Naturalization in 5 months for Overseas Children of American Citizens

U.S. citizens, children born abroad, accelerated naturalization,
Children of U.S. citizens born abroad can apply for accelerated naturalization in three ways.

With the development and growth of the Chinese market, many Americans come to China to work and settle down, and international exchanges are becoming more and more frequent. How do children born to American citizens in China obtain their status? The most common and common way is to directly help the child to apply for an overseas birth certificate and a U.S. passport, but if the parents do not meet the requirements, they must apply in two other ways. Tsang & Associates Zang Dikai United Law Firm summarized as follows:

The first method: the children of American citizens born overseas are automatically transferred to citizenship : submit DS-2029 and DS-11 forms at the U.S. embassy or consulate, and apply for the “Consular Report of Overseas Birth”, U.S. passport and social security number. The child can receive a birth certificate and apply for a U.S. passport on the same day. The following conditions need to be met:
1. Children under the age of 18
2. Both parents are U.S. citizens, as long as one parent has lived in the United States before the child’s birth; or Only one parent is a U.S. citizen, and the U.S. citizen has physically lived in the United States for at least five years before the child’s birth , and at least two of the parents are U.S. citizens. years after his own 14th birthday.

The second type: If the parents live overseas for a long time and cannot meet the first type, they can accelerate the naturalization of children born overseas through American citizens : the following conditions need to be met:
1. At least one parent is a U.S. citizen;
2. Children under the age of 18;
3. A U.S. citizen parent must have physically resided in the U.S. for at least five years, at least two of which were after that parent’s 14th birthday;
4. The children usually live outside the United States and are under the legal and actual guardianship of one of the U.S. citizen parents;
5. The children come to the United States legally to participate in the interview and oath, and to apply for a U.S. passport. Usually the B-2 visa is applied for entry at the consulate.

The third option: If the first two conditions are not met, the green card children rely on their parents’ citizenship to accelerate their naturalization , that is: first help their children apply for immigrant visas to obtain U.S. resident status (green cards), and then accelerate their naturalization as U.S. citizens after entering the country. In this case, a child with a green card does not need to apply for naturalization according to the requirement of five years of continuous residence, and can be naturalized immediately after arriving in the United States. However, the child is required to live in the United States under the legal and actual guardianship of the citizen parent.

The above three have different applicable conditions, and those who are not proficient in naturalization laws are usually confused.

At the beginning of this year, Tsang & Associates Zang Dikai joint law firm undertook a case about the overseas children of American citizens seeking identity. Due to its particularity and representativeness, Tsang & Associates organized and shared it as follows:

【basic situation】
Mr. Zhao is a Chinese-American citizen who is now residing and working in China. His 10-year-old daughter Zoe was born in China. Since he did not meet the first type of conditions for automatic citizenship of children born overseas of American citizens, his father helped his daughter apply for the third type of naturalization.

In 2014, Zoe obtained an immigrant visa to go to the United States, then naturalized and applied for a U.S. passport to return to China, and has been studying in an international school since then.

At the beginning of 2017, Mr. Zhao received a notice from the US embassy, saying that according to the entry and exit records, Zoe left the United States to live in China after applying for a passport, and did not meet the third category of naturalization requirements. Now her US passport is cancelled.

Mr. Zhao and his wife were shocked: their daughter suddenly became stateless! Since China does not allow dual citizenship, after Zoe was naturalized in the United States, her Chinese passport, household registration, and ID card were all cancelled. Now the US passport has also been cancelled, which means that Zoe cannot go abroad, travel, and then even go to international schools! Mr. Zhao hurriedly contacted the US embassy, explaining that because he did not understand the regulations, he applied for the wrong category for his daughter, and asked not to cancel his daughter’s passport immediately. He immediately helped her apply for it again. But the embassy insisted on canceling the passport first according to law, and asked Mr. Zhao to help his daughter reapply as soon as possible.

Mr. Zhao and his wife kept all this from their daughter. They originally promised the family to travel abroad during the Spring Festival and found excuses. The daughter’s school handled it with trepidation, fearing that the registered school would find out that her daughter had become stateless and would be expelled from school. Mr. Zhao was eager to help his daughter regain her passport. In order to avoid further mistakes, he decided to find a professional lawyer to handle the whole process. Through the recommendation of other lawyers, he found Tsang & Associates Zang Dikai Law Firm. Mr. Zhao immediately contacted lawyer Zang of Tsang & Associates, and after a telephone conversation, the commission was confirmed in March.

[Difficulties in this case and the key to solving them]
1. Time is the key, Mr. Zhao emphasized to help his daughter regain the passport as quickly as possible, so that Zoe can go abroad without the risk of being expelled from school; ——Tsang & Associate lawyer team prepared the data to the immigration as quickly as possible Bureau submission, and asked the Immigration Bureau to expedite the trial, expedite the arrangement of Zoe’s interview and oath;

2. Because it is not suitable for Zoe to ask for leave while studying, Mr. Zhao hopes to designate a date for going to the United States and interviewing, but the California Immigration Bureau has a large number of cases, and the originally arranged immigration bureau cannot cooperate with Mr. Zhao’s date for interviews; Contact and coordinate with the date designated by Mr. Zhao to change the place of interview and oath to the immigration office in the east;

3. Zoe is stateless, has neither a Chinese passport nor an American passport, and cannot leave China, nor can he apply for a US visa to go to the United States; ——In order to solve the problem of how Zoe will leave the country and return to the United States, we have contacted the Chinese immigration agency and the US ambassador The embassy, the Immigration Bureau and other agencies obtained a temporary pass and a temporary visa for Zoe, allowing Zoe to go to the United States in August for a naturalization interview and oath. On the same day, he obtained a citizenship certificate and quickly applied for a U.S. passport. He was happily in the United States with his parents. Return to China after traveling.

After receiving his daughter’s U.S. passport, Mr. Zhao wrote a special thank you letter to Zang’s lawyer team, saying that his daughter’s loss of nationality had caused great distress to their family. At the beginning, he found many lawyers through the Internet, Yellow Pages, and telephone, and some of them would not At last, I found the professional team of Tsang & Associates Zang Dikai United Law Firm through the recommendation of other lawyers. After 5 months, I finally helped my daughter regain her passport and resume a normal family life. Thank you very much.

【Lawyer Reminder】
There are usually three ways to apply for naturalization for children born overseas of American citizens. Tsang & Associates Zang Dikai United Law Firm reminds: If the parents do not meet the first method, the second and third methods have their own applicable situations and conditions. Matters needing attention, it is recommended to entrust a professional and experienced lawyer to avoid the recurrence of the loss of nationality of the client in this case. Being a stateless person brings great inconvenience to life and study, and the parents have paid double time and money for this. energy to correct.

*To protect customer privacy, customer names are pseudonyms.