Job Benefits of U.S. Citizenship: Better Pay & More

Your green card already gives you most of what you need to work in the U.S. without problems. But citizenship fills in the few gaps that are left, so you can be eligible for more jobs, earn higher wages, and have more security in hard times.

Here's the Quick Answer

Becoming a U.S. citizen is tied to a measurable bump in pay, and it opens entire categories of work that are closed to non-citizens: federal government jobs and any role that needs a security clearance. It also tends to make your work more stable when the economy turns down. Here are a few specific things citizenship does for your career:

Citizenship doesn't guarantee you a new job or an automatic higher salary. But research across many job types shows that it clearly helps.

Citizenship Comes With a Measurable Raise

Multiple studies show that becoming a citizen raised individual earnings between 5% and 9%. That's around $3,000 more per year, and it also raised employment and homeownership rates. Some of the studies asked whether that's just because people who achieve citizenship tend to have more education or better English, and they found that at least part of the gain is genuinely caused by becoming a citizen.

Independent estimates land in the same range. As Doug Rand, a longtime immigration-policy expert, sums up the research:

Naturalized citizens earn 8–11% more in annual income than non-naturalized immigrants (controlling for variables such as skills, education, and English language fluency), suggesting that naturalization leads to better-paying jobs by signaling to employers that a given immigrant has strong English language skills and a long-term commitment to live and work in the United States.

Think of it as an average rather than a guarantee, and one that keeps paying off year after year. Over time, this adds up to a lot of extra money.

Many Federal Government Jobs Are Only Open To Citizens

A large share of federal government jobs require their employees to be U.S. citizens. This rule is part of the federal hiring regulations: the "competitive service," which covers the bulk of regular federal hiring, is open only to citizens, with narrow exceptions.

That covers a lot of stable, middle-class work with benefits and a pension behind it:

• The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
• The U.S. Postal Service
• The Social Security Administration
• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
• The Department of Labor, and many more

As a green card holder, it's nearly impossible to get these jobs, no matter how qualified you are. The moment you become a citizen, that changes.

Security-Clearance Roles in Tech and Defense

Almost any job that needs a security clearance requires U.S. citizenship. A security clearance is an official authorization by the U.S. government that someone can be trusted to work with sensitive information. There's no way around that as a green card holder. Once you take your oath and become a citizen, you're eligible just like someone who was born here. The security clearance process doesn't discriminate based on how you got your citizenship. All that matters is that you are a citizen.

Being able to get a security clearance opens up a lot of new job options for you: defense and aerospace, federal contracting, cybersecurity, and the "government cloud" teams at major tech companies. These jobs usually pay very well for their field. As an illustration, cleared roles have advertised salary ranges of roughly $80,000 to $170,000 for Secret-level positions, and higher for Top Secret.

The point isn't the exact number. It's that an entire new level of well-paid, stable work becomes reachable only after you become a citizen.

State and Local Jobs, Licenses, and Getting Unstuck

Federal work and jobs that require a security clearance are the most obvious cases, but they're not the only ones that get easier once you become a citizen.

Some state and local government jobs (certain police, firefighter, and corrections roles) require citizenship. So do some professional licenses, though a number of states (including California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, and New Mexico) have been removing those requirements. Even where jobs are possible for non-citizens, being a citizen is usually the simplest route.

There's another, more general, problem that citizenship helps with. There are roughly two million skilled immigrants in the U.S. who are working jobs that don't fully use their training and skills. For example, picture a nurse trained abroad driving for a rideshare app, or an engineer stocking shelves. The field calls it "brain waste." Citizenship doesn't fix all of it: credential recognition and licensing exams are their own hurdles, and a licensing question is one for that profession's board, not us. But becoming a citizen removes one of the largest non-skill barriers: it settles any question about long-term work authorization, and it makes you eligible for promotion tracks and contracts that you didn't qualify for before.

If you're not sure whether you're even eligible to start, our guide on when you can apply for citizenship walks through the timing.

Starting a Business Becomes Easier

What if your dream isn't a better job, but being your own boss and starting your own business? You don't need to be a citizen to create a company in the U.S., but there are a few ways it helps remove challenges that green card holders can run into.

Citizens Are Safer When the Economy Turns Bad

A raise matters most if you keep the job. Here the data shows something interesting. During the 2008 recession, median earnings for naturalized citizens fell far less than for non-citizens. One analysis found a drop of about 5% for naturalized citizens versus around 19% for non-citizens between 2006 and 2010.

This makes sense. Citizens have more job options, they're harder to replace, and they're not exposed to status-related layoffs. When work gets scarce, that resilience is worth as much as the raise.

What This Could Mean for You

Put the pieces together and the overall picture starts to look really good. A few percent more in average pay, every year. A category of stable federal jobs that opens the day you change from a green card holder to a U.S. citizen. Clearance work you couldn't touch before. And a better cushion when the economy turns.

No two situations are the same, and citizenship isn't a magic key to any one job. But it removes barriers that have nothing to do with how good you are at your work, and that's the part worth weighing.

If you've been telling yourself you'll get to it eventually, it's worth reading why now may be the best time to apply. And if part of what's holding you back is the rest of the decision, our other reasons to apply cover the rest of the picture.