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Under current law and policy, the answer to this is “you don’t”. There is really only one pathway by which a person whose original entry to the United States was other than at a port of entry can become a US citizen, and that is for that person to leave the United States, remain outside the United States for a period of from three to ten years (depending on how long they were in the United States without lawful status), and then to apply to immigrate back into the United States in some category for which they might be eligible, if any such category exists.There are a few exceptions to this. One of these is the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest (MAVNI). Normally, to enlist in the US Armed Forces one has to be someone lawfully present in the United States with the permanent right to remain: a US citizen, US national, a citizen of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, or Palau, or a US lawful permanent resident. However, if you have certain skills that the US military has deemed vital, the Armed Forces will waive this requirement and allow you to enlist in the Armed Forces anyway. You immediately receive lawful permanent resident status upon doing so, and upon the completion of basic training are entitled to seek expedited naturalization.Another is to be the victim of certain violent crimes, and to agree to testify against your offender. In some cases, this will entitle you to a visa that allows you to remain in the US for the purpose of testifying against your offender and then eventually to seek permanent residency and citizenship. The purpose of this program (the U visa) is to create a means to go after people who deliberately seek to victimize undocumented immigrants because of their fear of involving police due to their fear of being deported. However, this is not something you can plan for; if you collaborate with an offender to be the victim of a sham crime, you will simply be deported.The final one is that some people have successfully obtained consular waivers of the illegal presence bar for people who entered the United States other than a port of entry in the context of an immediate-relative petition for a spouse of a US citizen. Thus, if you marry a US citizen it may be possible for your spouse to sponsor you to immigrate, then for you to briefly leave the US, apply for and receive a waiver of the bar of inadmissibility at a US consulate outside of the US, and then return to the US as a lawful permanent resident as the spouse of a US citizen. However, this approach is risky. While some people have succeeded in this approach, others have failed, leaving them stranded in a foreign country unable to return to the US. Do not attempt this strategy without a viable Plan B in case Plan A fails.Other than these three exceptions and the main process of leaving and staying away for many many years, there is no path to citizenship for those who are unlawfully present due to having entered other than at a port of entry.

Recent electoral results and polling indicate that immigration policy is of critical importance to a large proportion of the U.S. electorate. On that basis, our elected representatives should be engaged in a serious discussion, leading to establishment and refinement of U.S. policy.However, most of what we are reading and listening to are partisan political debates, and not policy discussion. Nearly lost amid the noise and rancor of the current stand-off are the serious, and for too long, unanswered questions regarding what should comprise U.S. immigration policy. The uncertainty surrounding not only what would be written in U.S. law and regulation, but what would be enforced, is the damaging by-product of failures by multiple Presidents and multiple sessions of Congress to responsibly discuss and follow through with implementation and execution of coherent immigration policy. Our mass media, by and large, have only made the situation worse by exacerbating partisan, ad hominem vitriol. Maybe we can do better.This is my outline of necessary principles to be reflected in U.S. immigration policy:1. No non-citizen of the U.S. may enter or remain in the U.S. without the permission of the U.S. people (not the permission or opinion of individuals, but of The People, en masse, expressed through law enacted by our representatives in the legislature and executed by officials of the executive branch).2. Any person who enters or remains in the U.S. without such permission is an “illegal alien” to the U.S.Their “documentation” status is a function of and derived from permission; if they have permission, they have documentation. If they do not have documentation, they do not have permission, and are therefore “illegal aliens.” Calling them anything other than “illegal aliens” does not alter in any way their illegal entry or presence, and serves only to obfuscate fact.3. All persons legally present in the U.S. are either citizens (permanent and irrevocable right to reside), legal residents (permanent and revocable right to reside indefinitely), or guests (temporary and revocable right to be present, not reside). Guests are not legal residents.4. Illegal aliens have no right to remain in the U.S., including no right to remain while petitioning for exceptions or waivers to U.S. policy, once their illegal status is determined.5. Entering or remaining in the U.S. without permission demonstrates a disregard for U.S. law, incompatible with citizenship and legal residency in a nation of laws. Illegal entry or presence of any individual should prejudice any petition or application