visa petitions may be upgraded when petitioner becomes US citizen
the procedure for upgrading the visa petition is simple.
take a copy the approval notice (or the receipt notice, if not yet approved). include a copy of the petitioner\'s naturalization certificate, send copies with a cover letter to the service center who sent the INS notice.
cover letter should restate the basic information of the visa petition (i.e.: petitioner\'s information, beneficiary\'s information, Receipt number [LINxxx, WACxxx, EACxxx, etc], then state that the petitioner was naturalized in {location} on {date}. Request the visa petition be processed for a visa based upon a family relationship with a United States citizen.
It should take the Service Center a couple of weeks to find the visa petition remove it from the group filed by permanent resident petitioners and place it in the group (by priority date!) filed by US citizens.
