I am in a crisis.

A

Anonymous106

Registered Users (C)
Hi, this is Kevin here, first time user. Let me explain my situation as of right now...

I am a high school student, currently in the 12th grade, and over the summer vacation, I've completed the 3 online applications to 3 of the US Service Academies: the US Military Academy (West Point), the US Naval Academy (Annapolis), and the US Air Force Academy (USAFA). As probably all of you know or can assume, you need a US citizenship to gain admission to any of those three. Just recently, about 3 weeks ago, I renewed my Permanent Resident card (green card), so that I can immediately apply for naturalization (we had to renew the green card first).

Now here is the problem. In all honesty, I love my parents, I really do. They've done more for me than I can ask for. But I can't help but think that some of the responsibility lies with my parents. I was born in South Korea and I immigrated to the United States two months after I was born in S. Korea. I've NEVER gone out of US borders; I've only attended US public schools. In all honesty, if I may say so myself, I'm practically a US citizen, except that I'm not because I haven't been naturalized. Now it's September, and the academies, especially USAFA, are urging me to complete all forms of the application as soon as possible, and I believe they even gave me a deadline of September 26th for all online forms. All 3 academies are rolling admission, which means it is to everyone's advantage to apply as soon as possible. I've received e-mails from my liaison officers telling me that if I don't receive my citizenship in due time, I will not get an appointment, and the only way to apply is through an international foreign student program, where I would have to receive a nomination from the Secretary of Defense in my home country (South Korea). That would be near impossible since I've never even visited that country. My parents still haven't made an appointment with the USCIS.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is this: How fast will my citizenship process? Is there any way to speed the process up? I will sing the star-spangled banner 25 times backwards if I have to. I just need this one event cleared as soon as possible. Am I officially out of the program? Is it impossible to gain the citizenship within maybe... 3 months? Because even 3 months in my situation is stretching it; the deadlines are in January 2010, and there's also the fact that the academies want my online form within THIS month (September), and they're all rolling admission, meaning my late application will probably disqualify me. Will the fact that I came here only 2 months after I was born speed up the process AT ALL? If you're wondering why my parents have waited all this time to finally apply for citizenship (at least for me), that's beyond me too; I simply do not know.

Thank you SO MUCH for your help and time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Depend where you are. In some places like Chicago, three months are possible.

But are your parents naturalized? If they are, you may be already a citizen.

If you are not a citizen and want to apply, you may need to be 18 years old
to apply. If you are under 18 years old, you can urge one of your parent
to apply.

But as you said, the case may be very stretching and you may not
get your citizenhip in time for your deadline.
 
If your parents became US citizens, then you also become a US citizen automatically if you were under 18 on the day your parent(s) naturalized. Does this not apply to you?
 
That is actually exactly what my parents are planning to do. I am under 17 still; I will turn 18 years old on March 15, 2010. I'm not entirely sure about how it works: when my parents complete their citizenship, does that mean I automatically become a US citizen? Neither of my parents are citizens; they are still Permanent Residents. By the way, I live in Long Island, New York. I'm guessing this is extremely bad.
 
Anonymous106 said:
That is actually exactly what my parents are planning to do. I am under 17 still; I will turn 18 years old on March 15, 2010. I'm not entirely sure about how it works: when my parents complete their citizenship, does that mean I automatically become a US citizen? Neither of my parents are citizens; they are still Permanent Residents. By the way, I live in Long Island, New York. I'm guessing this is extremely bad.
Click to expand...

If your parents apply can take oath before March 15, then you become a citizen automatically at the same time of your parent's oath. Otherwise you will have to apply for yourself. But You can not apply for yourself before you turn 18 - but you can check it out to be sure. By law,USCIS can not naturalize anyone under 18 years old but I am not sure if you can apply before 18 years old and only take oath after you turn 18.
 
If your parents Naturalize before you turn 18, then you will automatically derive US Citizenship. I think you should urge them to file their N400's immediately.
 
So you can do two things
(1) Wait for your parents to be naturalized. If any one of them get naturalized before March 10 ,2000, then you will be a citizen. So urge
your parents to act fast though it is pretty much in USCIS's hand once
the application is sent. In most DO districts, citizenship by March 10,2010
is very likely.

(2) If your parents can not make it by March 10,2010, then you can start
to apply for yourself.

But to meet your deadline for Janurary, you have to face the facts it may be hard
 
I guess this is really the only thing I can do for now. I will have my parents file their N-400's ASAP; hopefully the academies will have a policy where they will wait for the pending citizenship while evaluating my application. Thank you so very much for the replies.
 
Anonymous106 said:
I guess this is really the only thing I can do for now. I will have my parents file their N-400's ASAP; hopefully the academies will have a policy where they will wait for the pending citizenship while evaluating my application. Thank you so very much for the replies.
Click to expand...

In the meantime you can contact Defense Minister of ROK for nomination.
Maybe it is doable
 
If you mean you need to become a citizen before Sept. 26 of this year I would say that's utterly impossible. What is possible is that if your parents apply for N-400 (naturalization) let's say, within a week from now, they will most likely become citizens before you turn 18. You should probably write a cover letter for each of your parents applications explaining the situation and that in order for you to derive citizenship they should have their oath before your 18th birthday, it might help. I wish your parents would have done this earlier. By the way, you didn't need to wait to apply and receive a new GC, they could have applied for their naturalization before that, any time. There was no dependency between your GC (being expired) and their naturalization and you becoming a citizen. You would have become a citizen even if the card was expired. The card can expire, but that doesn't mean you stop being a permanent resident.
 
Anonymous106 said:
I guess this is really the only thing I can do for now. I will have my parents file their N-400's ASAP; hopefully the academies will have a policy where they will wait for the pending citizenship while evaluating my application. Thank you so very much for the replies.
Click to expand...

Have your parents apply immediately, send in your application to the schools and try contacting senator Schumer with your story:

New York City
757 Third Ave.
Suite 17-02
New York, NY 10017

(212) 486-7693
(202) 224-6542

Good luck.
 
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