Linus Torvalds became US citizen

[expnsv_hdphns]

I'm sick of all these low-wage foreign workers stealing our precious jobs.

[mike-cardwell]

They only take the jobs you don't want. Like cleaning hotels and hacking kernels.

[sethg]

Now Linus can make the same complaint.

[subbu]

I wish my country was like yours too!

[ceci]

Dude, Linus Torvalds is not a low-wage foreign worker. He has done more to provide you with a job than you have done to get yourself a job.

Opensource softwares have helped the US economy because lots of today's internet giants like Google benefitted from the use of opensource tools. They are paying taxes and employing Americans, ain't they. Linus Torvalds is synomymous with opensource.

Mr America, if i might ask, what have you done to provide a job for yourself, because if you can't even provide a job for yourself, how do you provide for others.

Make yourself competitive, read more and stay away from TV etc and you will soon land a job.

[unwind]

A quick check of Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_nationality_law#Dual_ci...) seems to indicate that he's still a Finn, since Finland permits dual citizenship.

The USA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_nationality_law#D...) seems to permit it, too.

Of course I can't know if Mr Torvalds has done anything in particular to only be a US citizen, but at least that doesn't seem to be the default.

[forinti]

But don't you have to renounce all other allegiances?

Uruguayan law says that even if you renounce your uruguayan citizenship, you still keep it. I think this was put in place exactly because lots of Uruguayans were leaving for the USA (lots of Uruguayans is something like 50).

[nkassis]

That's interesting. I've heard that dual citizenship wasn't exactly liked by the US government. I was under the impression that US citizens that move to other countries had to renounce their US citizenship before becoming citizen of the other country.

[kloncks]

That totally depends on the country. I'm a dual citizen of the United States and Egypt.

Most countries allow dual citizens. Also, I do know that some people have triple citizenships.

[scrrr]

Countries are such an old-school concept somehow.

EDIT: Downvotes? Come on. Especially today, especially in our world of modern technology, physical location is less important than ever before. Where's the sci-fi novel where they abolished countries after they found out we all live on a tiny planet orbiting one of a billion stars?

[kiuyhjk]

Welcome to Europe. 500 years ago it was mostly principalities and city states, tried empires for a while, then we had countries for a few 100 years - now we are trying to abolish them again. It's very much a British (actually English) idea that countries are eternal and inviolate.

IIRC Singapore and a bunch of other high tech SE Asian countries essentially did the same thing. Anybody with a high tech qualification, eg a CS degree, could live and work in any of the club no questions asked.

[cookiecaper]

Government should be as local as possible because it gives the most power to individuals to govern themselves. In the US, theoretically, the feds are not really supposed to be able to do much, though obviously that's not how things have worked out.

[mike-cardwell]

There is more to a country than being a place of work.

[exit]

yes. symptom of a dark age.

[goatforce5]

I'll guess he originally came in on an EB2(C) visa, which is for people of exceptional ability in their field who the US will allow in, regardless of whether or not they have a specific job offer.

This means that, until he became a citizen, he'd immigration status in the US would have been: "exceptional alien".

That's not a status i'd give up easily. :)

[muriithi]

Is there also an expedited path to citizenship for "exceptional alien" ?

I was reading an article today about an Indian nanny who saved the life of a 2 year old Israeli boy during the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Israel honored her by granting her honorary citizenship and temporary residency in Israel.

Link : http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/09/14/israel.mumbai....

[solutionyogi]

This is absolutely incorrect. EB2 Visa (i.e. Employment Based Category 2 Visa) definitely needs employer sponsorship. Also, there is no EB2 (C) category. (C) -> Probably specifies that the particular visa category is 'Current'.

[planckscnst]

Even more interesting, he's interested in the latency work that Desnoyers was working on last week.

[ciupicri]

Now he'll never get rid of US taxes.

[keltex]

Yep. U.S. citizens get the benefit of their worldwide income being taxed.

[tlrobinson]

Probably better for him if he doesn't have to pay taxes to Finland, since they're much higher.

[dctoedt]

Not to be all nationalistic or anything (and it's been said before), but it is interesting that people seem to immigrate to the U.S. far more than they emigrate from it.

[avar]

I think not learning a second language has a lot to do with it. It's easy for most Europeans to pick up another language since they've already mastered a foreign language or two (including English).

But it's much harder for someone from the US to move to central Europe, aside from the UK and some enclaves that speak English.

[jan_g]

That is generally true for all developed countries.

[kiuyhjk]

Perhaps because those in it are unaware that there are any countries out of it?

When good americans die - they go to Paris

[borism]

I know quite a few immigrants who love the standard of living but hate how USA dismembers them of their cultural identity and plan to emigrate back home or to some other place (truth be told not many did so far).

Not to mention hundreds of thousands of americans planning to retire abroad.

[known]

Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_776.html

[ciupicri]

I wonder what happens if you want your U.S. citizenship back (not reversing the renunciation).

[roadnottaken]

This makes me proud :)

[mike-cardwell]

What of exactly?

[ramki]

up voted for irony and funny comments.