Apply for passport abroad after oath ceremony

[joky]

Hi,

I read in multiple places that we can't re-enter the US without a US passport after the oath ceremony, but I didn't find an answer about leaving the US with my foreign passport, and then apply for a US passport in a US embassy abroad and getting it there before coming back?

As a secondary question, I will attend the oath ceremony while my son (who is a minor) will be abroad. As I understand it he will become a US citizen automatically by the fact of his parent becoming citizen while he is a minor. However he does not go through the oath ceremony and so they won't take his green card away, what is his status? Is the green card "invalidated" implicitly? Can he (or maybe he even needs to) apply for a passport at a foreign US embassy?

Thanks!

 

[2014hopeful]

On your first question, this is exactly what I did. I had my naturalization ceremony in the morning, flew out of the US that afternoon and applied for (and received) my first US passport at a consulate outside the US. Strictly speaking, you're not meant to leave the US on a foreign passport, but there are no passport checks on leaving the US and the law doesn't appear to provide for penalties, so in practice, it's not an issue. Additionally, passport application processing times seem to be much quicker outside the US than inside - I received mine in only 2 weeks!

As to your second question, I imagine (but I haven't looked into this) that since your son will automatically become a US citizen when you do, he can just apply for a US passport at the consulate overseas using your naturalization certificate. After all, as a US citizen, he will be entitled to receive a passport. It's not that his green card is "invalidated", but his status as a permanent resident will have ceased, and the physical green card will no longer accurately reflect his status, so he won't be able to use it for anything. Whether he could, in practice, return to the US on the existing green card is anyone's guess, but it certainly wouldn't be the proper way to return. I guess if the airline let him board, he could always explain the situation at the border and they'd have to let him in since he's a citizen, but it would definitely cause delays and be a bit of a headache!

 

[Zeallus]

Hi,

I read in multiple places that we can't re-enter the US without a US passport after the oath ceremony, but I didn't find an answer about leaving the US with my foreign passport, and then apply for a US passport in a US embassy abroad and getting it there before coming back?

As a secondary question, I will attend the oath ceremony while my son (who is a minor) will be abroad. As I understand it he will become a US citizen automatically by the fact of his parent becoming citizen while he is a minor. However he does not go through the oath ceremony and so they won't take his green card away, what is his status? Is the green card "invalidated" implicitly? Can he (or maybe he even needs to) apply for a passport at a foreign US embassy?

Thanks!

I was in the exact same situation, took the oath while my son was outside and applied for our passports at my home country’s embassy. I was approved, he was not because under INA 320 he would’ve been needed to be in the USA at the time I took the oath. Since he was out of the country he didn’t become automatically a citizen. I was told by the embassy though that at the minute he comes back to the USA he’ll become a citizen (“upon arrival”)