtful that registry provides a means to permanent legal status for anyone, but 60,000 people have become legal through the mechanism since 1985.

Part 2 -The US Citizenship Quiz - Would you pass the US naturalisation interview?

This is the last of our annual two-part summer feature on the 100 questions U.S. naturalization candidates can be asked during a citizenship interview, as provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

Here are the last 50, with acceptable answers. For more information on naturalization, visit www.uscis.gov.
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READ MORE:
Part 1: Take our US Citizenship Quiz 

Five Irish immigration reform leaders meet with the White House