Separate application for child needed?

[Muru 4]

My, my wife and my daughter (10 yrs old) all got our GC in Jan 2018. I just finished applying for N400 for me and my wife. Do I need to file a separate application for my daughter to become a US Citizen or is there a different process for her? 

[nastra30 2,284]

33 minutes ago, Muru said:

My, my wife and my daughter (10 yrs old) all got our GC in Jan 2018. I just finished applying for N400 for me and my wife. Do I need to file a separate application for my daughter to become a US Citizen or is there a different process for her? 

Your daughter automatically becomes a US citizen when either of you successfully naturalizes. All you'll have to do is simply apply for a US passport for your daughter at that point. After that you may also choose to apply for a N600 certificate of citizenship for her. All the best.

[Mike E 11,739]

5 hours ago, Muru said:

My, my wife and my daughter (10 yrs old) all got our GC in Jan 2018. I just finished applying for N400 for me and my wife. Do I need to file a separate application for my daughter to become a US Citizen or is there a different process for her? 

People under age 18 cannot file N-400.  
 

If you can provide original evidence of legal and physical custody, then your daughter will immediately become a U.S. citizen once either of her parents becomes a U.S. citizen, provided she is still under age 18 at time her parent naturalizes.  
 

Each parent should make copies, front and back of their green cards now. The green cards are expected to be taken at naturalization. 
 

After a parent naturalizes, that parent can apply for the daughter’s passport and passport card by including the following with the passport application:

 

* marriage certificate of parents (evidence of legal custody in traditional nuclear families) 

* birth certificate of daughter listing the parents as the same people in the marriage certificate 

* naturalization certificate of parent

* proof the daughter and parent live at the same address (evidence of physical custody).  Start gathering  this now. It is harder than it looks. 

* green card of daughter 

Provide an original (except for drivers licenses and State id cards) and photo copy of each piece of evidence 

 

Make a complete copy of everything you send, front and back. 

 

Do not expect  the green card to come back.  If it goes not, preserve any note the passport agency provides that says it kept the green card. Alternatively, you might get the green card back with a demand that you return the green card to USCIS. Ignore that demand for the moment. Expect the other original evidence to come back. 
 

Depending on how long your daughter is without her green card and passport or passport card, you might need to get an ADIT stamp on her foreign passport from USCIS as an alternative I-551. 

Once her passport or passport card comes back, file N-600 to get your daughter an original certificate of citizenship. This is gold standard evidence of U.S. citizenship that will be accepted in situations where a passport or passport card are not:

 

* your daughter is denied a passport or passport card renewal in the future. Causes can include failure to pay child support, criminal record, a history of losing passports, etc.  

 

* the passport agency processing times for renewals go crazy as they did when WHTI was implemented, or when travel bans started to end after year 1 of the pandemic emergency. A certificate of citizenship never expires. 

 

* security clearance for sensitive work for the federal government 

 

* certain roles in the U.S. armed forces and federal civil service 

 

* state DL (when a dmv cannot verify her citizenship with SAVE, some states will bypass SAVE with a certificate of citizenship)

 

* social security card  (there is a classified portion of the SSA policy manual that sometimes requires citizens to produce a certificate of citizenship)

 

* petitioning a family member for a green card 

 

* registering to vote online in some states 

 

There are examples of the above where a passport or passport card sufficed. And there are counter examples where it didn’t.  Regardless as you can imagine, providing the evidence decades  after the fact can be hard. It is best to address this while the evidence is hot.  

 

The evidence needed to apply for  N-600 is a copy of  everything you sent to get  a passport and passport card plus:

 

* a copy of the note saying the passport agency kept the gc

 

* copy of the daughter’s passport or passport card 

 

N-600 should be filed online so that originals are not mistakenly sent 
 

At the N-600 interview, bring all original evidence. At that time, you can expect to surrender  your daughter’s green card. Or USCIS might request it separately.  I would not surrender her green card until the certificate of citizenship is in hand. 
 

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Mike E