Dual Citizen Had Child Abroad

[tabletalk 1]

Hello everyone,

My wife and I (of 11 years) have a 10 year old son born in Calgary, Canada. My wife holds dual citizenship with the United States and Canada. She was born in Canada with her mom being the born and raised American. My wife claimed her citizenship later in life when she found out that she could get her paperwork through her mom. Now we are looking at immigrating to the States as a family but are unsure of the process. We were hoping that we could get citizenship for our son making it one less visa to apply for. Any help or experience would be appreciated.

[TBoneTX 45,229]

*** Thread moved from US CItizenship main forum to the CRBA subforum. ***

[canadian_wife 1,822]

From your post, it does not sound like your wife qualifies to grant derivative citizenship to the child.

good luck

[newacct 688]

Hello everyone,

My wife and I (of 11 years) have a 10 year old son born in Calgary, Canada. My wife holds dual citizenship with the United States and Canada. She was born in Canada with her mom being the born and raised American. My wife claimed her citizenship later in life when she found out that she could get her paperwork through her mom. Now we are looking at immigrating to the States as a family but are unsure of the process. We were hoping that we could get citizenship for our son making it one less visa to apply for. Any help or experience would be appreciated.

Your son was born in wedlock (i.e. you and your wife were married at the time he was born), right? And you are not a US national, right? How much total cumulative time has your wife physically spent in the US in her life before the child's birth? And how much of that time was after turning 14?

[tabletalk 1]

Hello everyone,

To answer a couple of questions and ask a couple more...

My son was born in wedlock in Canada. I am not a US National, my wife was born in Canada also and obtained her USC through her mother who was born and raised in the United States.

My wife has not lived the required 5 years in the United States prior to the birth of our child and it seems will be unable to pass on her citizenship in this way.

In doing some more research I uncovered the Child Citizenship Act of 2000.

Has anyone had luck filing the N-600k using the child's grandparent to obtain citizenship documents abroad? It seems pretty straightforward as I can tell.

Thank-you

[newacct 688]

Hello everyone,

To answer a couple of questions and ask a couple more...

My son was born in wedlock in Canada. I am not a US National, my wife was born in Canada also and obtained her USC through her mother who was born and raised in the United States.

My wife has not lived the required 5 years in the United States prior to the birth of our child and it seems will be unable to pass on her citizenship in this way.

In doing some more research I uncovered the Child Citizenship Act of 2000.

Has anyone had luck filing the N-600k using the child's grandparent to obtain citizenship documents abroad? It seems pretty straightforward as I can tell.

Thank-you

Since you are planning for the child to immigrate to the US, the proper way is for your wife to petition for the child and get an immigrant visa (same as will be done for you).

The N-600K naturalization process is meant for children who will continue residing abroad. In this process, when N-600K is approved, the child must enter the US in a nonimmigrant status to take the oath, and only then become a US citizen. Although Canadian citizens do not need a visa to visit the US, they are still not supposed to enter as a visitor with the intent of relocating to the US.

[tabletalk 1]

Since you are planning for the child to immigrate to the US, the proper way is for your wife to petition for the child and get an immigrant visa (same as will be done for you).

The N-600K naturalization process is meant for children who will continue residing abroad. In this process, when N-600K is approved, the child must enter the US in a nonimmigrant status to take the oath, and only then become a US citizen. Although Canadian citizens do not need a visa to visit the US, they are still not supposed to enter as a visitor with the intent of relocating to the US.

Thanks for the response,

our line of thinking is that the N-600k would likely be processed more quickly than the I-130 leaving us with one less application to file and follow up on. "Intent" I suppose is a matter of timing. The intent behind documenting our son as a citizen would be to one day immigrate to the United States regardless of my application.

[boy15 23]

You might rely on the physical presence of the child’s U.S. citizen grandparent to meet the requirement.

3. Reliance on Physical Presence of Child’s U.S. Citizen Grandparent ​

​

If the child’s parent does not meet the physical presence requirement, the child may rely on the physical presence of the child’s U.S. citizen grandparent to meet the requirement. In such cases, the officer first must verify that the citizen grandparent, the citizen parent’s mother or father, is a U.S. citizen at the time of filing. If the grandparent has died, the grandparent must have been a U.S. citizen and met the physical presence requirements at the time of his or her death.​

​

Like in the case of the citizen parent, the officer also must ensure that:​

​

•The U.S. citizen grandparent has been physically present in the ​United States​ or its outlying possessions for at least five years; and​

​

•The U.S. citizen grandparent met such physical presence for at least 2 years after he or she reached 14 years of age. ​

​

Like the citizen parent, a grandparent’s physical presence is calculated in the aggregate and includes time accrued in the United States during periods when the grandparent was not a U.S. citizen.​

Source: http://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume12-PartH-Chapter5.html

[tabletalk 1]

Well, here is an update from what we have learned so far.

