Citizenship for Kids Over 18 years old

[cvazquez1987 0]

I become a U.S citizen today and my son is over 18 year old permanent resident. What is the process to have him become U.S citizen?

 

since he is not under 18 he cannot obtain the citizenship automatically or what is the process for him since he has been in all my paperwork listed as a child in the past? 

 

what is the process to help him? 

 

thanks 

 

Chayanne Vazquez-Silva

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

He can apply to naturalize once he has been a LPR for 5 years (less the 90 days for early filing).

[aaron2020 11,651]

Your 18 years old son is an adult.  He's no longer considered a child.  He will have to naturalize on his own.  Once he has been a green card holder for 5 years, he can file an N-400 to naturalize.  

[wbeem 568]

Hi Chayanne 

We've just got through the same situation. I'm guessing your son was a dependent and aged out before you took your oath. That happened to me too - took two years and daughter turned 18 before my oath. Ugh!  

The GOOD news - she applied under the 5 year rule and her application got processed pretty much immediately. My guess is that because she was on my file up to this point, when her application got picked up they  just dealt with it since it was already at the local office. 

 

The 5 year filing was SO simple and quick compared to the 3 year one I kind of wish I'd just waited and done it that way too! She also said that the people at USCIS were really really nice to her - I think they know when they are dealing with very young adults that it's a daunting process. 

 

Also, if you file online, the automated system is not super smart. When you answer yes that you are a citizen it will keep prompting you with popups that your son my already be a citizen. Just ignore it and continue with the application. The system didn't seem to make the correlation between the date I took my oath and my daughter's date of birth, even though I put those both in. 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

4 hours ago, wbeem said:

Hi Chayanne 

We've just got through the same situation. I'm guessing your son was a dependent and aged out before you took your oath. That happened to me too - took two years and daughter turned 18 before my oath. Ugh!  

The GOOD news - she applied under the 5 year rule and her application got processed pretty much immediately. My guess is that because she was on my file up to this point, when her application got picked up they  just dealt with it since it was already at the local office. 

 

The 5 year filing was SO simple and quick compared to the 3 year one I kind of wish I'd just waited and done it that way too! She also said that the people at USCIS were really really nice to her - I think they know when they are dealing with very young adults that it's a daunting process. 

 

Also, if you file online, the automated system is not super smart. When you answer yes that you are a citizen it will keep prompting you with popups that your son my already be a citizen. Just ignore it and continue with the application. The system didn't seem to make the correlation between the date I took my oath and my daughter's date of birth, even though I put those both in. 

That was lucky, about the quick processing. Same situation for us and my daughter’s application still took over a year to process. Said they were very nice at the interview too though.

[wbeem 568]

1 hour ago, SusieQQQ said:

That was lucky, about the quick processing. Same situation for us and my daughter’s application still took over a year to process. Said they were very nice at the interview too though.

Yeah, we definitely got lucky with the quick processing. The reason I thought it may be linked to mine is because with all the delays on mine (apparently my file was 'misplaced' somewhere in early 2020) by the time I took my oath, daughter's early filing window had already opened. I'm not sure what the timing is like on Chayanne's processing, but it doesn't hurt to get it in ASAP if her son's window is almost open.  

Nothing about this process seems to follow any sort of pattern though.