N-600K my son's dream of becoming an American slowly dwindling

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tileeba

Registered Users (C)
I am an American citizen who lives in Brazil, but I haven't had enough physical presence in the U.S. to automatically pass my American citizenship to my son. My son has dreamed of getting his American citizenship, but so many things have happened in life and only now were we able to work on this.

I applied in March 2013 for citizenship for my son via the N-600K (under section 322) where he can get his citizenship through my mother. Here is how things stand at the moment:

* My son turns 18 on September 17, 2013.

* I gave Philadelphia, PA as my preferred location for interview, and chose July 16, 2013 as our preferred date.

* I received an NOA on March 28, 2013.

* I have not received any communication from the USCIS since then.

* I have called the central office several times, but get conflicting information. Some say that there is no 18-year-old cut-off date (which the attendant insists on, but I know is not true), others tell me to be patient. The last time I called, the agent was going to try to send a request to expedite our case, but then said he couldn't put it in the system as our address is overseas.

* I am losing hope of being invited to the interview before it is too late.

* I called my congressman's office in Tennessee yesterday (June 19, 2013), and the assistant checked the site where applications are being processed (wherever that is) and she told me that it seems like they are processing applications from May of 2012 now (applications that were filed more than a year ago!) (I am not sure she quite understands what the N-600K is, though, as she initially thought there was no cut-off date, too.) She told me to send her a request of assistance via email, which I did; and she will supposedly forward it to the USCIS office; however, she already informed me that they could not request that the case be expedited or put ahead of any others.

Now I don't know what else to do. I'm having a hard time sleeping at night thinking about this lost opportunity for my son. I thought there would be enough time.

Do you have any other suggestion? Your help will be very much appreciated.
 
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* I have called the central office several times, but get conflicting information. Some say that there is no 18-year-old cut-off date (which the attendant insists on, but I know is not true), others tell me to be patient. The last time I called, the agent was going to try to send a request to expedite our case, but then said he couldn't put it in the system as our address is overseas.

I know there is no cut off of 18 years for N-600 application. Same must be true for N-600K application.
Sometimes USCIS does give correct information but most do not believe!!!!
 
That is the problem; most do confuse it with the N-600, but it is not the same. Here are the instructions from the USCIS site for the N-600k:

WHO MAY FILE THIS FORM?

3. Will not yet have reached their eighteenth birthday at the
time of fulfilling all of the requirements for citizenship,
including the required interview of U.S. citizen parent and
the child; and...
 
There is an 18-years-old cutoff date for N-600K, but not for N-600.

If you don't see some meaningful progress by the end of July, make an Infopass appointment and fly to the US for the appointment with your son. Bring all the relevant original documents with you. When you're there in person to explain the urgency of the situation, they might just arrange for your son to complete the formalities on another day before he's 18.

See this post describing a successful experience with another very similar situation: http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?554694&p=2625504#post2625504
 
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Thank you so much for your reply and advice! I really appreciate it. I realize that might be our only option now.

I will definitely try that, but my greatest concern is the visa situation. I had contacted our consulate in São Paulo where we will have to get a visa for my son and they told me to make sure to bring the invitation for the interview for them to issue a tourist visa for him. I am afraid that if I go to the consulate and ask for a visa for my son for us to appear for an infopass meeting, the agent might deny us the visa as they might see it as a roundabout way to bypass the system. I had a similar situation once when I took my family to the U.S. and they initially did not grant them visas because we were going to stay in the U.S. for a while, and they said I couldn't get a tourist visa for that. (I have 3 kids, by the way, but I am only working on my oldest son's situation right now.)

Do you have any advice on the best way to go about the visa situation?
 
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Looks like you'll have to fly to the Infopass by yourself, then have him apply for the visa and fly to the US later if/when you've successfully arranged the interview.
 
Do you agree with me that the visa department might not want to issue a visa for the infopass meeting?

Wow, that would be tough. From what I read of the other post, the other lady took her son, and the officer at the infopass meeting sent them an email asking if they could come in the very next day. Unfortunately, I don't think it would be feasable to go without my son.
 
That lady's son already had a valid tourist visa before the N-600K process.