for permanent residency or naturalized citizenship.6. The U.S. (again, The People, via our Federal government) has sole responsibility and authority to determine which non-U.S. citizens may enter and remain in the U.S. as legal residents, guests, or naturalized U.S. citizens.No private or commercial party, organization, corporation, company, or legal entity, nor government level or official below or outside the U.S. Federal government may legally take any action to subvert or circumvent U.S. law by causing an illegal alien to enter or remain illegally, or by supporting the entrance or sustainment of illegal presence of an illegal alien, or by frustrating or impeding the enforcement of U.S. law.Any non-Federal government individual, organization, body, or entity which undertakes those illegal actions will be subject to prosecution. All levels of government with a right and responsibility to uphold or enforce U.S. law have a positive legal responsibility to support the enforcement of U.S. law. This includes any sworn executive or magistrate. Legislators below the Federal level which deliberately enact law contravening U.S. law may not be held responsible for the execution of that contravening law, but may be prosecuted for aiding and abetting the contravention.7. The U.S. may, for humanitarian reasons, choose to permit some illegal aliens to remain in the U.S.The U.S., having officially vacillated regarding content and enforcement of immigration policy, bears some responsibility for the structural and de facto incentives that have contributed to illegal aliens’ decisions to illegally enter and remain in the U.S. over the last twenty years.This is not and should not be interpreted as a justification for, nor implemented as, a blanket amnesty. In particular, childhood (perhaps those younger than 18, the age of majority, but at least below the age of 16, which is the minimum age of consent in most U.S. states) arrivals should be considered for legal guest status, and their parents considered for legal guest status, until the childhood arrival attains the age of majority.After the age of majority, a childhood arrival previously granted legal guest status should be considered for legal residency (either naturalized citizenship or legal permanent residency), but any illegal alien parent or family member who brought them illegally to the U.S. should be required to return to their country of origin and apply for legal entrance to the U.S. through normal processes. The conduct of those childhood arrivals, while present as guests in the U.S., should heavily influence their consideration for legal residency.8. The U.S. should not allow non-legal residents (including both guests and illegal aliens) to achieve legal residency by means of procreation. No child born of non-legal residents should be automatically granted U.S. citizenship as a birthright.9. The U.S. should admit non-residents on the sole basis of what benefits and what does not harm the U.S. There is room in this definition to admit refugees and persons who promise no immediate economic benefit, but whose likelihood of persecution or harm in their home country is dire – this is in keeping with American cultural values. However, the number and character of those non-citizens admitted must be subject to the same criteria: what benefits and what does not harm the U.S.10. The U.S. should require that all legal guests and residents understand the fundamentals of U.S. law. I.e., “Welcome to the U.S. - here are the basics.” Given the internet, prolific near-real-time translation and translation services, cheap tablets, etc, this should be easy to provide to every non-citizen legally entering the U.S. while they’re still at the point of entry, in both English and their native language. Permission to enter should be contingent on positive affirmation by each individual that they will comply with U.S. law (including leaving when they no longer have permission to stay).11. The U.S. should require, as a requirement of entry, that all legal residents demonstrate understanding of the underpinnings of U.S. law and culture, i.e. basic history, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, including their own responsibility to adhere to law and assimilate. This should include basic proficiency in the English language. Most applicants should demonstrate this proficiency before arrival. In the case of refugees and others granted legal residency due to exigency, they should be required to demonstrate that basic proficiency within some minimum time period of arrival.As a matter of policy, the U.S. should:1. Declare that no illegal alien of any age entering the U.S. after January 1, 2018 will be granted amnesty or legal residency. It is necessary that the U.S. draw this line to disincentivize further illegal immigration.2. Change the Constitution to clarify that no person born in the U.S. without at least one legal resident parent (meaning one parent must be either a citizen or a legal resident; not a guest, and not an illegal alien) will be considered a U.S. citizen by right of birth. This must be adopted to eliminate the incentive of “anchor babies” to illegal entry and presence.3. Eliminate the immigration lottery. Random, arbitrary selection is a great basis for the self-soothing claim of non-discrimination, but it is a poor basis of policy.4. Set legal immigration levels by estimating the number of entrants each year that the U.S. can successfully assimilate, including costs for verification5. Federally mandate E-Verify use for all businesses6. Fine businesses and prosecute employers and individuals who circumvent the law.

