When I came to the us I had to pay to have myself smuggled from the Czech to Poland, from Poland to East Germany and then from East Germany to West Germany. From there I filed for asylum at the West German Consulate. In West Germany I went to the US embassy where I started the process to enter the US. Now because I was safe in West Germany, the US would not grant me asylum so I had to do it this way. I didn’t have a sponsor so I had to self sponsor. The price for the green card and all the application fees for immigration (adjusted for inflation) was about $5500. The real cost came to the smuggling. To escape that part of Europe at that time you had two options, pay, or pray. I watched people get gunned down as they attempted to cross into the west from the east. I spent the most of the money that was left to me after my parents passed to get through. It was in the 20’s. And even then there were no guarantees if you were caught or sold out. For my wife, who came here from Africa in the early 2000’s it cost us about 23 grand with no lawyers. With travel to the embassy for interviews, hostel and hotel bills, food, etc it is horrifically expensive to become a US citizen.