US Citizen Filing for Son - Age 17

Jackolantern said:
He'll have to redo the green card process. File I-130 to initiate the process, with a consulate in India selected for question 22.
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PLS NOTE: There is no place on form I-130 where you can ask for consular processing and specify a consulate.

If the relative is already overseas, then consular processing is the default. No need to ask for it, and there's no place on the form to ask for it.

Only if the relative is already in the US and seeking Adjustment of Status, but potentially might not be eligible for AOS, should you specify a location for consular processing in item 22 of form I-130.

Hope this helps.
 
laddi said:
PLS NOTE: There is no place on form I-130 where you can ask for consular processing and specify a consulate.
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In question 22 you can request the country and city for the consulate, although there is no guarantee they will honor your request.

No need to ask for it, and there's no place on the form to ask for it.
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It's not always necessary to ask for it, but there is a place on the form to ask for it. Perhaps in this case it doesn't really matter, but in other cases where the beneficiary may have a choice of multiple consulates (because of multiple consulates in a given country, or having no US consulate in their country of residence, or residing in a country other than the country of citizenship), it is useful to indicate the preference in question 22. For example, an Indian citizen working in the UK can be interviewed either in India or the UK, and may have a preference instead of leaving it to the default selection that NVC/DOS will pick.

As long as a consulate actually exists in the selected location, and the beneficiary's citizenship and/or legal residence makes him/her eligible to be interviewed at that location, there is no harm in putting it there for a consular processing case.
 
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Documents

Thanks to Jackolantern for taking the time to put this together.

He departed in 2003. I tried to negotiate for many years and then in 2008 I filed for divorce and got it. My divorce was concluded in US and not in India. The US Court could not have given me the custody knowing the child is in India. In Indian Courts, they generally do not give custody to father. Even if I had fought, I could not have won.

I am thinking of getting a lawyer who has worked on similar cases. I do have all the documentation of his Birth Certificate, Advance Parole, I-485 and then GC. Moreover, I have mentioned his name in my documents to USCIS such as N400.

The challenge here is again the Custody Battle. His mother really does not want him to part with her. She knows that once the child is gone, he will be gone forever. She may create all the hurdles possible to prevent his departure. While son does not feel that it would be an abandonment of his mother but a way to get back his father at his will and study in US.

I will mention the city name where there is a Consulate near his home in India on I-130.
 
needCZ said:
He departed in 2003. I tried to negotiate for many years and then in 2008 I filed for divorce and got it. My divorce was concluded in US and not in India. The US Court could not have given me the custody knowing the child is in India.
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Do you have any papers that were filed with the US court asking for custody? If applying for the SB-1, it's important to show that you at least tried for custody. Remember it's been 10 years so they will want to see that you've made some effort to bring him back in those 10 years.

The challenge here is again the Custody Battle. His mother really does not want him to part with her. She knows that once the child is gone, he will be gone forever. She may create all the hurdles possible to prevent his departure. While son does not feel that it would be an abandonment of his mother but a way to get back his father at his will and study in US.
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So it looks like she'll try to obstruct his immigration even after he turns 18, like throwing out mail from the consulate so he misses the interview? In that case you'll need to arrange for him to live elsewhere (although maybe that's not possible before he's 18).

Show her that it is in her own best interest if he can immigrate before 18 and become a US citizen. That's because if he moves to the US after 18, and therefore does not derive US citizenship, he'll be less free to go back and spend more time with her in India, since spending lots of time outside the US would risk losing his green card and jeopardize his naturalization eligibility. Whereas if he becomes an instant US citizen by immigrating before 18, can spend as much time in India as he wants in India without losing citizenship.

Maybe you'll have to make a deal between the 3 of you to get her to agree to give up custody -- for example, if she releases custody and he gets to return to the US soon enough to qualify for derivative citizenship, you'll send him back to India to stay with her from January 2014 to July 2014, then he'll return to the US in August to start his first year in a US university.
 
Jackolantern said:
In question 22 you can request the country and city for the consulate, although there is no guarantee they will honor your request.

It's not always necessary to ask for it, but there is a place on the form to ask for it. Perhaps in this case it doesn't really matter, but in other cases where the beneficiary may have a choice of multiple consulates (because of multiple consulates in a given country, or having no US consulate in their country of residence, or residing in a country other than the country of citizenship), it is useful to indicate the preference in question 22. For example, an Indian citizen working in the UK can be interviewed either in India or the UK, and may have a preference instead of leaving it to the default selection that NVC/DOS will pick.

As long as a consulate actually exists in the selected location, and the beneficiary's citizenship and/or legal residence makes him/her eligible to be interviewed at that location, there is no harm in putting it there for a consular processing case.
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I maintain that item 22 in form I-130 is not intended for Consular processing applicants.

Please see the instructions for form I-130 and also the exact language of item 22 in the form itself.

The space provided for indicating a consulate in item 22 is meant for only Adjustment of Status cases in which there could be a chance of the relative being inelgible for AOS for any reason (e.g. illegal stay or any other violation).

If you are intending to do Consular processing from the get-go, then really you should not even be writing anything in item 22... unless you want to write "N/A" or "None" etc.

