parents naturalized when i was 10

S

sctrojan1978

Registered Users (C)
hello,

my family received our green cards in 1980. my parents became naturalized US citzens in 1988 when i was about 10.

i dont know what happened but they never did the paper work for me so i still only have my green card.

what steps do i need to do to become a citizen? am i already a citizen because my parents were naturalized before i was 18?
 
On the uscis website they have all the info u need.
You shouldnt have a problem u Are already a USC. Good luck.
 
sctrojan1978 said:
my family received our green cards in 1980. my parents became naturalized US citzens in 1988 when i was about 10.

i dont know what happened but they never did the paper work for me so i still only have my green card.

what steps do i need to do to become a citizen? am i already a citizen because my parents were naturalized before i was 18?
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From the sound of it, you are already a USC. However, you must do the following :

A) Get a US passport. You need to provide the evidence to the passport people (agency, post office) of your parent's naturalization, your green card, and evidence you were living with them ... in their custody. The last part is hard as you need to go back and pull records from before you were 18. In general, school records showing you attended the school, and their residence records should be sufficient. However, looks like you need to go back to 1996 at the minimum, it will take some work unless you and family already have these records.

B) For the long term peace of mind, apply for a certificate of citizenship. Although both Dept of State and CIS are supposed to follow the same rules, there are very rare cases where they disagree, and I feel it is wise to create a record of citizenship through the authority which grants citizenship - that is CIS.

A word of caution ... the child naturalization laws changed a decade back and the post office / passport agency people are not always 100% clear on what the old laws were. For you, it does not make a big difference, but be aware there is a difference, and this is also a reason having a certificate of citizenship will help as no one has to decipher old laws, retain old documents and so on.
 
You should be a citizen. I think the law that applied at that time would grant you citizenship if both parents naturalized before you turned 18 and you had a green card. However, it might be good to double check. You could try to apply for a US passport and/or apply for a certificate of citizenship with form N-600.
 
sanjoseaug20 said:
From the sound of it, you are already a USC. However, you must do the following :

A) Get a US passport. You need to provide the evidence to the passport people (agency, post office) of your parent's naturalization, your green card, and evidence you were living with them ... in their custody. The last part is hard as you need to go back and pull records from before you were 18. In general, school records showing you attended the school, and their residence records should be sufficient. However, looks like you need to go back to 1996 at the minimum, it will take some work unless you and family already have these records.



B) For the long term peace of mind, apply for a certificate of citizenship. Although both Dept of State and CIS are supposed to follow the same rules, there are very rare cases where they disagree, and I feel it is wise to create a record of citizenship through the authority which grants citizenship - that is CIS.


A word of caution ... the child naturalization laws changed a decade back and the post office / passport agency people are not always 100% clear on what the old laws were. For you, it does not make a big difference, but be aware there is a difference, and this is also a reason having a certificate of citizenship will help as no one has to decipher old laws, retain old documents and so on.
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A)
1)I have both their citizenship papers
2)I have my green card (my picture is of me when i was a baby) am i suppose to renew this?
3) Ok this is the tricky part...the school records should be easy as im sure i can just walk in and request some old records. the hard part is going to be the resident records. what exactly do i need
in terms of resident records? utilities? rental checks? those records are going to be impossible to get because this was before computers.
 
Huracan said:
You should be a citizen. I think the law that applied at that time would grant you citizenship if both parents naturalized before you turned 18 and you had a green card. However, it might be good to double check. You could try to apply for a US passport and/or apply for a certificate of citizenship with form N-600.
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If i apply for a passport and i receive it then that should be sufficient paper evidence that im a citizen correct? applying for a certificate would just be a back up /peace of mind deal?

thanks
 
sctrojan1978 said:
A)
1)I have both their citizenship papers
2)I have my green card (my picture is of me when i was a baby) am i suppose to renew this?
3) Ok this is the tricky part...the school records should be easy as im sure i can just walk in and request some old records. the hard part is going to be the resident records. what exactly do i need
in terms of resident records? utilities? rental checks? those records are going to be impossible to get because this was before computers.
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Unless the GC has an expiry date, don't worry about renewing it. They might ask evidence that it is really you.
Residence records - tax returns, wage records, insurance records, DMV records ... the more the better.

Passport will require same documentation as citizenship certificates. Is it sufficient proof - 99.99% of the times - YES.
 
sctrojan1978 said:
3) Ok this is the tricky part...the school records should be easy as im sure i can just walk in and request some old records. the hard part is going to be the resident records. what exactly do i need in terms of resident records?
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The school records should show your address. Then it is just a matter of showing that the address is the same as what your parents' address was back then. But that may be unnecessary if the school records also list your parents names; that may be enough to convince the passport people that you were living with them.