After much research and discussion we landed on the citizenship path for our son. We were able to apply for citizenship through my son's maternal grandmother as she qualified for the criteria of being an American Citizen who had lived in the United States for 5+ years two of which were over her 14th birthday.

We filed form N600K two weeks ago sending it and the supporting information to the Phoenix USCIS lockbox next day shipping with Fedex. We were excited to see that the documents had safely arrived and were signed for by Jennifer Lopez . Part of the documentation G-1145 filed allowed us to be notified electronically that our documents were being processed. This happened about a week after we had seen the paperwork was physically received.

Now we wait, we have tentatively scheduled an interview at our closest USCIS centre in Seattle for April.

[newacct 688]

Well, here is an update from what we have learned so far.

After much research and discussion we landed on the citizenship path for our son. We were able to apply for citizenship through my son's maternal grandmother as she qualified for the criteria of being an American Citizen who had lived in the United States for 5+ years two of which were over her 14th birthday.

We filed form N600K two weeks ago sending it and the supporting information to the Phoenix USCIS lockbox next day shipping with Fedex. We were excited to see that the documents had safely arrived and were signed for by Jennifer Lopez . Part of the documentation G-1145 filed allowed us to be notified electronically that our documents were being processed. This happened about a week after we had seen the paperwork was physically received.

Now we wait, we have tentatively scheduled an interview at our closest USCIS centre in Seattle for April.

Did you see what I wrote a few posts back? I don't think the N-600K process is right for you, because you guys are intending to immigrate to the US. The N-600K process requires that the child enter the US in a nonimmigrant status (usually B2) to take the oath (the oath can be waived for young children but they still have to enter the US) in order to become a US citizen. Your child could be denied entry to the US as a visitor because you guys intend to immigrate.

[tabletalk 1]

I sure did,

Thanks for the input.

Intention is more about timelines than anything. At this time myself (the non usc) and my wife (usc) intend to remain residents in Canada for the foreseeable future. I have not applied for any process that could complicate things.

The reasoning for us using N600K is to document our child correctly so that if at an undetermined point in the future that child moves to the United States they may do so as a citizen.

Upon entry into the United States as a B2 visitor he can return home to Canada a documented citizen.

Thanks again

[tabletalk 1]

Well, here is an update from what we have learned so far.

After much research and discussion we landed on the citizenship path for our son. We were able to apply for citizenship through my son's maternal grandmother as she qualified for the criteria of being an American Citizen who had lived in the United States for 5+ years two of which were over her 14th birthday.

We filed form N600K two weeks ago sending it and the supporting information to the Phoenix USCIS lockbox next day shipping with Fedex. We were excited to see that the documents had safely arrived and were signed for by Jennifer Lopez . Part of the documentation G-1145 filed allowed us to be notified electronically that our documents were being processed. This happened about a week after we had seen the paperwork was physically received.

Now we wait, we have tentatively scheduled an interview at our closest USCIS centre in Seattle for April.

Today we received Form I-797C, Notice of Action in regards to our son's N-600K.

I checked the status of his case using the provided receipt number and it states that:

"On February 2, 2016, we received your Form N-600K, Application for Citizenship and Issuance of Certificate Under Section 322, Receipt Number NBCXXXXXXXX, at your local office."

Now that my local office, assuming it's Seattle, has his paperwork does anyone have an idea of how long it takes from here to have the interview?

[tabletalk 1]

Our family has received some exciting news. For anyone looking for answers on how the N600K process works I now have some definitive results.

A couple of weeks ago we received an email from USCIS in Washington State telling us that our application had been approved and all that was left was to come down to the office in Washington to complete the interview.

We re-scheduled our appointment for another date as the office handling our case moved to Yakima Washington from Seattle and the longer distance meant staying overnight in the USA.

We arrived at the border using the Nexus lane as we usually do with a day to spare before the appointment, the border asked us where we were going and the purpose of our visit? I said we are driving to Tacoma tonight and are taking our son to his interview for his N600k tomorrow in Yakima. The guard said "I don't know what that is but sounds like fun" and sent us on our way.

We arrived at the interview the next day early and were prepared for a long wait. As I am Canadian only my son and his mother were allowed into the room. The interview was short and was focussed almost solely on our son answering questions about his grandma and who she was and his relationship with her.

Fllowing the interview she told my son that he was successful and that they would now move to completing a certificate of citizenship. All in we were complete within 1.5 hours. My son walked out of the office proud as ever to wave his new American flag.

In our experience this process is a great option if you as a USC have not completed the required 5 year test to pass on citizenship directly to your child. Using the grandparent is a slightly more complicated process but for us it worked out well.