Dual citizenship

[Twinkz 0]

I am an immigrant from the Philippines. I was petitioned by my US citizen father and came here in the US in 2006. Eventually, my father applied for a dual citizenship to be able to regain his filipino citizenship and he gained it back. I got married July 2014 and as soon as i received the NSO copy of my marriage certificate, I noticed that my fathers citizenship is Filipino. Im just wondering if that would affect the petition that I just filed for my husband. I know that as a dual citizen you can declare either of the two. I just want to make sure if I still need to have my marriage license changed, specifically my fathers Citizenship on that said document. I just want clarifications =D

[Penguin_ie 5,994]

It does not matter- this petition is about you and your husband, not your father. His current citizenship is irrelevant.

[Twinkz 0]

It does not matter- this petition is about you and your husband, not your father. His current citizenship is irrelevant.

thank you =D

Calmed me down..Its good to know =D

[shantoph0208 1]

Hi twinkz! Lol

[Ian H. 207]

Yes. As mentioned before, now that you are an LPR your father's situation or citizenship status is irrelevant in order to petition your husband.

You said that you came here in 2006, were you under 18 at that time? Because if so you may be eligible for US citizenship through your father. The reason I mention this is because I see that your profile says F2A and that is for spouses or minor children of LPR's.

If you are an LPR and qualify for USC through your dad, it would be best that you apply for a US passport in order to have your husband arrive much sooner since the wait for an LPR's spouse is about 2 to 3 years. Could you please clarify at what age you came here and when your dad became a USC? Thanks.

[Twinkz 0]

Yes. As mentioned before, now that you are an LPR your father's situation or citizenship status is irrelevant in order to petition your husband.

You said that you came here in 2006, were you under 18 at that time? Because if so you may be eligible for US citizenship through your father. The reason I mention this is because I see that your profile says F2A and that is for spouses or minor children of LPR's.

If you are an LPR and qualify for USC through your dad, it would be best that you apply for a US passport in order to have your husband arrive much sooner since the wait for an LPR's spouse is about 2 to 3 years. Could you please clarify at what age you came here and when your dad became a USC? Thanks.

hello.. I came here in the US when i was 19 yrs old. When I arrived here in the US in 2006 my dad is already a US citizen. I just don't know when he became USC. In regards to my petition for my husband. I just included in my application proofs that my dad is a US CITIZEN ( His proof of dual citizenship, the certificate that was given when he was granted his US CITIZENSHIP and his US passport incase they'll question it i already have those papers ready for them.

[Ian H. 207]

All of that wasn't necessary since your dad has nothing to do with your husband's petition. I hope you don't get an RFE for this and I also hope that you didn't send the original certificate and/or passport. It's too bad you didn't enter while under 18 since you would be a USC.

What you can do, since you have more than 5 years as an LPR is to apply for citizenship. Then when you have your certificate you can upgrade your husband's petition. This way the wait will be much less since spouses of LPR's have a 2 to 3 year wait for a visa to be issued, whereas spouses of USC's don't have to wait for a visa to be available, just the processing time.

[Twinkz 0]

All of that wasn't necessary since your dad has nothing to do with your husband's petition. I hope you don't get an RFE for this and I also hope that you didn't send the original certificate and/or passport. It's too bad you didn't enter while under 18 since you would be a USC.

What you can do, since you have more than 5 years as an LPR is to apply for citizenship. Then when you have your certificate you can upgrade your husband's petition. This way the wait will be much less since spouses of LPR's have a 2 to 3 year wait for a visa to be issued, whereas spouses of USC's don't have to wait for a visa to be available, just the processing time.

what is an RFE? I didn't send the originals just the photocopy of those. i left the US for 2 years and now I have to start all over again. I came back from the Philippines May 2010.

[Ian H. 207]

Oh ok, I see. So it looks like you should be eligible for citizenship next year minus 90 days. So sometime in Feb 2015, you should meet the requirements again.

It takes about 5 to 6 months usually, to become a USC through naturalization, so your husband's petition will most likely still be pending by that time and you can send proof to USCIS so that they can upgrade your petition.

