Information from www.immigration-law.com
Updated 05/11/2002: Important Reminder of Child Born Abroad for Permanent Residents
This web site has posted twice this important rule, but apparently there are some people who are still not aware of this important rule, facing unexpected crisis. Choice of a citizenship is one\'s decision and some permanent resident parents opt to deliver their babies in their home countries so that their children acquire the homeland citizenship rather than U.S. citizenship. Since a baby becomes a U.S. citizen automatically if they were born in the U.S., such parents make a special trip to home country and deliver a baby there. The problem is that most parents bring the baby with them when they return to the U.S., but some parents return alone leaving the baby to their parents for the obvious reasons of difficulty in raising an infant when the mother works full-time. It is a big mistake, though.
People should remember the following rules:
(1) A child born abroad of legal permanent resident parents may enter the U.S. without a visa provided the child is accompanied by a parent upon that parent’s initial return to the U.S. within two years of the child’s birth with documentation showing the parent-child relationship.
(2) If the permanent resident parents leave the child abroad with family members and return to the U.S. without the child, the child must have an immigrant visa to enter the U.S. The child cannot apply for an immigrant visa unless the permanent resident parent(s) file a FB 2-A preference petition with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. It will take a number of years. Just look at the Visa Bulletin! People should never do this. If people need grandparents\' help back home, they should first bring the child with them to the U.S. when they return to the U.S., and make another trip back home to leave the baby with the grandparents. Important to remember. For other details, please our prior posting of this news on July 31, 1999 in the Archive. This is a Mother\'s Day weekend. Happy Mother\'s Day, mothers! Back to Top
