Am I a US citizen ?

J

Jonnybgood

New Member
Hello, my family (we are only 3 - father + brother and myself ) immigrated to USA in the 1980s and we all 3 have green cards. My father became a US citizen in the 1990s and he has custody of us and is a single father. I was under 18 when he became a US citizen. I was asked to go swear oath when I was under 18 but I never went. My brother did and is a US citizen. My father applied for my grandparents and they became US citizens. I have a half brother who was born in USA and is automatically. I moved out of the USA and had a baby outside the USA. I haven't been back in over 3 years and would like to go back and visit. Also , just to let you know I lived like 20 years in the US and I do have a criminal record of stupid stuff done over 15 years ago. My family still lives there and has lived there for over 30 years...

Now here are my questions,

- I am still outside the US and am I an American citizen ?
- And can my son be or is automatically an American citizen ?
- If I am an American citizen what steps do I have to do to get my passport ?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP ...
 
It would appear that you became a US citizen when your father naturalized.

To obtain a US passport, apply for it through a US consulate in your country. You will need your father's US passport or naturalization certificate (preferably the certificate if his passport was issued after you turned 18), proof that he had legal custody of you when you were under 18 with a green card, and proof that you were living at the same address as you at
the time.

Read this page to figure out if your son is a US citizen: http://travel.state.gov/content/tra...s-policies/citizenship-child-born-abroad.html

If he is a US citizen, you can apply for his Consular Report of Birth Abroad and/or a US passport. Better to get both, since the CRBA doesn't expire. But you would first need to establish proof of your own citizenship first, including proof that you were a US citizen at the time of your son's birth (which may require going to the US to apply for your own N-600).
 
If you were under 18 on February 27, 2001, then you are probably a U.S. citizen, because, at the very least, you would have gotten it due to the Child Citizenship Act of 2000.

Prior to 2001, the law required both parents to have naturalized while the child was under 18, or a single parent if that parent had custody in legal separation. It seems like from what you're saying that that applies to you.

So you should go apply for a U.S. passport (and perhaps also a Certificate of Citizenship for permanent proof). The proof you need to provide is your father's naturalization certificate, your green card at the time, proof you lived with him, and proof he had sole custody of you.

If you were a U.S. citizen, then your son would be automatically a U.S. citizen if you were physically present in the U.S. (in any status) for 5 years, including 2 years after turning 14, before your son was born. It seems this is met.
 
THANK YOU , for your answers. I mean I know or feel like I'm a US citizen. I don't tell people I'm from my birth country, I tell em I'm American. My first language is English and my first memories are in the US. I just get demotivated because I never went to take oath when they asked me to. It kinda makes me feel like I lost out on my citizenship, plus I got a felony crime after I didn't go take oath when I was a teenage and maybe that blocks me for acquiring citizenship. I'm 35 years old and haven't been arrested or in any type of trouble with the law in the last 15 years. It was just stupid teenager stuff. Anyways my father told me to just apply for a passport but I was hesitating. I will just have to deal with getting the stupid paperwork and applying. Too bad they just can't look it up in the system. Anyways thanks for the support.
 
Jonnybgood said:
THANK YOU , for your answers. I mean I know or feel like I'm a US citizen. I don't tell people I'm from my birth country, I tell em I'm American. My first language is English and my first memories are in the US. I just get demotivated because I never went to take oath when they asked me to. It kinda makes me feel like I lost out on my citizenship, plus I got a felony crime after I didn't go take oath when I was a teenage and maybe that blocks me for acquiring citizenship. I'm 35 years old and haven't been arrested or in any type of trouble with the law in the last 15 years. It was just stupid teenager stuff. Anyways my father told me to just apply for a passport but I was hesitating. I will just have to deal with getting the stupid paperwork and applying. Too bad they just can't look it up in the system. Anyways thanks for the support.
Click to expand...

If you are now 35 y.o., then in Feb 2001 (the date of enactment of the Child Citizenship Act) you were about 21-22 years old, and thus over 18. Therefore you do not qualify for derivative citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act.
You may well qualify for derivative citizenship under the law in effect prior to the Child Citizenship Act. However, that law was more restrictive and you'd need to double-check the details to make sure that you do qualify.
See http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-parents

"The child was under 18 from December 24, 1952 to February 26, 2001:

*The child was residing as a Green Card holder in the U.S. and both parents naturalized before the child’s 18th birthday; OR

*If one parent died, that the surviving parent naturalized before the child turned 18.

* If the parents legally separated, that the parent maintaining legal and physical custody naturalized before the child turned 18.

*If the child was born out of wedlock and paternity has not been established by legitimation, the mother naturalized before the child turned 18.
NOTE: The order in which the child meets the conditions does not matter so long as the child meets all the conditions before his or her 18th birthday."

