GILS Law is founded on the simple principles and vision of our founding fathers. When they declared independence and wrote our Constitution, it was set forth that citizenship is not limited by birth or background. America, at its best, is a welcoming society and it is our goal to design your path to residency and citizenship that is consistent with your goals and dreams.
GILS Law is committed to understanding the many gifts each client brings and the values they hold dear. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants take the oath of citizenship every year. We know that each individual is asking for a chance to work hard, support their family and to rise in the world where the only limit is oneself. We look forward to working with you and your family on this journey.
For all of you, the oath of citizenship is more than a formality. Today, America is more than your home; it’s your country. This is one of the things that makes our country so unique. With a single oath, all at once you become as fully American as the most direct descendant of a founding father.
History of Ellis Island
From the moment its “golden doors” swung open in 1892, Ellis Island in New York Harbor played a central role in the American immigration experience. Comedian Bob Hope became an American there. So did actor Cary Grant, composer Irving Berlin, and 12 million others. The island’s federal immigration station served as the main portal into the United States during the country’s busiest years of immigration, and for three decades the words “Ellis Island” and “immigration” were inextricably linked. Now, exactly 120 years later, almost half of all Americans can trace their heritage back to at least one person who passed through Ellis Island. While it no longer operates as an immigration station, the facility remains an important landmark—often dubbed “the Plymouth Rock of its day”—and still draws millions of visitors annually, many of whom arrive hoping to better understand their own family histories.
When they left behind the old world, the millions who landed here at Ellis Island came with a vision of a better life. They sought more than economic opportunity, but that was surely part of it. They wanted more than political freedom, though that was crucial. Above all, they wanted the rights, the duties and the dignity of American citizenship. This place is now a museum, but it stands for a living tradition. And on Ellis Island today, the great hope of America is renewed.