Also make sure to get their marriage certificate, and some evidence that they are still married and living together, or that they divorced after they both naturalized.
applying for a certificate would just be a back up /peace of mind deal?
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Correct. Derivative citizenship has twists and turns, so it helps to have the certificate to provide a solid root document that proves citizenship, instead of your parent's documents being the root. The certificate also has the advantage of not expiring.
 
Jackolantern said:
The school records should show your address. Then it is just a matter of showing that the address is the same as what your parents' address was back then. But that may be unnecessary if the school records also list your parents names; that may be enough to convince the passport people that you were living with them.

Also make sure to get their marriage certificate, and some evidence that they are still married and living together, or that they divorced after they both naturalized.

Correct. Derivative citizenship has twists and turns, so it helps to have the certificate to provide a solid root document that proves citizenship, instead of your parent's documents being the root. The certificate also has the advantage of not expiring.
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I dont think they have a marriage certificate. they were married in vietnam in the 70s. mom passed away in 2004.
 
sctrojan1978 said:
I dont think they have a marriage certificate. they were married in vietnam in the 70s. mom passed away in 2004.
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USCIS should have some record of the fact that they were married, as your parents would have provided it to INS when they immigrated and/or naturalized. So hopefully the lack of a marriage certificate won't be a problem; your main task is to find something that shows they were living together when they naturalized, or at some other time frame between their naturalization and your 18th birthday.
 
Jackolantern said:
USCIS should have some record of the fact that they were married, as your parents would have provided it to INS when they immigrated and/or naturalized. So hopefully the lack of a marriage certificate won't be a problem; your main task is to find something that shows they were living together when they naturalized, or at some other time frame between their naturalization and your 18th birthday.
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just got off the phone with the us passport official.

told me i needed

1)parents citizenship papers
2)my birth certificate
3)school records to show my address
4)green card
5)parents marriage license(told her i didnt have it) she said if i cant get it then as long as their citizenship papers list "married" then that would suffice


thanks for all the help guys. will update you
 
sctrojan1978 said:
just got off the phone with the us passport official.

told me i needed

1)parents citizenship papers
2)my birth certificate
3)school records to show my address
4)green card
5)parents marriage license(told her i didnt have it) she said if i cant get it then as long as their citizenship papers list "married" then that would suffice


thanks for all the help guys. will update you
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Just got a response from department of state. they need my parents marriange certificate.
i am unable to get this as they were married in a small village in asia in the 70s.

Is this a deal breaker for the government? i have everything above except the marriage certificate.
 
On what basis did they immigrate -- did one parent immigrate as the derivative beneficiary of the other parent? If yes, that means they would have had to provide documentation of the marriage to the INS, and USCIS should have that on file. I'm guessing that one your parents was the primary applicant who was sponsored by a sibling, employer, or was an asylee or refugee, and then you and your other parent were added as derivatives.

So you'll probably have better luck applying for N-600, as USCIS can access your parents' immigration records when processing your case. Then once the N-600 is approved, passport approval is automatic.

However, their marriage certificate shouldn't be a deal-breaker if both of them naturalized. Under the old law, to qualify for derivative citizenship you would need either both parents to be US citizens if they're married, or the custodial parent to be a USC if they're separated/divorced/widowed/never-married. With both of them having naturalized, you would qualify either way.

So at this point the only relevance of the marriage certificate should be to legally establish paternity; the husband is legally presumed to be the father of children born to his wife during the marriage. Without the marriage certificate, there are other ways to establish paternity, such as evidence of you growing up with him as a small child, or a DNA test. And if your father was the primary applicant for your family's immigration and you joined him based on him being your father, that means INS (now USCIS) has already acknowledged the paternal relationship, which would help your N-600.

Also, if they provided evidence of the marriage to INS when they immigrated, that probably means their marriage was registered. Maybe it wasn't registered in their small village, but they could have registered it at a government office or court in the nearest city. Do you have relatives there who could help with investigating that?
 
Why is there a 2-year gap between your last response and the previous one? Did the Department of State delay the case for 2 years, or did you delay your application for 2 years?
 
We all came here together as refugees. A church sponsored us. They were married at the time with 3 kids with all five of us came over.

I have documentation form schools to prove that i grew up in the same household

Also they were both naturalized and on the citizenship certificate they got it shows married.
 
Depending on the specifics of their refugee immigration process, they may or may not have had to provide evidence of the marriage to USCIS.

Without the marriage certificate, you may be unable to get the passport without the N-600 first. At this point I suggest you find an immigration lawyer to help you unravel the complexities of your case.
 
sctrojan1978 said:
Sent in my mothers passport last week. Talked to person on phone and told them i do not have a marriage certificate.
waiting on them to get back to me.
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GOT MY PASSPORT IN THE MAIL TODAY. No marriage certificate needed.

so am i technically a us citizen now? do i go to the swearing in ceremony for citizens? do i even need to get the certificate of citizenship?

Thanks to this forum for all the help!
 
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