citizen mother and LPR fatherabroad.Mother wants to bring newly born abroad child to the U.S.

[mitra 0]

citizen mother and LPR fatherabroad.Mother wants to bring newly born abroad child to the U.S.

i've read many articles about it but i still don't know the answer.

The citizen mother has been in the U.S. for 5 years (form green card to naturalization) but physically (bodily) she was present just for 3 years before that the child was born.

while she was working in the U.S.she filed for husband immigration and he got his GC before child's birth. husband didn't come to the U.S. so she left the country and stayed in the country of her husband. Now they have a baby and she intends to return to the U.S.

Seemingly, she can't apply for her child citizenship because she can not show evidence of 5-year physical (bodily) residency

in the U.S. (and has not U.S. citizen grand parents either) before child's birth.

How to return to the U.S. to work and live with the baby?

Child is less than 2-year old, but it seems that only LPR mother can bring her child of less than 2-year old back to U.S. without filing any immigration petition.

Can she take the plane with her baby before child's two year old like a LPR mother?

Any other solution? the immigration petition for one-year old child takes time and needs a sponsor in the U.S.which is complicate.

Thanks for your insights

[Mark88 183]

So 5 years as Green card holder, and 3 years as USC? That's a total of 8 years. She can file CRBA. Time as LPR count towards physical presence, too.

[jhm3 15]

citizen mother and LPR fatherabroad.Mother wants to bring newly born abroad child to the U.S.

i've read many articles about it but i still don't know the answer.

The citizen mother has been in the U.S. for 5 years (form green card to naturalization) but physically (bodily) she was present just for 3 years before that the child was born.

while she was working in the U.S.she filed for husband immigration and he got his GC before child's birth. husband didn't come to the U.S. so she left the country and stayed in the country of her husband. Now they have a baby and she intends to return to the U.S.

Seemingly, she can't apply for her child citizenship because she can not show evidence of 5-year physical (bodily) residency

in the U.S. (and has not U.S. citizen grand parents either) before child's birth.

How to return to the U.S. to work and live with the baby?

Child is less than 2-year old, but it seems that only LPR mother can bring her child of less than 2-year old back to U.S. without filing any immigration petition.

Can she take the plane with her baby before child's two year old like a LPR mother?

Any other solution? the immigration petition for one-year old child takes time and needs a sponsor in the U.S.which is complicate.

Thanks for your insights

I read this to mean that the mother has not physically been in the US long enough to transmit citizenship to the child (i.e., the United States has been her place of residence for five years, but she has only physically been there for three). In this case, though, it might actually help that the father is an LPR rather than a citizen. The rule that an LPR can travel to the US with an (under-two-year-old) child born abroad is outlined in the Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) as follows:

9 FAM 42.1 N1.1

Child Born After Issuance of Visa to Parent (CT:VISA-2226; 11-25-2014)

The child born after the issuance of a visa to a parent is not required to have a visa if the child is:

(1) Born subsequent to issuance of an IV to the accompanying parent within the validity of the parent’s immigrant visa; or

(2) Born during the lawful permanent resident mother’s temporary visit abroad provided that (see 9 FAM 42.1 N2): (a) Admission is within 2 years of birth; and (b) Either accompanying parent is applying for readmission upon first return after the birth of the child.

(http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/87519.pdf)

As the LPR father has been issued an immigrant visa but has not yet entered the US, it looks like situation (1) applies. This is a sufficiently unusual situation that I can imagine you might have a hard time convincing an airline to let a child of US citizen board a flight to the US without a US passport or visa, but the rules appear to say it is ok.

Under the Child Citizenship Act (CCA), the child, once in the US in the custody of a US citizen parent and "admitted for permanent residence", will automatically become a citizen. I'm not sure what would constitute being "admitted for permanent residence" in this scenario, as the baby doesn't yet have an immigrant visa/green card of his/her own. It may be that when he is admitted with his father under the rule outlined in 9 FAM 42.1 N1.1, he will be considered to have been "admitted for permanent residence," and thus you could go ahead and apply for the baby's US passport under the CCA. Or maybe you would have to apply for a derivative Green Card first. That might become clearer once you see what kind of documentation is issued (i.e., what kind of stamp and notations go into the baby's foreign passport) at the port of entry.

Good luck!

Edited June 25, 2015 by jhm3

[jan22 2,897]

Don't think this would apply, since the father apparently did not use his immigrant visa (at least this is how I read the OP -- it says he got his GC but did not come to the US, which I read to mean he got the immigrant visa, but didn't use it) and it sounds like it has long since expired, since the mother went to his country to live and has been there long enough to give birth. This would not fit the "...within the validity of the parent's immigrant visa...." portion of the requirement.

It's unclear to me whether the mother was physically present for a total of 5 years prior to the child's birth, but going on the OP's statement that she was only "bodiy" present for 3 years, the only option I see is to file an I-130 for an !R-2 visa.

[jhm3 15]

Don't think this would apply, since the father apparently did not use his immigrant visa (at least this is how I read the OP -- it says he got his GC but did not come to the US, which I read to mean he got the immigrant visa, but didn't use it) and it sounds like it has long since expired, since the mother went to his country to live and has been there long enough to give birth. This would not fit the "...within the validity of the parent's immigrant visa...." portion of the requirement.

It's unclear to me whether the mother was physically present for a total of 5 years prior to the child's birth, but going on the OP's statement that she was only "bodiy" present for 3 years, the only option I see is to file an I-130 for an !R-2 visa.

Indeed; the scenario I mentioned would apply only if the father's immigrant visa was recently issued and still valid, and though the timeline isn't clear, it does look like that's not the case.