I see immigration officer on Thursday. Help me quick please!

A

andreav

Registered Users (C)
Hi,

My dad is a US citizen born in the Philippines (My grandfather was in the Navy and became US citizen 3 years before my father was born). My father entered America 2-3 years of age and they went back to the Philippines after my grandfather retired (He was 8 years old going back). He and my mom married after I was born (so born out of wedlock) and he was in US Airforce by then. We lived in California (when I was 3) for awhile and my parents divorced (she is resident alien still to this day). My father had full custody of me when they divorced. We went to Japan (when I was 6) because he was stationed there on AF Base. We came back to the US in when I was 11 and we been here since.

I have an alien card (no expiration date), expired philippines passport.

I have been married for 5 years and I am currently the age of 27. My husband is a US Marines and we have orders to go to Germany at the end of the year. I was applying with N-600 I found online. My husband set up an appt. with immigration officer on Thursday through base legal. I was wondering if this was the right form to fill out before I went over. Also I read reading some people just go ahead and apply for a US passport and skip forms.

Let me know the quickest way I can get my US Citizenship. I'd really like to do it before we head out the country.

Thanks,
Andrea
 
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If you qualify for US citizenship through your father, it's not a matter of how fast you can get citizenship; you would have already derived it when you were a child living with your father with your permanent resident card. So now it's just about how fast you can get proof of the US citizenship which you already derived.

A US passport is quicker than N-600, but you can't "skip forms"; you'll still need to fill out an application form (DS-11), along with supporting evidence including:

1. Proof that your father was already US citizen before you turned 18
2. Proof that you were living with him in the US (or outside the US in the military) at some point in time between the divorce and your 18th birthday
3. Proof that he had legal custody during #2
4. Proof that you had a green card at some point during #2
5. Proof of the divorce (the date is important)

However if your N-600 is approved before you apply for the passport, you wouldn't need any of the above, you would just provide the citizenship certificate.

If you did NOT meet all the criteria to derive citizenship when you were under 18, you would have to apply for naturalization using N-400.
 
I am in the process of applying for my N-600 now. I would like to get my passport before applying for the N-600 (I will be paying turning in paperwork on Monday). Do I need certified paperwork for secondary proof for citizenship for my passport or are xerox copies ok ? All I have are copies of my dad's citizenship certificate. I just called him today to tell him I needed the original for my N-600 appt with the immigration people and he said it was lost and he just sent me a copy of his copy :-( . Is there another way I can show proof? Also about the N-600 my husband said after reading some stuff I should just skip the N-600. Should I? If I don't have my dad's citizenship paper what else can I use when applying for passport or the N-600? Should I just do the N-400 instead ? I'd just like to get this over with.
 
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andreav said:
Hi,

I am in the process of applying for my N-600. I would like to get my passport before applying for the N-600 (I will be paying turning in paperwork on Monday). Do I need certified paperwork for secondary proof for citizenship for my passport or are xerox copies ok ? All I have are copies of my dad's citizenship certificate. I just called him today to tell him I needed the original for my N-600 appt with the immigration people and he said it was lost and he just sent me a copy of his copy :-( . Is there another way I can show proof? Also about the N-600 my husband said after reading some stuff I should just skip the N-600. Should I? If I don't have my dad's citizenship paper what else can I use when applying for passport ?

If anyone needs to know the longer version....

-Dad was born aboard while grandfather is in Navy which is why he has the citizenship cert.

-Mother is not US citizen

- Dad served 21 years in airforce (7 years of it before I was born).

-I was born out of wedlock in 1985 in Philippines

-Parents married 3 months after my birth.

-Parents Divorced in 1990

-I have been in US since 1988.

- I lost my resident alien card last year during moving. <I don't know if that helps with anything but that darn thing is lost. :-(
Click to expand...

To apply for the US passport you'll need your father's original citizenship certificate or US passport, because don't have your own certificate or US passport. If using his passport, it would have to be issued before you were 18, in order to show that he was a US citizen before you turned 18. And the evidence you present for living with him in the US in his custody would have to be after the issue date of that passport. They will take away his passport during the processing of your application, so take that into consideration if you're not applying for an expedited same-day/next-day passport.

Since you lost your green card, I think they would accept the old passport with the immigrant visa which you used for your initial admission into the US as a permanent resident in 1988. However if you didn't arrive in the US with an immigrant visa, but arrived with another kind of visa and became a permanent resident later through adjustment of status, your passport would not have that visa and you'll need to apply to replace your green card. When you go to be fingerprinted for the green card replacement, you can ask them to give you an I-551 stamp in your passport. That stamp is the temporary equivalent of a green card, and you can use it for your passport application.

Also about the N-600 my husband said after reading some stuff I should just skip the N-600. Should I?
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Skip it for now, because the passport is quicker and cheaper. But don't forget about it forever; if you don't get your own citizenship certificate, you may again need your father's certificate or passport, and custody papers in order to replace your own passport. Getting your own certificate would end that dependency on his documents.
 
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Thanks for the quick reply. I am so stressed because my husband orders to Germany is in 4 months and I dont think that is enough of time for me :(
 
Sorry one more question since I should just get the passport I'd still like to try to get the N-600 so I dont have to depend on it. What else can I do for his citizenship certificate? I am reading its 1 year before people can get it replaced.
 
Should I just do the N-400 instead ?
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Since you're eligible for the N-600, they won't approve your N-400 application. They'll tell you to apply for N-600 instead.

Note that you don't need your father's original certificate or passport, or your original green card to apply for N-600. You only send copies with the N-600 application.

However they will ask to see the originals when you show up at a USCIS office to pick up the certificate at the end of the process. So you could apply for the N-600 now with a copy of his passport and your green card, then work on getting originals later. For that reason it might be preferable in your situation to apply for the N-600 first using those copies, then use your own certificate to apply for your own passport. That way they won't have to hold on to your father's passport for weeks during your own passport processing.
 
andreav said:
Sorry one more question since I should just get the passport I'd still like to try to get the N-600 so I dont have to depend on it. What else can I do for his citizenship certificate? I am reading its 1 year before people can get it replaced.
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If you have his US passport (even if it's expired*) which was issued before you were 18, you can use that (a copy of the identifying pages) instead of his certificate when applying for your N-600.

His certificate shouldn't take 1 year to replace. They normally produce the replacement within 6 months. But work on your own N-600 before replacing his certificate, unless you absolutely need his certificate because he can't find a passport either.


*however they might require that it expired less than 5 years ago.
 
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can you still apply for the n-600 overseas? if i can get my us passport i'll probably delay it until i am over there.
 
You can be overseas during the N-600 processing, but you have to send the application to an office in the US, and you also have to show up in the US to collect the certificate.
 
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