Four main ways and for most people it will simply never happen and always remain firmly beyond their reach as an unobtainable goal, as they set you requirements that you can’t meet, so you can never get through the immigration and over the line to the other side of the fence:(1) Marriage to a US citizen. 90% of all people get in via this way, by immediate family reunification. This is also the only realistic way for most people who either do not have a large amount of money to buy themselves in, or are already a Doctor, Professor or a Scientist at home;(2) Having a minimum of $900,000 USD capital for the EB-5 business investment visa;(3) Being an Alien of exceptional and extraordinary ability via the employment based or national interest waiver routes. Non STEM and non IT professionals will find this far more difficult to prove, as the US is mainly only interested in STEM and IT from aboard, as opposed to HR, Banking, Retail or Marketing;(4) Playing and winning in the diversity visa lottery, which is both capped and quota based for certain countries who already have above a certain amount living in the USA. This is a one off random ‘once in a lifetime / blue moon’ 1 in a 1,000,000 chance of success in terms of probability of your winning number being selected.Outside of that, the rules have been purposely devised and structured by Congress to immediately disqualify and exclude up to 99% of people worldwide who cannot fit themselves into the narrowly designed and specific categories. Just like Canada, UK, EU, Australia and New Zealand, they are just looking for the top 1%. With immigration via employment, Canada takes people up to the age of 50, Australia 45, New Zealand 55 and no specific age limit for the US, UK or EU. With these, your respective profession must actually be on the national occupational skills shortage list.It is also just as difficult to get into the USA as it is with Canada, UK, EU, Australia and New Zealand, the others having skills points based tests and the EU blue card. In the USA, someone there must essentially sponsor and bring you in from the outside, unless you can self-apply for the National Interest Waiver petition. You need to be a world leading Professor or Scientist for the NIW.For Canada you need $800,000 CAD; UK £2,000,000 GBP; EU €1,000,000 Euros; Australia $1,800,000 AUD and New Zealand $500,000 NZD to buy your way in on a business investment visa.US company transfers don’t work as they are temporary, not permanent, so one cannot stay there and eventually get the US citizenship and US passport. You must also first get into a company at home, work yourself up to a certain level, and there must also be an actual vacancy available at the time which is still subjected to rigorous labour market testing over why a US citizen or permanent resident alien can’t fill the same role.The same case as well with student visas. They are temporary non immigrant and one must leave the country after the course has been completed. One can try and seek sponsorship from an employer, but again they need to prove to the US Department of Labor why no US citizen or Permanent Resident Alien in any of the 50 states nationwide can be found to perform the same role. Most can’t stay there after their studies unless they marry a local or start a business with the required amount of capital.The rules are also exactly the same and applied in exactly the same way for Canadians, British, Australians, Germans, French, Italians, Dutch and Belgians. No immigration concessions or special treatment at all for people coming from other advanced and developed G7 or G20 elite industrialised economies. The only advantage they get is up to 90 days visa free travel on the Visa Waiver Programme to visit the USA as tourists on holiday and spend their dollars there. People from developing countries however need a tourist visa to go on holiday to the USA, as they think they want to stay there, unlike someone from Denmark or Japan. This is what global passport power and ranking is all ultimately about. The number of countries in the world you can visit as a tourist on holiday visa free.Getting back to the main question here, the reason why for the Green Card?Because if there were any relaxation in the rules, half the world would immediately run there overnight and they would soon have 3 billion people or the same population as China, and it would no longer be the USA. In short, to keep the mass of in-between and average people worldwide out.The Senators in Congress have finely calculated that their current 330 million population balance suits their purposes and national interest best. No