Passport for 16 year old/Legal Custody Document

[Omarov2009 11]

6 hours ago, zoom123 said:

Yes, Did you submitted application for his passport? If not while submitting please include your naturalization certificate, his birth certificate, Green card, and Custody documents or Divorce documents where it should mention you hold the custody.

All should be in Originals. ( Keep a  color copy  or scanned doc with you)

If he is under 16 then your state ID copy, if under 16-18 then if he holds a school ID copy will be good.

I got all original docs along with a letter telling they kept the green card as he doesn't required one as he holds the passport as his citizenship proof in the same passport envelop.

 

Thank you zoom. I applied for a passport for him but they asked me to approve a custody so his father gave me the full custody and now I have a court order from our home country I will translate it and send them soon.. I hope this works 

Edited February 15, 2018 by Omarov2009

[zoom123 7]

21 hours ago, Omarov2009 said:

Thank you zoom. I applied for a passport for him but they asked me to approve a custody so his father gave me the full custody and now I have a court order from our home country I will translate it and send them soon.. I hope this works 

Don't worry just send the custody documents (original) along with other documents they asked, copy of the letter received. You can do a priority mail, put the case tracking no, any date of travel etc. Write a letter stating you're the sole custody of your son etc.

Once you track the post, after couple of days call the passport agency and ask the status and they might request the agent who is holding your son application to call you back. you can explain him once you receive a call.

Regards.

[Omarov2009 11]

Thank you very much zoom 

[pixie77 2]

On 1/25/2018 at 10:49 PM, Bart R. said:

Hi pixie77,  have you made any progress on your daughter's case?  My wife is in a similar situation.  There were never any custody orders in place before her kids immigrated with her (she has since naturalized).  The kids' dads have agreed to sign the DS-3053, but I'm worried that we'll get the same letter back from the State Dept. after we submit their passport applications.  Did you have to get a court order concerning custody, or is some other kind of documentation sufficient?

Hi Bart,

 

I don't know if you can call it progress but I am still going through the process. I have already retained a lawyer to deal with this but I am still having some issues in terms of proving legal custody.

 

No court order, I submitted a signed affidavit described below.

 

To date I have submitted the following:

 

Original Copy of my Naturalization Certificate

Original Copy of daughter's Green card

Original Copies of my marriage certificates (current & previous)

Original Copy of my divorce decree

Original Copies of letters from schools ( But they want exact months to included and not just the school year and that it also explicitly states that I am the guardian on record. Even if the letter states that I am the mother. (mind boggling!!)So They want me to re-send all these letters.

Copies of our health insurance showing her as our dependent ( but they want medical records specifically stating that she was seen at such and such time and I am the parent on record.)

Original copy of signed affidavit by my ex-husband stating that he is fully aware that my daughter lives with me and has custody and it also included a statute stating that under Philippine law, in the absence of a custody order, joint custody is exercised. (But no they do not want this, they want a letter from the court or judge stating that the Philippines recognizes that I have custody of my daughter (which is impossible because there is no divorce in the Philippines, the lady on the line told me a letter from the court will suffice, but again this is impossible because there is no divorce no custody agreement there. Our agreement was in good faith.)

 Letter from my lawyer explaining everything.

 

After all these they're still not happy and need more as I mentioned on the parenthesis. It is ridiculous! I'm hoping someone on here will chime in and let me know how they were able to prove legal custody in the absence of a custody decree. I am hoping our lawyer will be able to work through this. By the way, they also suggested I file custody here (NY) but the clerk of court told me the length of time varies plus expense. This is really getting ridiculous aside from it being an utterly frustrating process. I can understand bureaucratic red tape, however they need smart, think outside the box kind of people dealing with this process.

 

I will keep you posted.

 

Sorry for the late reply and a little vent. I was just on the phone with the lady from Dept. of State a couple of hours ago.

 

[Omarov2009 11]

I sent more documents on Saturday feb 17 today I received an email... We have finished processing your passport, and it has been printed 🎉🎉

[Bart R. 1]

Congratulations, Omarov!

 

pixie, I didn't see your reply till just now.  That's ridiculous that they want all that!

 

We finally submitted my wife's kids' applications on Wednesday 2/21.  We included green cards, birth certificates, naturalization certificate, divorce decree, second marriage certificate, school enrollment letters, DS-3053's, and affidavits from my wife, myself, and both of her kids' biological fathers stating that the kids have always been in her custody and no one has ever contested that.  We were hoping that would be enough, but now that I see your reply about medical records, school guardianship records, and court letters, I'm somewhat discouraged.  Really hoping we don't have to pay a lawyer to sort this out!

 

I'll post again once we hear something back.

