Passport delays for a child (us citizen under child citizenship law of 200)

[RussianInNYC]

Looking for some advice here - will appreciate your thoughts.
I am a US citizen since 2007.
My daughter (12yo) recently immigrated to US under IR2 category (children of US citizen) and promptly got her GC.
My understanding that she derives here citizenship from me under CCA of 2000 - and we applied for US passport.
In a very similiar case, my son got his passport in 2 weeks.

However, in my daughter's case we are experiencing very long delays.
Basically, first they sent me a letter asking for a copy of the marriage certificate.
However, as marriage has been dissolved, I do not have it - but rather a divorce decree which promptly translated, notarized and fedexed in. Three weeks later I got a call asking if I have any paperwork proving that I have a custody of her - I replied that I have her school records here in US, she is claimed in US tax return, my ex-wife specifically allowed me to be her custodial while in US in the statement for the passport application, but I do not have custody specifically spelled out in a divorce decree (as we share mutual custody). Was told that this info will be put onto the file and it will be reconsidered. No news after that.

To make matter worse, there is no contact info - phone line at the NPIC basically see the same thing I see online (that passport is still processing). Second problem here - we had to attach her green card, birth certificate and foreign passport to US passport application (in addition to my nat certification and her mother's statement), thus she has no id and it greatly complicates daily life (even doctor's office asks for id).

Not sure what to do here. Is it a common delay? What can the collective wisdom recommend?

[König]

I would suggest to concurrently apply for a Certificate of Citizenship (form N-600). Maybe, you will get a better luck there.

[raevsky]

You need proof of paternity (marriage certificate, issued before she was born).
You need proof of legal and physical custody. Did you divorce in the Russia?
Do you have school records and medical records for your daughter?

as we share mutual custody

How do you know?

[BigJoe5]

“Legal custody vests by virtue of "either a natural right or a court decree". See Matter of Harris, 15 I&N Dec. 39, 41 (BIA 1970). The applicant's parents' divorce document does not address the issue of the applicant's custody. In the absence of a judicial determination or grant of custody in a case of a legal separation of the naturalized parent, the parent having actual, uncontested custody of the child is to be regarded as having "legal custody." See Matter of M, 3 I&N Dec. 850,856 (BIA 1950). The record indicates that the applicant immigrated to the United States to reside with her father. The Board of Immigration Appeals (Board) has held that "[u]nless there is evidence to show that the father of a legitimated child has been deprived of his natural right to custody, he will be presumed to share custody with the mother." Matter of Rivers, 17 I&N Dec. 419, 422-23 (BIA 1980) (stating the presumption "that the father has not been divested of his natural right to equal custody in the absence of affirmative evidence indicating otherwise."). Here, there is no evidence that the applicant's father was deprived of his custody of the applicant after she immigrated to the United States. The AAO therefore finds that the applicant's father had actual, uncontested custody of the applicant following the applicant's parents' divorce. The applicant therefore has fulfilled the conditions for derivative citizenship required in former section 321 (a)(3) of the Act.”

“The legislative history of INA § 321 indicates that “Congress enacted the provision to ensure that only those alien children whose real interests were located in America with their custodial parent, and not abroad, should be automatically naturalized.” Bustamante-Barrera v. Gonzales, 447 F.3d 388, 397 (5th Cir. 2006), cert. denied, 547 U.S. 1205 (2006); see also H.R. Rep. No. 82-1365, reprinted in 1952 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1653, 1680. In Bustamante-Barrera, the Fifth Circuit construed the section of § 321(a)(3) that stated “the naturalization of the parent having legal custody when there has been a legal separation of the parents ...” as requiring the naturalizing parent to have sole as opposed to joint legal custody. Bustamante-Barrera, 447 F.3d at 396. The Bustamante-Barrera court further reasoned that Congress chose to use the singular form, “parent,” to describe the person having custody, which “leaves no room to dispute that, when only one of the two legally separated parents is a naturalized U.S. citizen, that parent is the one who must have legal custody.” Id. Thus, a petitioner who was in the sole physical custody of his mother, but subject to joint legal custody of both parents under the divorce decree, did not derive citizenship at the time of his mother’s naturalization under INA § 321. Id. at 398-99."

You are dealing with current INA § 320. Under the current statute "sole custody" is not required but the child must be residing with the USC parents. Far too many bogus arrangements have been caught where a child merely comes to "visit" the naturalized parent, grabs a passport and gets back on a plane to wherever they REALLY reside with the alien parent. If you had not noticed, it is summer vacation right now in the U.S. and great many scammers have crawled out of the woodwork.

[RussianInNYC]

yes, i do have her school records (she attended school here after coming over) as well as her medical and immunization records.
problem is that no one is asking for them - and i cannot reach anyone to talk to. People at the toll free number are basically simply replicate what i see myself on the status check - that the application is being worked on.

[raevsky]

You were supposed to submit all those documents and wait.

[RussianInNYC]

You were supposed to submit all those documents and wait.

i would have submitted if someone has told me to.
they never asked for it - just for a marriage or divorce papers.
and now i cannot find anyone to to talk - that is the most maddening part.
at least with ins, you can make an infopass appointment - here is a complete wall.

[raevsky]

Have they returned you your original documents?