Does my aunt get GC or Citizenship?

[Nanusia & Lukaszek 0]

Ok here's the situation. My grandma was a USC (she died several years ago). Her daughter (my aunt) is 66 and wants to come to live in the US. How would she go about starting the process? Is this process even do-able since her mother already died?

Also, would she automatically get citizenship since her mother had it, or would she get a green card?

[YuAndDan 153]

First read: http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/A4.pdf

[Nanusia & Lukaszek 0]

First read: http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/A4.pdf

YuAndDan,

Thanks for the link. My situation is a bit more complex.

My grandma wasn't a born or naturalized citizen ... she got her citizenship like 15yrs ago because her mom was born in the US in the 1800s... then moved to PL and established a family & stayed there. I heard that when Clinton was in office, he put a law into place, that people that were born before 1940 (like my aunt) would get different special treatment when a situation like this came up

Edited June 7, 2007 by Nanusia & Lukaszek

[YuAndDan 153]

First read: http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/A4.pdf

YuAndDan,

Thanks for the link. My situation is a bit more complex.

My grandma wasn't a born or naturalized citizen ... she got her citizenship like 15yrs ago because her mom was born in the US in the 1800s... then moved to PL and established a family & stayed there. I heard that when Clinton was in office, he put a law into place, that people that were born before 1940 (like my aunt) would get different special treatment when a situation like this came up

Yep, complex one so that is why I dropped the link. Hope someone can help you.

[Nanusia & Lukaszek 0]

Yep, complex one so that is why I dropped the link. Hope someone can help you.

Thanks

Can anyone help with info on this type of case?

[Kez/JWolf 6]

You would need to discuss this with an immigration lawyer to find out if she has claim to USC....

Kez

[Nanusia & Lukaszek 0]

You would need to discuss this with an immigration lawyer to find out if she has claim to USC....

Kez

Ok an immigration lawyer is my last resort, they are expensive and usually give half accurate info to lure you in to get you$$ and drag out your case

Anyway, my question was, can she even have claims to USC or GC, despite that her mom is not alive?

[Kez/JWolf 6]

other option is to make an infopass appointment at your local USCIS and ask an immigration officer....

Kez

[Alex+R 0]

I don't know anything about this, but it would seem she certainly wouldn't be entitled to a GC, but maybe to citizenship.

[sparkofcreation 0]

Ok an immigration lawyer is my last resort, they are expensive and usually give half accurate info to lure you in to get you$$ and drag out your case

Anyway, my question was, can she even have claims to USC or GC, despite that her mom is not alive?

Whether her mother is alive or not doesn't matter; either she's eligible or she's not.

However, my understanding of the law is that only people who are born USCs can pass citizenship on to their children who have never lived in the US, and that a parent can't pass citizenship to children born after the citizen was naturalized unless the children are minors living in the US at the time. So your great-grandmother was able to pass citizenship to your grandmother, but the buck stops there, unless your grandmother were to have lived in the United States for a certain amount of time as a child and another certain amount of time as an adult.

My understanding was that the law Clinton passed applied only to those time periods; that is, when the person who wants citizenship was born affects how long his/her parent had to live in the United States before and after a certain age (and what that age is), but that the basic requirement--that the parent had to live in the US for a certain amount of time as a child and another certain amount of time as an adult--in order to pass on citizenship is the same.

In other words, I *think* that your aunt is not eligible for citizenship.

There may be (or may have been in the past) a green card category specifically for people whose parents were USCs but couldn't transmit that citizenship to their children. I think I've heard of such a thing but I could be imagining it.

Either way, it's going to take a long time. The N-600/derivative citizenship process takes two or three years (at least at the El Paso office, it does) and I would guess a green card would take longer.

It wouldn't hurt to talk to a good immigration attorney; call your local Bar Association, most have a thing where they'll refer you to someone specializing in what you need and you can have a 20-30 minute consult for a set fee of $20-50, without having to hire the attorney in question.

Also, I said *good* immigration attorney. Any *good* attorney is worth the money you pay them. Check with your bar association that there haven't been any complaints, maybe ask for recommendations on this board.

Edited June 10, 2007 by sparkofcreation

[sparkofcreation 0]

HOWEVER, your grandmother was NOT naturalized by the sound of it. It sounds like she applied for derivative citizenship. It's a different form--N-600 instead of N-400--and if granted, it means that the citizenship is retroactive. So technically your grandmother was a citizen all her life, it's just that no one knew it until she got the derivative citizenship approved. So your aunt was born to a USC living outside the US, not a foreign citizen who later naturalized. (Which still makes her ineligible for citizenship if your grandmother never lived in the US, AFAIK.)

(Sorry, just realized this.)

Edited June 10, 2007 by sparkofcreation

[zyggy 9]

There are three questions that are important

1) Was only her mother a US Citizen?

2) When was your aunt born (1941?)

3) How long did your grandmother live in the US before your aunt was born (it appears to be 0).

The 1940 Citizenship Act required that the parent must have resided in the US at least 10 years with more than 5 of those years after their 16th birthday for the parent to transfer US Citizenship to the child. If each of the above circumstances are true, then your aunt has no claim to US Citizenship.

The law which you are referring to is that part of the 1940 act required the individual who had acquired US Citizenship through a parent to live a certain period of time in the US before their 28th birthday in order to keep their citizenship. In essence, a retention requirement. A 1995 law retroactively abolished that retention requirement if the individual agreed to take an oath of alligance to the US. This is how your grandmother was able to get US Citizenship because her parent fulfilled the residence requirement at the time of her birth, subsequently lost it due to the retention requirement, and was able to reclaim it due to the 1995 law.

