Us citizenship question

N

Naz121

Registered Users (C)
i am 20 years old i have been living in usa for almost 8 years i tried to get citizenship last year by filing N-400 but i was said i was alredy a citizen because my dad became a us citizen in 2001 while i was a minor at that time well the problem is my mom got married twice and my step father who is a naturalized citizen bought us to this country when i was 12 i use his last name his name is on my passport as a legal gaurdian its on my school documents and just abt everything but the birth certificate has my original father name so is it possible to get a us passport through my step father if not how can i open up my previous case with N-400

Q1) on form N-400 i said one of my parent which is my step father was a us citizen was i wrong to do that?



Q2) the officer told me that i was a us citizen did she give me wrong information based on what name she saw on my passport


Q3) if i cannot obtain a us passport through my step dad how can i repopen my N-400 case again as i cannot afford to pay $700 again for it
 
If I were you, I would try going with your Mom's (2nd) marriage certificate, your birth certificate and your step-father's natz certificate straight for a Dept of State passport application. That would prove the relationship between you and your step-father.

If that gets turned down, other options are N-600 (same docs for proof), or the N-400 and hope for a different IO.
 
That's funny, I would guess the right outcome of that N-400 should have been a certificate of citizenship, not a rejection. Perhaps this is a suggestion for the ombudsman. I don't mean that is what you should have expected, but what ideally should have happened. I agree with boatbod it looks like your choices are N-600 or passport. The advantage of N-600 is that you'll get the certificate of citizenship, and USCIS will verify again all the relationship between your stepfather, mother and you. Did you get the IO opinion in writing? I would guess that would be some insurance in case USCIS comes after you later saying that you were not a citizen after all. It is hard for us to give you a full answer as we lack the expertise and don't have all the information that's available to the IO.
There has been some speculation in this board about whether one has to be legally adopted to derive citizenship through a step parent. I don't have the answer for that. I would guess if you are legally adopted by your step father that would definitely be a plus.

For Q3 I would guess you should be able to reopen the N-400 (provided it happens within whatever timeframe USCIS is giving you). My guess is that you should be able to obtain a passport. Anyway, there are some areas of U.S. citizenship that are a bit blurry. It seems your case is in that zone.
 
Actually I think part of the N-400 adjudication says that a person cannot be naturalized if they are already a citizen (by whatever means), so the IO had no choice but to deny the case.
 
you cannot claim US citizenship through your stepfather unless he adopted you before you turned 16 years old. If you were not adopted you were wrong listing your stepfather as your "father" on N-400. If that was your case, you should re-apply with N-400 listing your biological father as your "father"
 
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