Travel to USA with not-registered-citizen infant born to US citizen father
Facts:
- Father is dual citizen of USA and country A
- Mother is citizen of country A
- Father and mother are not married
- Infant child was born in country A and has been issued passport for country A
- Father, mother, and child live together in country A
Additionally:
- Father does not meet the physical presence test to transmit citizenship to child
- Grandparent does meet the physical presence test to transmit citizenship to child, via form N-600K.
- Country A does not have a visa-waiver agreement with USA (visitors from country A generally apply for a B1/B2 visa)
Question:
The child will be registered as a US citizen via the grandparent and form N-600K, but this process has not yet been started (and I've heard can take up to two years). In the meantime, the father, mother, and child would like to travel together to the USA.
Mother already has an approved B2 visa to travel to the USA.
Should the child also apply for a B2 visa as well? Or is there some visa waiver situation here? The instructions for the B2 visa explicitly state that citizens should not fill it out, and although the child is not yet registered as a US citizen, technically they are in fact a US citizen since birth.
Best Answer
I'm no expert. The law referred to in the N-600K instructions is 8 USC 1433. Despite being called INA 322 for reasons I don't understand, this USCIS web page links to it. The law states
(b) Attainment of citizenship status; receipt of certificate
Upon approval of the application (which may be filed from abroad) and, except as provided in the last sentence of section 1448(a) of this title, upon taking and subscribing before an officer of the Service within the United States to the oath of allegiance required by this chapter of an applicant for naturalization, the child shall become a citizen of the United States and shall be furnished by the Attorney General with a certificate of citizenship.
So if this really is the applicable law, the child was not a citizen at birth. Rather this process is a form of naturalization.
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You may be a U.S. citizen if you were born abroad to at least one parent that was a U.S. citizen. If you were born abroad to two U.S. citizens and at least one of your parents lived in the United States at some point in his or her life, then in most cases you are a U.S. citizen.What are the requirements for a child to become a U.S. citizen if the parents are naturalized U.S. citizens?
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