Who knows if USCIS even cares about what's written in item 22 *if* you are a (from the get-go) Consular processing applicant. I bet USCIS goes by the relative's residential address when assigning a Consulate for interview.

It's debatable whether mentioning a consulate in item 22 hurts or helps, but the bottomline is that for Consular processing, you should ignore item 22 since it is not intended for you.
 
Visitors Visa

What if I appy for visit visa for my son. He can say that he wants to visit Dad as he is now grown up? After he arrives here it will be easy for me to process his papers, will it be?
 
Visitors Visa

What if I appy for visit visa for my son. He can say that he wants to visit Dad as he is now grown up?
 
needCZ said:
What if I appy for visit visa for my son. He can say that he wants to visit Dad as he is now grown up? After he arrives here it will be easy for me to process his papers, will it be?
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He can try for the visa, but they almost will surely deny it because he has a US citizen father living in the US. And if the authorities in India want to see permission from the custodial parent before letting him board the flight, he won't be able to travel alone before he's 18 unless his mother agrees.
 
Thanks Jackolantern. But is it a bad thing to have a father who is a US Citizen? Does that make him automatically a potential immigrant? If that being the case, his father might as well can file for his immigration and he gets GC on arrival (say any day after 18 years of age).
 
needCZ said:
Thanks Jackolantern. But is it a bad thing to have a father who is a US Citizen? Does that make him automatically a potential immigrant?
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For getting a tourist visa, yes it's a very bad thing to be under 21 with a US citizen parent who lives in the US. They don't want people using the tourist visa as a tool to stay and immigrate, and the intent to immigrate is obvious in such a situation.
 
I would be just happy with a 10 year Multiple Entry Visa if they give to my son. This way, he will be able to visit me anytime. This may not allow him to study in US and that would be fine. A US Citizenship before he turns 18 allows him this access. The GC can be obtained after he turns 18 but he will not be able to maintain it for a long time; within a year or two, he would lose it. I do not think even if he studies in USA for about two years, he would like to continue to stay in US. I just do not want him to go through F1 Visa processing hassles and uncertainty. Therefore, GC may be the approach to get him to study in US.

As a side note, I may not have custody but I have documented proof of providing Child Support every single month for last 7 years.
 
If he wants to study in the US and then go back to India in the long run, while also being able to visit the US often, a GC is a viable route to accomplish that.

Suppose he gets the GC and moves to the US at 18, and stays long enough to get a degree. Having a GC would qualify him for the lower in-state tuition rate if he attends a school in the state where you reside, and also make more scholarships available to him. Whereas the F1 visa would require him to pay the out-of-state tuition rate, even if he's in the same state with you.

Then after the degree, if he wants to move back to India permanently he can surrender the GC at a consulate with form I-407 and apply for a tourist visa. Voluntarily surrendering an active GC would be a good sign of not intending to immigrate, so they would almost surely give him the visa. He can even surrender the GC and apply for the visa in the same visit.

But if he wants to stay in the US for another year or two after finishing his degree, that would enable him to complete the 5 years for citizenship. Then once he has US citizenship he can go back and forth between the US and India as much as he wants, or stay permanently in either country of his choice (of course, after dealing with the OCI formalities if he wants to settle down in India).
 
I-130 as well as SB-1

I would like to file for I-130 as well as SB-1. May be one thing or other will click? Is there any drawback in doing this simultaneously?
 
The only problem I see is the wasted money for the very unlikely SB-1. But if you're going to apply for both anyway, it's a good idea to apply for them at the same time, so after the SB-1 fails the I-130 would already be about halfway along the path to approval.
 
Thanks

Thanks again to Jackolantern for taking the time to respond to my questions. I am consulting an attorney and will let you know the reply.
 
N600K - Section 322 of INA

Does this apply to me (my son)?

http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/uscisn600k.html

Certain children who regularly reside outside the US may be eligible for citizenship under Section 322 of the INA. Form N-600K may be filed by:

A US citizen parent seeking citizenship on behalf of a minor adopted or biological child under section 322 of the INA (providing for citizenship through an application process for biological and adopted children who regularly reside outside of the US and meet certain conditions while under age 18), or*

http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-9942.html
 
So that could be best route. I can relocate to India and request for his custody legally. That may be the best route than going through other hassles. It is easy for me to relocate to India. Now it is only question of getting legal custody.
 
You'll have some tight deadlines with the N-600K process ... you must already have legal custody and have him living with you (with evidence of it) when filing the N-600K, and the entire process including having him travel to the US to show up at a USCIS office must be completed before he's 18.

So if your wife doesn't give up legal custody quickly and without a fight, it obviously won't work. But you can show that it's to her advantage to give up custody fast enough to allow him become a US citizen before he's 18. Because if he gets citizenship that quickly, he can go back to India as soon as he gets his US passport and completes the OCI formalities a couple months later. Whereas if he isn't able to make it happen before 18, he'll move to the US with a green card after he's 18 whether she likes it or not, stay in the US for at least 5 years to become a citizen, by which time he may no longer have any desire to move back to India.
 
Physical Custody

I checked up and know that I need to have Physical and Legal Custody but it does not explicitly states that I need to live outside United States with my son.

I am planning to get Legal Custody and will appoint his mother as local guardian. This clause may give her some relief.
 
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