Some general questions on citizenship

[Optimistical 0]

Hi,

I read the pinned post and I'd like to confirm my understanding and ask additional questions if that is ok. I hope this is the right place for this post.

1) If a U.S. citizen is married to a foreign national, then petitions that foreign national to enter the U.S. on a spouse Visa, it would take 3 years of living together in the U.S. before that foreign national can become a U.S. Citizen - is that correct? How much time after that 3 years will it generally take to complete the citizenship process, allowing the couple to freely travel in and out of the U.S. and not be under any residency restriction?

2) If a U.S. citizen is married to a foreign national and has children outside of the U.S. - the U.S. citizen can petition for those children to become U.S. citizens. Is that right? Can they potentially also become citizens of the country where they are born thus having dual citizenship? Is there any residency restriction on the children to maintain U.S. citizenship? (for example do they have to move to the U.S. for x number of years to keep citizenship or is it lifetime?)

3) If the children discussed in question (2) live outside of the U.S. and perhaps travel to the U.S. occasionally, then they have their own children also outside of the U.S. - can those children also become U.S. citizens in the same way described in (2)?

Thanks

[JohnR! 5,495]

1 - It would take three years minus 90 days, of the alien living in the US -and- staying married to the US spouse before applying for citizenship. The citizenship process should not take longer than 9 months, at worst.

2 - Through CRBA, children of a US citizen become US citizens at birth, provided the US parent satisfies the requirements for residence in the US.

3 - Check the requirements in this link: http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-parents

Good luck!

Edited June 18, 2014 by Gegel

[kzielu 1,154]

1. It takes 3 years of marriage and 3 years of permanent residency in US (+ bunch of other requirements / taxes / good moral character) to get citizenship. Typically takes couple of months.

2. If US citizen has own children, then they are US citizens. If they're spouses children from a different marriage, they can be petitioned for being US residents, not citizens. Children to be unmarried and below 21 though.

3. See above.

[Optimistical 0]

Hi,

Thanks for the answers. I went back to re-read the Citizenship through parents info linked above. But there is one point that seems unclear in the link:

http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-parents

There is a 5 year presence in US requirement for the parent (with at least 2 of those years after 14th birthday) in order for the parent to be able to pass on citizenship to a child.

Do the 5 years have to be consecutive? Or total? Does anyone know?

Thanks