Question:
I have recently got US passport. I am a south american and was
born in the US and had an US passport. I only lived in the states
like a year or so after I was born but never went back after and
never returned there.
My Pasport was expired for a long time but I recently received a US
passport again. I am wondering if my daughter who was born in
South America can also be qulaified for a US passport or
Greencard? Any ideas??
Answer:
Your daughter most likely will *not* be a US citizen because US
citizenship is only passed on if you lived in the US for a certain
number of years, and you also must have lived in the US for a certain
number of years after your teenage years. The exact conditions have
changed over time, and which ones apply depend on the birth date of
your daughter.
If the mother was also a US citizen at the time of your daughter's
birth, she got lucky: if both parents are US citizens, your daughter
did inherit citizenship.
You CAN sponsor your daughter for a Green Card. Here is the process:
- you must move to the US. US citizens without a domicile in the US
cannot sponsor anybody.
- if your daughter is under 18, she qualifies as an immediate
relative. You can apply for an immigrant visa for her at a US
consulate in South America. You can do that before you move to the US,
but you will have to show that you undertook concrete steps to
establish yourself in the US - such as, looking for a job and a house
or apartment. In that case, you can travel together with her to the
US, and she will get her Green Card at the airport. You should
continue to live in the US for about a year at least, if you plan to
return at all.
- if your daughter is over 18 and unmarried, you petition for her
under the Family 1st category. The form to use is I-130. You must file
that with the INS service center where you live (if you are not in the
US, file it in Nebraska - but you must move to the US soon). Your
daughter must then wait until her Priority Date becomes current. It is
impossible to predict when that is going to happen, but chances are,
in approximately one to two years.
- if your daughter is over 18 and married, you petition for her under
the Family 3rd category. The form and procedure is the same, but the
wait is different (about 4 years, I believe, and that, too, is subject
to change).
Note that while your daughter waits for her priority date to become
current, and at least until she actually arrives, you should continue
to live in the US. Your daughter, however, will most likely not get
even a tourist visa to visit you during that time.
That would be 21, actually. See
http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/services/residency/family.htm,
http://travel.state.gov/visa;familybased.html.
My daughter is over 18 and married. I
am not planning to live in the US in near future but my daughter
studied in the US and has BFA degree. She wants to go back to
the US to live.
Is there anyways that I can help my daughter to give her greencard
or any other tye of visa which can lead to greencard in the furture?
or any other ways to make things easier for her to go to the US?
No, she cannot.
She was not born to a female US citizen. Male US citizens can offer citizenship
to their children only under a few circumstances. She would have to go through
immigration processes IF she is now living in the USA.
In general, the above explanation is incorrect. The American parent's
gender matters only in the case of a non-US-child born out of wedlock.
If a child born outside the US has one parent who is a US citizen (and
one who is not) -- and if the child's parents are married at the time
of their child's birth -- then it doesn't make any difference at all
if the American parent is the father or the mother. Either a father
or a mother can pass along US citizenship to a non-US-born child on an
equal basis, provided the American parent spent the required amount of
time in the US prior to the child's birth. (The amount of time needed
has changed several times, but for children born right now, it is five
years -- at least two years of which must have taken place after the
parent's 14th birthday.)
If the parents of a non-US-born child are =not= married (i.e., if the
child is born "out of wedlock"), then it =does= make a difference if
the child's American parent is the father or the mother. If an Amer-
ican mother has a foreign-born child out of wedlock, the child gets US
citizenship at birth if the mother had ever spent at least one year of
continuous physical presence in the US. If an American father has a
foreign-born child out of wedlock (by an alien mother), however, the
child gets US citizenship at birth only if the father's paternity is
formally established =and= if the father agrees in writing to support
the child until he/she is 18.
Unfortunately, without living outside the US, your chances are slim.
You may want to consult with an immigration attorney experienced in
nationality law to see whether there may be some loophole or
opportunity.
I recently heard about a case where one smart lawyer was able to prove
that somebody from Canada was actually a US citizen because, purely by
chance, both his father and his mother had inherited US citizenship
unknowingly from their parents - something of that nature.
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.
For reliable advice, please consult with a
professional immigration attorney.
For further information, check the following
frequently-requested links.
For many questions, you may find answers at
http://travel.state.gov/visa_services.html
(Department of State)
or
http://ins.usdoj.gov (INS).
For consular policies and visa reciprocity fees,
find your consulate in
http://travel.state.gov/links.html
For information on affidavit of support for marriage
to US citizens (I-864), go to
http://travel.state.gov/i864gen.html
and
http://travel.state.gov/checklist.html
For poverty levels, see
http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/poverty/00poverty.htm
For information on H/L/O/P visa extensions at Dept.
of State in St. Louis, MO, see
http://travel.state.gov/revals.html
For non-official information, check:
(When using these sites, and any Web sites, please
watch out for privacy, as I do not know all site
operators.)
http://www.visalaw.com
http://www.shusterman.com
http://www.immigration.com
http://members.aol.com/MDUdall
http://www.murthy.com/
http://www.getusavisa.com
http://greencard-lottery.virtualave.net/
http://www.jcvisa.com
(H-1B) http://www.h1bresources.com
(marriage and fiancee) http://www.kamya.com/misc/
(marriage and fiancee) http://www2.apex.net/users/thehydes
http://www.formshome.com
http://www.workpermit.com
This is not an endorsement of any of these Web sites.
I am not affiliated with any of the Web site owners
and do not receive nor accept payment in return for
listing them, and typically don't even know them.
