Dual Citzen...will it matter at embassy? + advice on Lawyers for K1

[jpac876 1]

hello again....just wondering, come time that my fiance goes to her interview at the USEM, will my status as a dual citizen of both the US and philippines come into place at all? I was born in dallas texas. However when i studied abroad in the philippines last year i was able to recognize my filipino citizenship since at the time of my birth, my mother was a still a filipino citizen. In turn, i was entitled by philippine law to natural born citizenship. Essentially, i am both a natural born american citizen and natural born filipino citizen =) I really doubt this fact will come into play. However, i just thought i should ask to be safe since my lawyer is USELESS and never replies.

btw: if at ALL possible avoid the use of lawyers when filing for K1 visas. I really should have taken the advice of the other "VJ'ers" and taken care of it myself. Everything was pretty much done by me. Since he took so long to respond, i pretty much filled out the forms online myself, signed them and sent them to him and he sent them to the service center. SO to those asking about lawyers regarding k1 visas, i really recommend to the the majority of you to take the advice written on some of the posts here. For the most part, all they do is proofread, delay your filing dates by not responding in a timely manner, and charge you way too much money. To be more specific i hired Tod Schlosser and his RHC Visa services to handle my case. He promised me quicker approval and sounded quite cocky on the phone. Me, being desperate and so excited, took this cockiness as confidence and truth. IN reality, it really just seemed like he was hounding me for money. Truly more of a salesman than an attorney. Anyway this was mid-August 2009. My answer to him was to give me some time to come up with a down payment for his services which cost ($2000). In the one week leading to the day that i paid the down payment, he called me everyday asking for information and when i would be ready to start letting his firm handle our petition. If i had a question he'd email or call me back within the hour and was really on top of things. He even bragged by saying "see how fast we respond?" Little that i knew, after i paid him on the 27th of August, he didn't respond to me AT ALL until almost October. When he finally decided to respond and apologize (cited travel reasons) all he did was email me a questionnaire for him to "fill out" my forms. TOO bad precious and i had already filled them out and signed, we had also gathered all of our evidence 1 WEEK after hiring rhc visa services. Anyway, after over a month of wiating for his stupid firm to reply, and waiting for them to "proofread" they finally sent our petition to the VSC on October 6. Although we are very thankful to have received our NOA2 now, I wonder if all the trouble with waiting for rhc visa service to respond had been worth it. My answer, is no. However, what can you do? We just have to take what God throws at us sometimes. It was definitely a lesson learned. Overall my opinion on lawyers is unless you have extenuating circumstances regarding any legal history here in the US, you will almost always be better off doing it yourself. They have no abiliity to speed up your processing times nor do they have any kind of "pull" at the embassies. Believe it or not, all they really do is proofread, mail your documents to the service center, and make thousands of dollars doing it. I'm not saying that NO ONE needs a lawyer, i'm saying that MOST of us DON'T need them. I honestly felt like Todd Schlosser and RHC Visa service really just offered their best services to lure me to pay them, then as soon as the payment is received all customer service flew out the window =/ Read the posts, ask questions here on VJ, follow instructions, and you guys should be quite alright by yourselves. God bless everyone on their visa journeys and thank you VJ for helping me through the process! Anyone who has a story about using lawyers for their k1 visas please feel free to share =) Good or bad!

Edited December 18, 2009 by jpac876

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

hello again....just wondering, come time that my fiance goes to her interview at the USEM, will my status as a dual citizen of both the US and philippines come into place at all? I was born in dallas texas. However when i studied abroad in the philippines last year i was able to recognize my filipino citizenship since at the time of my birth, my mother was a still a filipino citizen. In turn, i was entitled by philippine law to natural born citizenship. Essentially, i am both a natural born american citizen and natural born filipino citizen =) I really doubt this fact will come into play. However, i just thought i should ask to be safe since my lawyer is USELESS and never replies.

btw: if at ALL possible avoid the use of lawyers when filing for K1 visas. I really should have taken the advice of the other "VJ'ers" and taken care of it myself. Everything was pretty much done by me. Since he took so long to respond, i pretty much filled out the forms online myself, signed them and sent them to him and he sent them to the service center. SO to those asking about lawyers regarding k1 visas, i really recommend to the the majority of you to take the advice written on some of the posts here. For the most part, all they do is proofread, delay your filing dates by not responding in a timely manner, and charge you way too much money. To be more specific i hired Tod Schlosser and his RHC Visa services to handle my case. He promised me quicker approval and sounded quite cocky on the phone. Me, being desperate and so excited, took this cockiness as confidence and truth. IN reality, it really just seemed like he was hounding me for money. Truly more of a salesman than an attorney. Anyway this was mid-August 2009. My answer to him was to give me some time to come up with a down payment for his services which cost ($2000). In the one week leading to the day that i paid the down payment, he called me everyday asking for information and when i would be ready to start letting his firm handle our petition. If i had a question he'd email or call me back within the hour and was really on top of things. He even bragged by saying "see how fast we respond?" Little that i knew, after i paid him on the 27th of August, he didn't respond to me AT ALL until almost October. When he finally decided to respond and apologize (cited travel reasons) all he did was email me a questionnaire for him to "fill out" my forms. TOO bad precious and i had already filled them out and signed, we had also gathered all of our evidence 1 WEEK after hiring rhc visa services. Anyway, after over a month of wiating for his stupid firm to reply, and waiting for them to "proofread" they finally sent our petition to the VSC on October 6. Although we are very thankful to have received our NOA2 now, I wonder if all the trouble with waiting for rhc visa service to respond had been worth it. My answer, is no. However, what can you do? We just have to take what God throws at us sometimes. It was definitely a lesson learned. Overall my opinion on lawyers is unless you have extenuating circumstances regarding any legal history here in the US, you will almost always be better off doing it yourself. They have no abiliity to speed up your processing times nor do they have any kind of "pull" at the embassies. Believe it or not, all they really do is proofread, mail your documents to the service center, and make thousands of dollars doing it. I'm not saying that NO ONE needs a lawyer, i'm saying that MOST of us DON'T need them. I honestly felt like Todd Schlosser and RHC Visa service really just offered their best services to lure me to pay them, then as soon as the payment is received all customer service flew out the window =/ Read the posts, ask questions here on VJ, follow instructions, and you guys should be quite alright by yourselves. God bless everyone on their visa journeys and thank you VJ for helping me through the process! Anyone who has a story about using lawyers for their k1 visas please feel free to share =) Good or bad!

