Kids under 18 with immigration visa automatically become US citizen?

[williamAR 17]

Yes even so, remember that if you just immigrated to the US, and you spend in marriage 3 years and then you naturalize, then your children will derive the citizenship from you. 

[CarlHamilton 252]

5 minutes ago, williamAR said:

Yes even so, remember that if you just immigrated to the US, and you spend in marriage 3 years and then you naturalize, then your children will derive the citizenship from you. 

Does their age matter?

[williamAR 17]

Yes they have to be under 18 at that time as well. 

[JFH 12,195]

I think the embassy woman confused children whose birth parent is a USC but couldn't automatically pass on citizenship to the child. For example, a USC who has lived overseas their whole life cannot pass on citizenship to their child and if they want to move to the USA with the child, then the child needs an immigrant visa to travel but automatically gains citizenship upon arrival at POE. The same applies to certain adoption cases also. 

 

Since the children are neither your husband's birth children nor have they been adopted by him, they will get green cards upon arrival, not citizenship. 

[TM92 527]

11 hours ago, hashtagme said:

in the embassy we were told that my 2 kids (german, step-kids to my american husband) under 18 will automatically become US Citizen the moment they enter the States with the Immigration Visa.

For all green card purposes your children are considered your husband's children; http://www.visajourney.com/content/child: "A stepchild if the marriage creating the steprelationship took place before the child reached the age of 18"

But for citizenship your children are not automatically considered your husband's children. He has to either legally adopt them, https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/Print/PolicyManual-Volume12-PartH.html:

Quote

C. Adopted Child

 

An adopted child means that the child has been adopted through a full, final, and complete adoption. This includes certain siblings of adopted children who are permitted to be adopted while under 18 years of age.

 

A child is an adopted son or daughter of his or her U.S. citizen parent if the following conditions are met:

• The child is adopted in the United States or abroad;
• The child is adopted before he or she reaches 16 years of age (except for certain cases where the child may be adopted before reaching 18 years of age); and
• The child is in the legal custody of the adopting parent or parents at the time of the adoption.

In general, the adoption must:

• Be valid under the law of the country or place granting the adoption;
• Create a legal permanent parent-child relationship between a child and someone who is not already the child’s legal parent; and
• Terminate the legal parent-child relationship with the prior legal parent(s).

Or you have to naturalize before your children turn 18 and you must legally and physically reside together at that time, https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-9983.html:

Quote

Sec. 320. [8 U.S.C. 1431] (a) A child born outside of the United States automatically becomes a citizen of the United States when all of the following conditions have been fulfilled:

1. At least one parent of the child is a citizen of the United States, whether by birth or naturalization.
2. The child is under the age of eighteen years.
3. The child is residing in the United States in the legal and physical custody of the citizen parent pursuant to a lawful admission for permanent residence.

Otherwise, your children will have to naturalize on their own when they become 18+ adults.

[geowrian 22,339]

Agreed with the 2 posts above. Stepchildren will not derive citizenship once entering the US on an immigrant visa. They can derive it, if still under 18, when the parent naturalizes.

 

Had they been biological children (or ni very limited adoption scenarios), then they would become USCs upon entry on an immigrant visa. They would then apply for US passports (or an N-600 but the passports are a much better path) as evidence of their citizenship. You also would have filed I-864Ws instead of I-864s for them to get their immigrant visas.

Edited August 24, 2018 by geowrian

[Dave&Kal 26]

On 8/23/2018 at 9:28 AM, hashtagme said:

On 8/23/2018 at 9:26 AM, mrmvkjts said:

 

I read that one parent must be US citizen for them to get it automatically - does the step-dad count as parent? Because he is American. 

I have a feeling the lady in the embassy was CORRECT!

 

Yesterday we had a guest. They are a USC couple who adopted a child from China, and obviously they got an immigrant visa for the child. Upon arriving at the US, the child was a US citizen. So they didn't have to be biological parent and they did not have to do anything else!

 

Since you got married, your husband has become their step-father, and the fact being  a US citizen would be enough to make them eligible for automatic citizenship upon arrival! All they (kids) have to do is to land in the US with their immigration visa only once!

[hashtagme 29]

1 minute ago, Dave&Kal said:

I have a feeling the lady in the embassy was CORRECT!

 

Yesterday we had a guest. They are a USC couple who adopted a child from China, and obviously they got an immigrant visa for the child. Upon arriving at the US, the child was a US citizen. So they didn't have to be biological parent and they did not have to do anything else!

 

Since you got married, your husband has become their step-father, and the fact being  a US citizen would be enough to make them eligible for automatic citizenship upon arrival! All they (kids) have to do is to land in the US with their immigration visa only once!

Oh wow, thank you! Is it also true that kids under 18 keep their Orginal citizenship (german) and will be dual citizen? 

[Dave&Kal 26]

11 minutes ago, hashtagme said:

Oh wow, thank you! Is it also true that kids under 18 keep their Orginal citizenship (german) and will be dual citizen? 

nothing happens to their former citizenship as far as the US is concerned. Unless Germany cancels their citizenship! i don't know dual citizenship if accepted in Germany!  I myself being born in Canada to an Irish and french parents and married to New Zealander , have already 4 citizenships and waiting for my US citizenship in the coming months!  So dont worry! Nothing happens to their Deutcsh citizenship in here :-) 

[williamAR 17]

AS you said the children have to be formally adopted, step-parent is not a valid relationship for citizenship you can check the INA and a lot of places more, they will say the same only biological or formal adoption are valid.

[hashtagme 29]

1 minute ago, williamAR said:

AS you said the children have to be formally adopted, step-parent is not a valid relationship for citizenship you can check the INA and a lot of places more, they will say the same only biological or formal adoption are valid.

Makes sense.. they’re not adopted. Thank you!

[Dave&Kal 26]

7 minutes ago, williamAR said:

AS you said the children have to be formally adopted, step-parent is not a valid relationship for citizenship you can check the INA and a lot of places more, they will say the same only biological or formal adoption are valid.

I didn't say you have to adopt them! (but that could be considered as an option as well if the automatic citizenship does not work in step-father case though ) but as a result of the marriage, the father, automatically enters in a valid relationship!  Can you provide a link to where it says what you say?

 

Adopting a child, means taking the responsibility. So when one gets married to someone with minor children, he take a shared responsibility for the Children, so technically brings him closer to some sort of adoption status.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Dave&Kal

[williamAR 17]

https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume12-PartH-Chapter4.html

 

clearly states the following "A stepchild who has not been adopted does not qualify for citizenship under this provision."

[hashtagme 29]

Just now, Dave&Kal said:

I didn't say you have to adopt them! (but that could be considered as an option as well if the automatic citizenship does not work in step-father case though ) but as a result of the marriage, the father, automatically enters in a valid relationship!  Can you provide a link to where it says what you say?

For me, it doesn’t matter so much if they gain citizenship, it’s more of a concern IF they automatically do then  I’m not sure if I have to file with Germany that they can keep their german citizenship. I don’t want them to lose that because we  have strong ties to Germany and will travel much there 

[williamAR 17]

Yes they will gain it eventually but through you, hmm about German citizenship I don't know, you would have to ask to your German embassy, for what I have read in the internet Germany allows dual citizenship but I don't know.