The owner of Ray’s Candy Store in New York City has finally become a US citizen after living in this nation for 50 years, according to the Villager. Born Asghar Ghahraman, the born entrepreneur reinvented himself as Ray Alvarez after abandoning his post with the Iranian Navy to stay in the US. While the newspaper reports Alvarez received amnesty under President Ronald Reagan, his green card was reportedly mailed to the wrong address, leaving him stuck in a state of legal uncertainty. After years of determining how he could qualify for naturalization Alvarez, now 78, finally qualified with the help of friends who helped him sift through mountains of paperwork. Alvarez gained US citizenship in a naturalization ceremony featuring 173 people from 50 different countries.
