The man with the green card has his eye on the prize: It's the right to vote in next year's presidential election.

This motivates his due diligence with homework, with tackling multi-syllable words, reviewing the Constitution and studying the candidates.

He wants to become an American citizen.

He wants to vote in 2008.

He may make it, if he holds fast to his dedication of the past few months. Legal immigrants who decide today they wish to naturalize must learn English, apply online for an appointment with immigration, present supporting documents, get fingerprinted. They must pay $675 to take the citizenship test, then they must pass it. They must be sworn in during ceremonies held infrequently. If there's still time, they can register to vote.

If you know someone who's been thinking about this, nudge them to start the process now. They may also be among immigrants who soon will have to pay $370 for renewal of their green cards, even those originally issued with no expiration date. This law was just passed.

This sum added to a later naturalization fee is a whole lot of money. Immigrants affected by this change may want, instead, to try to qualify for citizenship. Immigration Assistance Centers are trying to help with the process.

Immigration has become a dirty word for many people. It's become a catch-all phrase that some in the United States translate as "go back home."

It belittles men and women who are working hard in libraries and in literacy centers to master what many native-born Americans never will. They are absorbing rights and responsibilities of being an American, and the history that is the foundation of life today.

Next time you're socializing casually ask "Can you name the 13 original states?" The answer is Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Rhode Island, and Maryland. Or, ask "What Immigration and Naturalization Service form is used to apply to become a naturalized citizen?" It's Form N-400, Application to File Petition for Naturalization.

We demand that newcomers know what many of us do not know. Our expectation that immigrants learn about their prospective new homeland is justified. But let's give them credit for buckling down to studies that seemed to have eluded so many of us.

My student, who has also become my teacher by modeling persistence and courage may, with luck, make it to the polls in November 2008. He already has opinions (no, all you critics, not my opinions) on what he feels to be assets and liabilities of all the major candidates.

I have no idea how he'd vote. I do know he thinks that 2008 will be amazingly historic.

He is surprised and sobered by statistics that show fewer than half the registered voters in this country took advantage in 2004 of the right to vote. And so we study every week for hours.

In my mind's eye I see my student queued up at his voting precinct, shuffling, as voters do, those final steps toward a dream.

BETSY SHEA-TAYLOR, a former editor and writer for The Sun Chronicle, is a freelance writer. She can be reached at prosewing@aol.com.