Me, my wife and two kids: N-400 only OR N-400 + N-600? Please help!

D

dedok

New Member
I tried to find an answer here and in other places - no way.
Filing citizenship for the whole family (40yo, 39yo and two sons: 15yo, 8yo).
What should I file? Just two N-400? Two N-400 and two N-600?
USCIS says NOTHING about such case. They say that children are eligible when parent(s) are citizens.
OK, fine. What if parents are not yet citizens? Can I file the whole family simultaneously? Thank you in advance.
 
Its simple - separately file one N-400 for yourself and one for your wife, then as soon as one of you becomes a USC, your children automatically become citizens too (assuming they are currently GC holders and residing in the US with you).

At that point you have a choice whether to simply apply to the State Dept for their passports (quick) or send N-600 to USCIS to get their certificate of citizenship (slow). Personally, I think I'd get the passport first, then go the N-600 route once the pressure was off.
 
N-600 is not an application for citizenship or for naturalization, it is an application for a citizenship certificate for a child who is already a citizen.

If you children live with you and your wife, and if they are permanent residents, they will auto-magically become US Citizens as the first one of you completes the oath of naturalization. At that point they can apply for a passport or, using an N-600, a citizenship certificate. In both cases (passport and N-600), you use your (or your wife's) naturalization certificate (though you only need to include a copy of the certificate with an N-600 (the original is required for a passport).

We pretty much followed boatbod's advice (got our daughter a passport immediately, and then submitted an N-600 once we got over the rush of oaths and applications).

Good luck
 
Thank you, guys!
You made my day. :)
I'm still not sure why I'd need that certificate for kids though ($255 each btw). Isn't passport enough? Are there any exclusions?
 
dedok said:
Thank you, guys!
You made my day. :)
I'm still not sure why I'd need that certificate for kids though ($255 each btw). Isn't passport enough? Are there any exclusions?
Click to expand...

Generally, the passport is a enough proof of citizenship. But passports do get lost, and expired. Certificate of Citizenship never gets expired and can be used lifelong as a proof of citizenship.

With your kids only getting a passport, their only proof of citizenship is that you became a citizen, while they were < 18, and on GC. With Certificate of Citizenship, there are no questions, say after 60 + years from now, if you are not alive...Certificate of Citizenship will complete their immigration file for ever!
 
sg_orl said:
Generally, the passport is a enough proof of citizenship. But passports do get lost, and expired. Certificate of Citizenship never gets expired and can be used lifelong as a proof of citizenship.

With your kids only getting a passport, their only proof of citizenship is that you became a citizen, while they were < 18, and on GC. With Certificate of Citizenship, there are no questions, say after 60 + years from now, if you are not alive...Certificate of Citizenship will complete their immigration file for ever!
Click to expand...
Hello sg_orl,
My wife is already a naturalized US citizen, I'm stuck in the name check black hole for two years (I filed finally a lawsuit about a month ago). Our daughter is 19 year old, if I read correctly your post, she can't simply get a passport and a certificate of naturalization because she is now >18 year old. So if this is true, probably her only option is to submit a N-400 application to USCIS, as we did with my wife and go through the same long process. My wife's oath ceremony was 2 weeks after our daugther's 18th birthday :(

Can somebody point me to the right place where the kids age limit is described? (i.e, your child has to be <18 year, to get the passport and certificate of citizenship automatically, based on the parent(s) citizenship and not going through the whole N-400 application)
Thanks,
paz1960
 
paz1960 said:
Hello sg_orl,
My wife is already a naturalized US citizen, I'm stuck in the name check black hole for two years (I filed finally a lawsuit about a month ago). Our daughter is 19 year old, if I read correctly your post, she can't simply get a passport and a certificate of naturalization because she is now >18 year old. So if this is true, probably her only option is to submit a N-400 application to USCIS, as we did with my wife and go through the same long process. My wife's oath ceremony was 2 weeks after our daugther's 18th birthday :(

Can somebody point me to the right place where the kids age limit is described? (i.e, your child has to be <18 year, to get the passport and certificate of citizenship automatically, based on the parent(s) citizenship and not going through the whole N-400 application)
Thanks,
paz1960
Click to expand...

I think most of your appraisal of the situation seems right. A few issues though. Children under the child citizenship act get automatic citizenship, but not automatic certificate of citizenship. For the certificate itself you would need to apply for it with a form N-600. It might sound funny, but that's how it is, the citizenship is granted automatically, but the proof of it (the certificate) is not granted automatically. I myself sent a couple of messages to the immigration ombudsman suggesting that the form N-400 should be augmented to allow to apply for eligible children certificates of citizenship concurrently with the naturalization process, so when one of the parents naturalize the child can also get his/her certificate of citizenship.

There are multiple places for the age limit information you request, but here is one of them:
http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/info/info_457.html

I believe the way you describe your case your daughter will have to send a N-400. If you think about it it is not that bad, it is a bit more expensive than a N-600 but at the end she will have the certificate of citizenship all the same. It will just take her a few more months to get citizenship. I assume she has been a permanent resident for at least 5 years now. If she is, she can go ahead and apply, she doesn't need to wait for your citizenship to come through.

My 2 cents.
 
The link above looks good, but you can always google for "child citizenship act 2000" for more info.

Sorry to hear your daughter missed the age cutoff by 2 weeks. Major bummer.
 
Yup, if your child had been under 18 when your wife took the oath, she'd be an auto-magic citizen and could apply for a certificate using an N-600. But, she isn't, so she gets to do the N-400 dance and check her mail box everyday for a long time. Too bad.

We were lucky. My daughter was almost 17.5 years old when she became a citizen (her impending 17th birthday was what gave us the incentive to get everything together and finally fill in the N-400).

Oh well - good luck for your daughter
 
Flydog said:
Yup, if your child had been under 18 when your wife took the oath, she'd be an auto-magic citizen and could apply for a certificate using an N-600. But, she isn't, so she gets to do the N-400 dance and check her mail box everyday for a long time. Too bad.

We were lucky. My daughter was almost 17.5 years old when she became a citizen (her impending 17th birthday was what gave us the incentive to get everything together and finally fill in the N-400).

Oh well - good luck for your daughter
Click to expand...
What is interesting, that we had the N-400 interview on January 27, 2005, our daughter's 18th birthday was in early June 2005 and my wife, who was approved at the end of the interview, received the oath letter couple of weeks after the interview but for an oath ceremony scheduled 2 weeks AFTER our daughter's birthday and almost 5 months after the approval date. It is hard for me to not assume that this was done on purpose by USCIS...Too bad that I didn't pay enough attention to this that time; I had no idea that we could ask for example the district court to schedule the oath ceremony earlier because the "age out" benefit. Well, we always learn...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
paz1960 said:
What is interesting, that we had the N-400 interview on January 27, 2005, our daughter's 18th birthday was in early June 2005 and my wife, who was approved at the end of the interview, received the oath letter couple of weeks after the interview but for an oath ceremony scheduled 2 weeks AFTER our daughter's birthday and almost 5 months after the approval date. It is hard for me to not assume that this was done on purpose by USCIS...Too bad that I didn't pay enough attention to this that time; I had no idea that we could ask for example the district court to schedule the oath ceremony earlier because the "age out" benefit. Well, we always learn...
Click to expand...

You daughter will have apply by N-400 and go thru' the regular naturalization process because your wife became citizen on the day of oath.

In your case, have you contacted the Congressman and Senator's office. You may have to keep the pressure on them to write letter's on your behalf to request to expedit the name check, specially since it's been so long.

Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top