You have no status, witrh the USA as a "dual citizen". The USA does not recognize dual citizenships, you are a US citizen and nothing else as far as the US government is concerned. It will make no difference.

attorneys are parasites

[jpac876 1]

thats exactly what i thought =) had to make sure though..haha thanks!

[Old Dominion 26]

It is irrelevant to your case. Sorry the lawyer overcharged you so much!!

[Weevil 1]

That is incorrect. The USA does indeed recognize dual citizenship. If you acquired dual citizenship with the US and another country from birth, the government does not require you to renounce the other citizenship on reaching your 18th birthday. Also the renunciation part of the nationalization oath is not enforced. Where as in Germany (my husband's country) You cannot have dual citizenship unless you are born with it. (My husband is German and French by birth) However if a citizenship is taken not by birth, you loose your German citizenship. (So my husband cannot take a US citizenship without loosing his German citizenship, but our children will acquire both US and German citizenship at birth, as well as the French one.)

Your dual citizenship shouldn't have any effect at the embassy, for US government purposes you are considered a US citizen (while in the Philippines you'd be considered that citizenship).

[EasternDE 35]

If you acquired dual citizenship with the US and another country from birth, the government does not require you to renounce the other citizenship on reaching your 18th birthday.

"Does not require you to renounce to the other citizenship" doesn't mean "recognize dual citizenship". Gary is right.

American government allows dual citizenship, but they'll only consider you as an american citizen, the rest they basically don't care.

Well, what Gary just said anyway...

Edited January 2, 2010 by EasternDE

[Danu 19]

That is incorrect. The USA does indeed recognize dual citizenship. If you acquired dual citizenship with the US and another country from birth, the government does not require you to renounce the other citizenship on reaching your 18th birthday. Also the renunciation part of the nationalization oath is not enforced. Where as in Germany (my husband's country) You cannot have dual citizenship unless you are born with it. (My husband is German and French by birth) However if a citizenship is taken not by birth, you loose your German citizenship. (So my husband cannot take a US citizenship without loosing his German citizenship, but our children will acquire both US and German citizenship at birth, as well as the French one.)

Your dual citizenship shouldn't have any effect at the embassy, for US government purposes you are considered a US citizen (while in the Philippines you'd be considered that citizenship).

Something to add thats for you not the OP, Germany will now let you apply to get permission to take on another citizenship. There is a fee involved, but if hes interested in getting his US citizenship as well as retaining his German one, he can find out the steps through the German consulate. My mom is looking at the possibility of doing this so she can duel German and Canadian. You are right that with Germany though without that permission you will automatically loose your citizenship if you aquire another.

[Weevil 1]

Something to add thats for you not the OP, Germany will now let you apply to get permission to take on another citizenship. There is a fee involved, but if hes interested in getting his US citizenship as well as retaining his German one, he can find out the steps through the German consulate. My mom is looking at the possibility of doing this so she can duel German and Canadian. You are right that with Germany though without that permission you will automatically loose your citizenship if you aquire another.

Yeah we found that out earlier today actually. Can't seem to find much info on it though. Something about having to prove hardship if you don't get that other citizenship. (I don't speak much German so can't decipher the pages )

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

However if a citizenship is taken not by birth, you loose your German citizenship. (So my husband cannot take a US citizenship without loosing his German citizenship, but our children will acquire both US and German citizenship at birth, as well as the French one.)

You are so wrong, so clueless, I had to go outside and scream!

First, google "Beibehaltungsgenehmigung" (BBG), then join the Yahoo group ZweiPaesse (two passports) before you destroy your husband's chance of being a German and US citizen at the same time, perfectly legal. That particular law was introduced in 2000, by the way.

And "loose" means not firmly attached, whereas "lose" refers to not having something anymore.

God, don't make me lose my loose pants.

[Danu 19]

*facepalms* This is what I get for not using spell check. I do know the difference though, honest! I just sometimes write faster than my eyes can keep up with so I don't catch my stupid mistakes.