You mentioned that your father raised you as a single father.

What exactly was your mother's situation at the time you immigrated to the U.S.?

Were your father and your mother married at the time of your birth?

Were the still married at the time you came to the U.S.?

If your mother and your father were never married, or if they were divorced/separated by the time you came to the U.S., how exactly did your father gained legal custody of you? Was there a relevant court decision granting him custody? A divorce decree?
 
Jonnybgood said:
THANK YOU , for your answers. I mean I know or feel like I'm a US citizen. I don't tell people I'm from my birth country, I tell em I'm American. My first language is English and my first memories are in the US. I just get demotivated because I never went to take oath when they asked me to. It kinda makes me feel like I lost out on my citizenship, plus I got a felony crime after I didn't go take oath when I was a teenage and maybe that blocks me for acquiring citizenship.
Click to expand...

If you're the biological child of your US citizen father, you didn't need to take the oath to become a citizen through him, however that oath was required in order to obtain a certificate of citizenship.

You don't need the certificate to apply for a US passport, but you should still try to travel* to the US to apply for the certificate (N-600) at some time in the future, since it doesn't expire and if you don't have the certificate you may have to provide the whole stack of paperwork again (including your father's documents) to prove your citizenship if you need to replace a lost or stolen US passport.



*You need to specify a US address, but you only have to be physically in the US at the end of the N-600 process to take the oath and pick up the certificate at a USCIS office.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
newacct said:
Are you sure you're not thinking of the N-600K expedited naturalization process? Why would a U.S. citizen need to take an oath?
Click to expand...

For N-600 applicants above a certain age (I think 14?) an oath is part of the process to obtain the certificate of citizenship, but not to obtain the citizenship itself which would have already been acquired before the N-600 was submitted. The N-600 oath is not a long ceremony like N-600, it's administered right there in the interviewer's office.
 
More details:

- my parents were married when my brother and I was born.

- my parents divorced and my father, brother, and I moved to the Us.

- my mother stayed in my birth country then remarried ( don't know exactly how long after the divorce ).

- we became permanent residents ( all 3 of us ).

- my father remarried like 5 years later to my step mom ( who was born in the Us ) .

- my father became a citizen ( like in 1992 ).

- my brother became a citizen was like 16-17 years old ( also like 1992 ).

- I was asked years later to go take oath and I never went.


*** What do I do... ***

What form do I file ?
Can I file from Europe ?
Would it be better or recommended to file with an attorney ?

Please help, as much info as possible would be great ... THANK YOU !
 
Jonnybgood said:
More details:

- my parents were married when my brother and I was born.

- my parents divorced and my father, brother, and I moved to the Us.
Click to expand...

OK, this means that you were born in-wedlock and probably do qualify for derivative citizenship under former INA 312 (the law in effect prior to the enactment of the Child Citizenship Act).

The only thing that needs to be clarified here is how exactly your father obtained legal custody of you when your parents divorced.
It is possible that the custody arrangements were specified in the divorce decree, or that there was a separate court order on the matter. You'll need to ask your father about this and get copies of the relevant documents.

- my mother stayed in my birth country then remarried ( don't know exactly how long after the divorce ).

- we became permanent residents ( all 3 of us ).

- my father remarried like 5 years later to my step mom ( who was born in the Us ) .

- my father became a citizen ( like in 1992 ).

- my brother became a citizen was like 16-17 years old ( also like 1992 ).

- I was asked years later to go take oath and I never went.


*** What do I do... ***

What form do I file ?
Can I file from Europe ?
Would it be better or recommended to file with an attorney ?

Please help, as much info as possible would be great ... THANK YOU !
Click to expand...

Since you are currently residing abroad and are over 18, the only option at the moment that you have is to apply for a U.S. passport at a U.S. consulate/embassy abroad. Find the webpage of the U.S. embassy in the country where you currently reside, and find a link there with the information about passport applications for first-time adult applicants. Most likely, at a minimum, you'll have to submit the State Department's form DS-11 plus a bunch of supporting documents. Some (although not all) U.S. consulates allow you to schedule an appointment with a consular officer first, to look at your documents and see if you really have a valid claim for derivative citizenship and if you have enough supporting documents.

At a minimum, you'll need the following supporting documents (or at least official copies of them):
* your birth certificate
* your parents' marriage certificate
* your parent's divorce certificate
* a document (such as a divorce decree or a court order) granting your father legal custody of you
* a copy of your old green card
* some documents (such as school records) proving that you resided together with your father in the U.S. at some point after he was naturalized and before you turned 18
* your father's naturalization certificate

In terms of using a lawyer, that's up to you. If I were in your place, I'd try to first collect the relevant documents and submit the passport application yourself, and only if there turns out to be a real problem, to then consult a lawyer.
 
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