You can try for his tourist visa, but I don't think they'll approve it without proof of the upcoming interview. Then you'll have no choice but to go by yourself anyway. If they ask for him to come in the next day, explain that he'll need a couple weeks to get a visa and fly over, and set up an appointment accordingly.
 
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I remembered that the last time I got visas for my family members, the visas were finally approved through an affidavit of support from my uncle. I think I will go ahead and mark an infopass appointment and then schedule a visa interview for my son and take an affidavit; what do you think?

And please could you give me advice on scheduling the infopass?

1. Should I schedule the infopass in my name or my son's name?

2. Which of the following options should I chose?

*Order from Immigration Court - If you were directed to us for processing based on an order from the Immigration Judge. You must bring all documents required in the post order instructions given to you by the court.

*Case Processing Appointment - If you received a notice to go to your local office for further case processing.

*EAD inquiry appointment - If your I-765 employment authorization application has been pending for more than 90 days.

*Case Services follow-up appointment - If it has been over 45 days since you contacted NCSC and have not received a response to your inquiry. You must bring the Service Request ID Number related to your inquiry to the appointment.
 
So he had a US visa before, and used it to enter the US and left without overstaying? If yes, that makes it easier to get another visa.

You could apply for his visa ASAP, without any Infopass appointment or interview letter or mention of it; just apply with him as a regular tourist who's going to visit his uncle or other relatives, like you did before. That way he'll already have the visa in his hand if/when it's time to go to the US to complete the N-600K procedures.
 
Good idea. Thank you for the advice. I'll work on that first thing next week.

My sister has the same situation as I do and she filed an N-600K for her daughter the same time I did. Her daughter will turn 18 next year (2014) in June so she does not have the exact same time crunch as I do (my son turns 18 this September); however, my sister was hoping to be invited to the interview the same time we were so she could travel with us. Do you think she could try to get an interview through infopass, too, at the same time I do; or do you think it is best to wait in her case?
 
Your niece's case doesn't have a big time crunch and should be completed before her birthday in 2014 through the normal processing; it's unlikely they would let her jump to the front of the line when there is no pressing need for that.

However, it's possible that both cases will get a notice sent in July for an interview date in August or early September, without Infopass or any other action to speed things up. So wait a few weeks and see what happens. Meanwhile, apply for his tourist visa now so he'll have it in advance of the final N-600K procedures, and he'll be able to use it to visit relatives in the US this summer regardless of the N-600K. For the visa interview, if his old visa is in his previous passport, bring that passport also so they can see the visa.
 
Hello Jackolantern and all the kind helpers here!

I’m just dropping by to tell you the happy ending of our story.

We were running out of time, and I truly did not know what to do to get an interview with the USCIS before my son turned 18. I was going to try to mark an Infopass interview, but I am sure I would have had a hard time explaining my situation to the Immigration office here in Brazil to get a visa for my son.

That is when someone gave the suggestion I contact my congressman. As I vote in Tennessee (my last place of residence in the States), I contacted our congressman there. I spoke to a kind assistant, but she told me that it wouldn’t be possible to ask to put me ahead of anyone or expedite my case, as it seemed to be first-come-first-served basis. She told me, however, to go ahead and send a formal request (by e-mail) to the congressman and she would forward it on to the USCIS office in Philadelphia (the place we marked for our interview).

A few weeks passed and I thought it was a dead end, but then I received an e-mail from the Congressman’s assistant asking me to contact her as soon as I could. I called her right away, and she told me that she was in touch with the Congressman’s liaison in the Philadelphia office and they had a date for an interview for us – September 11, 2013, exactly 6 days before my son’s 18th birthday!! As these interviews are only done on Wednesdays, this was the very last date possible for an interview in which my son would still be eligible!

To make a long story short, I received the official invitation for the interview, and through their e-mail asked if my niece (16, almost 17) could also come at the same time. They said my sister (my niece’s mother) could contact them through the same e-mail address I was using to communicate with them, and they marked my niece’s interview for the same day, right after my son’s! My sister, her daughter, my son, and I traveled together to the States; we stayed in the Philadelphia area with my cousin for a couple of weeks; and all went well with the interviews! My son got his American citizenship right in the nick of time!!

I just wanted to stop by here at the end of the year to tell you how our story unfolded and to thank you once again for all your kind interest and help. May you all have a very Blessed and Happy 2014!
 
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