If your petition has been approved by then and sent to the NVC, then you can notify them about your USC, so that they can begin processing your husband's case.

Also RFE stands for request for evidence, this is when USCIS asks for additional info about your case. Since you sent in documents about your dad that weren't part of the application they may get confused as to the situation.

But please don't worry, if everything else you submitted between you and your spouse is correct, everything should be fine. Just make sure that you keep track of your case regularly and pay attention to any notices you may receive.

[Ian H. 207]

Actually good news, I was reading the guide to naturalization book on continuous residence, and it looks like if you left and came back within 2 years, the last 364 days you spent outside of the US would count towards the continuous residence requirement.

This means that you should be able to apply for citizenship now. Did you spend less than 2 years outside of the states, even if it was by one day? If so then you should be good to go.

Here is a link with the info:

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/article/chapter4.pdf

http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-naturalization/guide-naturalization

I would definitely read into this since you becoming a USC will dramatically cut down the wait time for your spouse and everyone here knows what it's like to be apart for too long.

[Twinkz 0]

Actually good news, I was reading the guide to naturalization book on continuous residence, and it looks like if you left and came back within 2 years, the last 364 days you spent outside of the US would count towards the continuous residence requirement.

This means that you should be able to apply for citizenship now. Did you spend less than 2 years outside of the states, even if it was by one day? If so then you should be good to go.

Here is a link with the info:

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/article/chapter4.pdf

http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-naturalization/guide-naturalization

I would definitely read into this since you becoming a USC will dramatically cut down the wait time for your spouse and everyone here knows what it's like to be apart for too long.

Keeping my fingers crossed.. When i submitted my application i was thinking that they might question how did I get here in the US if my dads citizenship is filipino and I got the IR2 visa and I read that it may delay ur processing if u have missing documents to prove so I decided to just send it not knowing that sending to much documents aside from what they are asking might delay it too when they ask for RFE. Tried to avoid RFE thats why I did sent those docs... Hope everything turns out to be just fine.. regarding ur question if i have stayed outside the country less than 2 yrs.. I over stayed if thats the case but not over stayed with out documents thou. before I left US, I applied for re-entry permit and was granted on July 2008 in that permit its states that i must come back to the US JULY 2010 but I came back May 2010. I left the country feb 2008. So more than 2 if its based on when I left not when this re entry permit is issued.

[Ian H. 207]

I'm not sure if you are saying that your dad is still a dual citizen or only a Filipino citizen. If he is a dual citizen, he doesn't lose his USC just because he reclaimed his Filipino citizenship.

In any case even if he was no longer a USC, you wouldn't have been issued an IR2 visa if they had thought he lost his citizenship. Also after you become an LPR, you are no longer dependent on your father's status anyway, so you are ok.

As for the citizenship, unfortunately it's based on when you left and came back to the US not when the permit was issued or expired. So since you were out for more than 2 years, you wouldn't qualify now.

However, like I said before since you came back in May of 2010, you are eligible to file in 5 years minus 90 days. So by Feb 2015 you should be good to go.

[Twinkz 0]

Keeping my fingers crossed.. When i submitted my application i was thinking that they might question how did I get here in the US if my dads citizenship is filipino and I got the IR2 visa and I read that it may delay ur processing if u have missing documents to prove so I decided to just send it not knowing that sending to much documents aside from what they are asking might delay it too when they ask for RFE. Tried to avoid RFE thats why I did sent those docs... Hope everything turns out to be just fine.. regarding ur question if i have stayed outside the country less than 2 yrs.. I over stayed if thats the case but not over stayed with out documents thou. before I left US, I applied for re-entry permit and was granted on July 2008 in that permit its states that i must come back to the US JULY 2010 but I came back May 2010. I left the country feb 2008. So more than 2 if its based on when I left not when this re entry permit is issued.

my dad is still a dual citizen. =D thank you so much for the information you provided... =D

[Ian H. 207]

Ok. No problem and you're welcome.