Edited June 11, 2007 by zyggy

[Nanusia & Lukaszek 0]

There are three questions that are important

1) Was only her mother a US Citizen?

2) When was your aunt born (1941?)

3) How long did your grandmother live in the US before your aunt was born (it appears to be 0).

The 1940 Citizenship Act required that the parent must have resided in the US at least 10 years with more than 5 of those years after their 16th birthday for the parent to transfer US Citizenship to the child. If each of the above circumstances are true, then your aunt has no claim to US Citizenship.

The law which you are referring to is that part of the 1940 act required the individual who had acquired US Citizenship through a parent to live a certain period of time in the US before their 28th birthday in order to keep their citizenship. In essence, a retention requirement. A 1995 law retroactively abolished that retention requirement if the individual agreed to take an oath of alligance to the US. This is how your grandmother was able to get US Citizenship because her parent fulfilled the residence requirement at the time of her birth, subsequently lost it due to the retention requirement, and was able to reclaim it due to the 1995 law.

Ok, here go my responses. My grandmother was a USC and didn't know of it (she got it through her mom being a born citizen). So she did not go through any lengthy N-600 process as mentioned by a previous poster. She went to the embassy, showed the documents and a couple weeks later had a US passport.

Now to Zyggy:

1. The greatgrandmother was a UCS (by birth) and the mother of my aunt was a USC (citizenship from parent)

2. My aunt was born in 1939

3. My grandmother did not live in the US before my aunt was born. She lived here for about 20+/- yrs (1980-2000)

"The law which you are referring to is that part of the 1940 act required the individual who had acquired US Citizenship through a parent to live a certain period of time in the US before their 28th birthday in order to keep their citizenship" This is not true. My grandmother did not live here before her 28th b-day... neither did my great grandma. There is nothing in the law to "retain" citizenship, once you are given it under this law, there are no terms to satisfy later on in order to keep it. You get it you got it, they can't take it away.

So now with all these responses I'm left with a mess in my head I still don't know if she'd be eligible for citizenship or GC. I know through her mom she's eligible for something... just not sure which one.

[zyggy 9]

There are three questions that are important

1) Was only her mother a US Citizen?

2) When was your aunt born (1941?)

3) How long did your grandmother live in the US before your aunt was born (it appears to be 0).

The 1940 Citizenship Act required that the parent must have resided in the US at least 10 years with more than 5 of those years after their 16th birthday for the parent to transfer US Citizenship to the child. If each of the above circumstances are true, then your aunt has no claim to US Citizenship.

The law which you are referring to is that part of the 1940 act required the individual who had acquired US Citizenship through a parent to live a certain period of time in the US before their 28th birthday in order to keep their citizenship. In essence, a retention requirement. A 1995 law retroactively abolished that retention requirement if the individual agreed to take an oath of alligance to the US. This is how your grandmother was able to get US Citizenship because her parent fulfilled the residence requirement at the time of her birth, subsequently lost it due to the retention requirement, and was able to reclaim it due to the 1995 law.

Ok, here go my responses. My grandmother was a USC and didn't know of it (she got it through her mom being a born citizen). So she did not go through any lengthy N-600 process as mentioned by a previous poster. She went to the embassy, showed the documents and a couple weeks later had a US passport.

Now to Zyggy:

1. The greatgrandmother was a UCS (by birth) and the mother of my aunt was a USC (citizenship from parent)

2. My aunt was born in 1939

3. My grandmother did not live in the US before my aunt was born. She lived here for about 20+/- yrs (1980-2000)

"The law which you are referring to is that part of the 1940 act required the individual who had acquired US Citizenship through a parent to live a certain period of time in the US before their 28th birthday in order to keep their citizenship" This is not true. My grandmother did not live here before her 28th b-day... neither did my great grandma. There is nothing in the law to "retain" citizenship, once you are given it under this law, there are no terms to satisfy later on in order to keep it. You get it you got it, they can't take it away.

So now with all these responses I'm left with a mess in my head I still don't know if she'd be eligible for citizenship or GC. I know through her mom she's eligible for something... just not sure which one.

Actually it was true... people who were born outside the US to a non-US Citizen parent between 1934 and 1978 did in fact lose their US Citizenship due to residency retention issues, but there was subsequent laws in 1978 (prosectively) and again in 1995 (retroactively) that reinstated Citizenship for those people who lost their US Citizensip because they did not meet the residency retention requirements if they got their US Citizenship through a USC parent (i.e. not born in the US). This law did not apply to your grandmother because she was born before these provisions made their ways into US Immigration law. In this case the Immigration Act of 1934. If one was born before 1934 and after 1978, then there was no residency retention provision. (And there isn't now for anyone due to the retroactive provisions of the law of 1995)

Now to the question at hand... If she was born in 1939 than it isn't the CItizenship law of 1940 that applies, but the 1934 Citizenship Act. In this Act, the USC parent could only give US CItizenship to her children if she had lived in the US at any time prior to the birth of the child. Unless you can get proof of your grandmother having lived in the US between her birth and your aunt's birth, again, your aunt is not a US Citizen.

SHe isn't eligible for a GC through her mother either becuase her mother has died and cannot file an I-130 for her. SHe may be eligible for a GC through you once you have gotten US CItizenship, but it could take 15 years for a visa number to become eligible for her.

In this case, it would probably be faster to petition for your parents who once they became citizens could petition for her with a higher priority placement.

Tell your aunt bardzo bardzo zalujace from Zygmunt...

Edited June 11, 2007 by zyggy