more and no less.It has to be that way, will always be that way and can’t be anything else other than that way.No country is looking to get large amounts of people in they don’t need or can’t use as even if we live nowadays in a highly globalised and integrated world, the first responsibility of government is its own people. If they start paying more attention to the interests of citizens of other countries, they will then soon be voted out and out of a job themselves. Protection of the labour market in other words.In addition, they don’t just let you go there to perform the same job you currently have at home. Immigration is purely designed to fill national skills shortage gaps in their own labour market, not for someone working as a Barista in Starbucks Coffee in Moscow, who prefers to do the same job in New York instead for a cultural experience and a jolly. You can’t go to any of them to perform a job from home that their own citizens can also perform.Similarly, it also goes both ways as well, that an American who works as a Senior Bank Teller at Wells Fargo, can’t immigrate on that job to Canada, UK, EU, Australia or New Zealand very easily. NAFTA has certain TN visa provisions between the USA, Canada and Mexico but they are temporary and don’t directly lead to permanent residence, the Green Card, US citizenship and a US passport. They are only also for a certain amount of limited professions and occupations on the list.The days of new world immigration with Lady Liberty welcoming you at Ellis Island, or a warm reception at Angel Island in San Francisco are now largely over and long gone, as all of them are fully self-sufficient in their own needs and requirements. They also don’t just let you in because you either dislike or have certain job difficulties in your own country or prefer theirs to your own, however nice that is for them to hear.For most or 99% of people in the world, the reality is that they can always visit the USA, Canada, UK, EU, Australia and New Zealand as a tourist on holiday to look around, sightsee and spend their money in the shops there, but can never actually live and work there themselves. Living and working there will always remain an impossible and distant dream. Impossible essentially means out the question, unable to be done, not worth considering.Their country, their policy, their system, their criteria and their decision.Do not however be unduly disappointed as getting to none of these countries is in anyway an automatic guarantee of a better life. It is not like how it is portrayed in the films and what happens on a very basic level if one can’t get a job there or indeed work at all?It is always easier to succeed at home or even in a smaller niche destination such as Dubai, Seychelles, Maldives, Mauritius, Hong Kong or Singapore.Finally, the key to finding contentment in life is learning to come to terms with where you are in the world and what you have there, as opposed to imagining how and what things could be like if you were now elsewhere, where you are not allowed to legally live and work. However, if you visit it on a holiday on a regular basis, you can achieve the very best of both worlds.In closing, there are seven billion people and 196 countries in the world. Not every single person in the world can live and work in the USA. That is neither necessary, practical or possible. They can however visit and enjoy it as a tourist instead, whilst making themselves into something special as home, thus getting the very best of what both worlds have to offer.To summarise then, with all of the above mentioned countries including the USA, you either immediately qualify for immigration or not. If not and you still wish to pursue it, as none of them offer retirement visas, you would then have to effectively dedicate the best part of the rest of your life by either retraining from scratch for a completely new profession and career, saving up the necessary amount of capital for an investment visa, trying to find someone from there to marry, or gradually turning yourself into a famous household name first at home (termed in the US as an Alien of extraordinary and exceptional ability) to then be in for a chance and trying to get there later in life in your 50s-90s. Although some people may well say “better late than never,” the sheer amount of decades that it took would in effect nullify the fact that you ever got there in the first place, as all the time has gone. It’s not worth it in my view when you can get the best of both worlds as a tourist instead.Or as they say in Texas: “it ain’t gonna happen ever happen, come now or come high noon.”