Citizenship without immigration
- Thread starter etrader
- Start date
yes, if you are US nationals
No.
Thanks jigesh
Basically, no.
There are a few narrow exceptions for very particular circumstances:
1) If a person is born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent but does not qualify for automatic citizenship at birth (e.g. if the citizen parent did not reside for a sufficient amount of time in the U.S.), that person may still be eligible for naturalization under section 322 of INA. This requires filing form N-600K, going through a naturalization interview and then getting a certificate of citizenship. However, getting a green card in the interim is not required.
2) As I remember, there is a provision in Section 329 of INA allowing for naturalization of the military personnel currently serving on active duty during authorized periods of military conflict (I believe that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars qualify), where it may be possible, under some circumstances, to apply for naturalization without getting a green card first.
3) I think Uncle Joe is correct that U.S. nationals who are not U.S. citizens (a very narrow category) may apply for naturalization without getting a green card.
WBH mentioned private bills in Congress, but I am not sure if that's realistic. As far as I know, private bills for granting permanent residency are not that uncommon, but private bills granting citizenship directly are very rare and I am not sure if they have ever been approved at all. I remember there was an attempt of granting Elian Gonzalez U.S. citizenship in 1999 by a private bill but that did not go anywhere. There is also honorary U.S. citizenship (also granted by Congress), but it is purely symbolic and does not really give any legal rights, and I think only 6 or 7 people ever got it.
Here is a link to the CNN story about an attempt to pass a private bill granting citizenship to Elian Gonzalez:
http://archives.cnn.com/1999/ALLPOLITICS/stories/12/23/helms.gonzalez/index.html
However, as far as I know, that attempt did not succeed and I have never heard of a private bill granting U.S. citizenship actually being passed into law.
Yes you can, Ive seen TV adds
Apply for U.S Citizenship, call now 1 800 XXX XXXX and order your Naturalization Certificate before it's run out.
If you living overseas and dont speak english, don't worry we got Customer Service representative speaking your language.
Call in the next 20 minutes and get a free gift - U.S Passport.
It's only $19.99 plus shipping and handling, so hurry
Sorry dude I didn't get phone number
Apply for U.S Citizenship, call now 1 800 XXX XXXX and order your Naturalization Certificate before it's run out.
If you living overseas and dont speak english, don't worry we got Customer Service representative speaking your language.
Call in the next 20 minutes and get a free gift - U.S Passport.
It's only $19.99 plus shipping and handling, so hurry
Sorry dude I didn't get phone number
Last edited by a moderator:
Al Southner
Registered Users (C)
Congress did pass a bill granting some ice skaters US citizenship so that they represent US in the 2006 Winter Olympics. I remember that Bush signed a bill into law and were immediately given passports so that they bring back the gold in Turin. Here is the kicker...they never won the gold that they promised the US...
Just a silver medal, upon which they were immediately arrested for misleading Congress and stripped of their US citizenship, having obtained the citizenship on the basis of outlandish claims...Since you never heard of such a bill passing, now you will read about it on this link below...
http://www.usocpressbox.org/usoc/pressbox.nsf/0/f9a0754ec950e936852570e00007038a
Jackolantern
Registered Users (C)
I think she was a permanent resident before obtaining citizenship. The article says she moved to the US in 1998, and her Wikipedia page says she would have been expected to completed the citizenship process in 2007, but needed it in 2006 in time for the winter Olympics. So this looks like a case of expediting citizenship before she completed 5 years of PR, not direct-to-citizenship without being a PR.Congress did pass a bill granting some ice skaters US citizenship so that they represent US in the 2006 Winter Olympics. I remember that Bush signed a bill into law and were immediately given passports so that they bring back the gold in Turin. Here is the kicker...they never won the gold that they promised the US...
Since you never heard of such a bill passing, now you will read about it on this link below...
http://www.usocpressbox.org/usoc/pressbox.nsf/0/f9a0754ec950e936852570e00007038a
Congress did pass a bill granting some ice skaters US citizenship so that they represent US in the 2006 Winter Olympics. I remember that Bush signed a bill into law and were immediately given passports so that they bring back the gold in Turin. Here is the kicker...they never won the gold that they promised the US...