[zoom123 7]

On 2/23/2018 at 5:18 PM, Omarov2009 said:

I sent more documents on Saturday feb 17 today I received an email... We have finished processing your passport, and it has been printed 🎉🎉

Congratulations. Finally you got it.

[Bart R. 1]

Quick update... we finally got an email back this morning, Friday 3/16, with the attached letter.  We had brought the kids' green cards with us when we submitted their applications, but the acceptance agent told us that we could keep the originals as long as we submitted copies.  So I'm annoyed that the acceptance guy gave us incorrect information, but somewhat relieved that that seems to be the only issue with our case.  We express-mailed the green cards this morning so they should be there Monday morning.

[pixie77 2]

Hey Bart! Great news for you!

 

I am still on the bureaucratic train! So frustrating! Was your wife married to her ex? Did she obtain legal separation from her ex? Just curious because they are asking me proof of legal separation when I already submitted my divorce decree. Just curious, what kind of affidavit did you execute as their step-father?

[Bart R. 1]

Thanks, pixie!  We finally received the passports on Saturday 3/24, and the original evidence a couple days later.

 

In our case, there are three kids (call them A, B, and C).  My wife was married to A and B's father (call him D), but was not married to C's father (call him E).  She was still married to D, but had been informally separated for years, when C was born.  Later she divorced D, married me, and then immigrated to the U.S.  There was never any legal separation from D other than the divorce decree.

 

We submitted affidavits from all four adults: my wife, myself, D, and E, as well as the divorce decree from D and our new marriage certificate.

 

The affidavits were all essentially the same, and basically stated the following (from the perspective of each person):

Quote

The minor children [A, B, and C] have resided continuously with [wife and myself] since they immigrated to the USA.  During this time, [wife and myself] have cared and provided for the children and made every significant decision concerning their welfare.  Neither [D or E], nor any other person, has ever contested [wife's] legal or physical custody of the children.  To the best of [affiant's] knowledge, no court of law or other governing authority has ever issued any order concerning the legal and physical custody of the children.

 

The divorce decree had only this to say about the children:

Quote

...having certified that the arrangements for the care and upbringing of the relevant children, [A and B], are the best that may be devised in the circumstances...

 

I worded the affidavits carefully to try to meet the "actual uncontested custody" standard that seems to be the legal standard for cases where there is no formal custody determination. (See https://cliniclegal.org/resources/articles-clinic/recent-decisions-acquisition-and-derivation-citizenship or do a Google search for "actual uncontested custody" for discussion of this.)  I don't actually know if the exact wording made a difference.

 

Good luck with your case, I hope you are able to break through soon!

[pixie77 2]

Thanks Bart..

 

I will keep you posted. I am submitting a notarized letter from my ex, will see if this works.

[pixie77 2]

Hey Bart,

 

Finally got the passport today after 6 long months! What helped was I found a decided case wherein the son of the naturalized citizen was in the same predicament as my daughter and I with the father re: proving legal custody but this time it was the son who lodged the appeal to the Supreme Court that he was entitled to derive citizenship.

 

Anyway, after all is said and done, I realized that I could have done this on my own without the lawyer. The Passport people even refused to speak to my lawyer and I was told lawyers become involved on appeal not during regular processing. So what my lawyer just did was make a letter and his letter confused the people at the passport agency. I had to make another letter.

 

It's all water under the bridge now, we are happy we got the passport and planning our vacation outside the country soon.

[Bart R. 1]

That's great news, pixie!  I'm glad your persistence paid off in the end!

[Roxy38 0]

Hi Pixie77,

 

Congratulations on getting your daughter’s passport. I am not sure if this thread is still active and I am hoping that you will respond. 
 

I am in the same situation as yours and we submitted our application yesterday. My daughter is 16 and we both applied for a passport for the first time. On her DS-11, the employee at the USPS had her sign yhe form. Should I have signed the form as well as guardian? The employee didn’t ask me to. Did you sign her DS-11 when you applied for your child’s passport? Both our application is in one packet. We have all copies of her school I.D, permanent resident card and my driver’s license. We also sent the original permanent resident card. 

 

My daughter is also under my sole custody. Her father and I never married and she never provided support. She only signed the birth certificate as the father. My daughter’s last name is using my maiden last name. She was born in the Philippines and we both immigrated here in the U.S. together when my husband petitioned us. We didn’t have any issues immigrating as I have submitted affidavits of sole custody and illegitimacy. I have enclosed in the passport application all these original documents as proof. I even enclosed a copy of Republic Act 9255 explaining that children are under the parental consent of the mother and the Citizenship Act of 2000 explaining children under 18 will derive citizenship automatically from Naturalized parent. I hope that we will not have any issues.
 

Would you be able to point me about the decided case you found and what did you do to get your daughter’s passport after all the hassle that you went theough? I would really appreciate the response.