Canadian-born ice dancer Tanith Belbin longs to compete in this year’s Olympics. The catch is that she’d like to compete as an American. Congress has cleared the way for this to happen by passing a bill that would allow her to become an American citizen before the February Olympics in Turino.
Under normal conditions, she would have been eligible to become a citizen in 2007, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., introduced an amendment to shorten the residency requirement for “aliens of extraordinary ability” from five years to three years between getting a green card and being eligible for citizenship.
“Aliens of extraordinary ability” applies only to resident aliens seeking to represent the USA in an “international event” and only to “aliens of extraordinary ability” who began their citizenship efforts before July of 2002.
Belbin, with her American partner Ben Agosto, finished second in the World Championships in Moscow this year. She moved to the United States in 1998.
Another ice dancer, Maxim Zavozin, could also be granted citizenship in time for the Olympics under the same process.
Zavozin emigrated to the United States from Russia in 1998. He and his partner Morgan Matthews are the 2005 World Junior champions and are hoping for one of three ice dancing spots on the American Olympic team.
The last obstacle to citizenship is the signature of the President.