Since you never heard of such a bill passing, now you will read about it on this link below...
http://www.usocpressbox.org/usoc/pressbox.nsf/0/f9a0754ec950e936852570e00007038a
But this doesn't look like a private bill, but a change on the continuous residence requirements or something similar. Does someone have a pointer to the actual law?
By the way, there are a lot of articles on the Internet that talk about granting citizenship to someone or another on humanitarian grounds and others. The problem is that the reporter gets it wrong and confuses permanent residency with citizenship. A lot of people who were born in this country are completely clueless to the difference. You just need to hear the politicians when they talk about regularizing undocumented immigrants, they tend to talk about granting them citizenship, or a path to citizenship. They very rarely mention green cards or permanent residency. Anyway, I'm still waiting for WBH to backup the claim with some facts.
I know right
I was talking to one of my co-workers, and he asked me straight up question - Are you US Citizen.
I was like - NO Im not.
He goes - So are you illegal?
I was like no I have Permanent Resident Status.
They don't know what it is)
So I pulled my wallet and show him how it looks like
He was confused.
Some people thinks that there's only two type of people in US - Citizens and illegal)))
I know right
I was talking to one of my co-workers, and he asked me straight up question - Are you US Citizen.
I was like - NO Im not.
He goes - So are you illegal?
I was like no I have Permanent Resident Status.
They don't know what it is)
So I pulled my wallet and show him how it looks like
He was confused.
Some people thinks that there's only two type of people in US - Citizens and illegal)))
I had a similar conversation with a person whom I met at a social gathering shortly after getting my citizenship. This person, natural-born citizen, said something to the extent of "Oh, congratulations! You're legal now!". I spent the next few minutes explaining that one doesn't necessarily need to be a citizen in order to be legal. I guess that people who were born here have no reason to know about green cards and permanent residence. Oh well.
Yes and the President can sign the bill into law. Here's an attempt by Senator Feinstein:
http://feinstein.senate.gov/releases00/fulop.html
I don't know whether she was successful.
Please, don't believe the articles, read the bills or laws. Here is the link to the bill. She didn't send a bill to provide citizenship, but to grant permanent resident status. It's amazing that even senator Feinstein's staff could get the two things mixed up in the release.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.120:
By the way, the private bill doesn't seem a very effective way, not at least for the Fulops. Senator Feinstein introduced the bill in 2000, and in 2009 had to reintroduce it again. All along that family has been in limbo.
Text from Senator Feinstein's introduction of the bill:
"Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I offer today a private immigration relief bill to provide lawful permanent residence status to Denes and Gyorgyi Fulop, Hungarian nationals who have lived in California for more than 20 years. The Fulops are the parents of six U.S. citizen children.
I first introduced this bill in June, 2000. Today, the Fulops continue to face deportation having exhausted all administrative remedies under our immigration system."
As far as I can see this bill is still in committee.
Text from Senator Feinstein's introduction of the bill:
"Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I offer today a private immigration relief bill to provide lawful permanent residence status to Denes and Gyorgyi Fulop, Hungarian nationals who have lived in California for more than 20 years. The Fulops are the parents of six U.S. citizen children.
I first introduced this bill in June, 2000. Today, the Fulops continue to face deportation having exhausted all administrative remedies under our immigration system."
As far as I can see this bill is still in committee.
I know right
I was talking to one of my co-workers, and he asked me straight up question - Are you US Citizen.
I was like - NO Im not.
He goes - So are you illegal?
I was like no I have Permanent Resident Status.
They don't know what it is)
So I pulled my wallet and show him how it looks like
He was confused.
Some people thinks that there's only two type of people in US - Citizens and illegal)))
This unfortunaly seems to be more the norm then not. I have had many friends from back in my homeland ask the same thing. They thought I was immediatly a US citizen when I arrived and started working on a work permit. I had to explain, no, I'm an alien. Then with the Green Card, again people here and in the homeland thought I was a citizen. Again I had to explain, no, I'm on a Green Card.
They figured when I got married I was immediatly a citizen, again, wrong. Finally when I was a citizen everyone looked confused and thought "see we thought you were a citizen". I finally gave up trying to explain it all at that point...