visajourneymember

Thanks everyone for the replies and information.

I've found the following:

According to the Department of State website:

Section 320: Automatic Acquisition of U.S. Citizenship for Children Born Outside of the United States and Residing Permanently in the United States

The child must meet the following requirements:

Have at least one U.S. citizen parent by birth or naturalization;

Be under 18 years of age;

Live in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent;

Be admitted as an immigrant for lawful permanent residence

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_5200.html

Now, USCIS is questioning the 3rd one ("Live in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent"). OK, so if I provide evidence that the child is in my custody and lives with me, why do I need to provide the marriage certificate? Do I have to really spend $200 for a translation of the (10 years old) marriage certificate.

You are correct: your child is a U.S. citizen. That's why for the life of it I don't understand why you spent $600 on a torture request instead of just going to the passport office and getting the little one a U.S. passport.

Yes, and now I have to spend $200 to get the marriage certificate translated.

For 2 and 3, do you have any healthcare documents with your kid's name on it? That should do it. For 2, also a notarized statement with your and your spouse's names on it stating that you live at the same address and that the kid is with you could also work. Also, if you already filed for taxes and claimed him as a dependent, that should show up on your IRS tax forms as well.

You make good points. Thanks for the info.

How can I obtain such statement (saying that me, my wife and the kid live together) notarized?

Is your child enrolled in daycare or Pre-K? Do you have him on your health insurance? Did you take him to a doctor?

I had to provide the same for my children. The child needs to be in your custody means share the same address. So you need something stating that he is living with you at your address.

School report card (or daycare progress report or something), health insurance statement with him on, medical bill ...

My kids were living with me already for a longer time so I had some things, but you should be able to get some ...

The same will happen if you apply for a passport, that's actually when I was asked to submit additional proof. I did not hear anything yet back about the N-600, but I have a letter from USCIS stating that they are citizens, so I submitted that together with the application.

Wishing you luck

Sib

Interesting ... I wonder what makes them request this from some people but not all.

He's been going to a church preschool. I will submit the payment invoive I obtained from the preschool, showing that I've made payments for the last several months. Also I will include the carbon copies of the checks made.

Do you think this will suffice as proof of custody and address (requests 2 & 3 by USCIS)? Thanks.

yes that's what neutralization looks like

you might or might not be eligible for naturalization, but you are eligible for neutralization

Are you a US citizen by birth or did you naturalize?

naturalize

My son came to the US last year on a IR-2 visa. He's 4 years old. I applied for CoC (N-600) a month or so after he came. Now USCIS has sent an N-14, requesting the following additional documents:

1. Marriage cert 2. Proof that the child is in my custody 3. Proof of address for parents AND child

Number 1 is easy, for no 2 and 3 I don't know what to provide them with. Proof of address for a 4 year old, seriously?

Based on what I read online, I thought once a IR-2 under 16 (or whatever) comes to the US, they are a USC upon enterance. I never knew, the law requires such things, before the child becomes a citizen.

I wanted to update you guys on this. Embassy has scheduled an interview for the 18th of July. My son will turn 4 on July 26th. Shame on them.

The reason most people are upset, frustrated, angry or what not, is because they assume the US government and government agencies to be rational entities. They expect them to understand how hard it is for families to be separate. That is not the case. What you need to keep in mind is that almost all entities including all governments are the same, they only do what is in their own best interest. They have little or no interest in helping your family come here. Specially given the current economic conditions in America.

For those of you who have lived in third world countries, it should be easy to identify a third world country when you see one. US has been officially a third world country since at least a decade ago. The reason you don't see it, is because the government is artificially keeping US wages high. This is very similar to the situation in the Soviet Union right before its collapse. Eventually the high wages relative to other countries is going to end, not by a drop in the income levels, but through inflation, the increasing gap between the rich and poor and the rampant corruption that far exceeds that of most third world countries. None of this is even hidden news, it's public, you can research and find for yourself, just that it's buried under all the meaningless news surrounding Obama, the Debt Ceiling, ME countries, Donald Trump, Justin Beiber, Charlie Sheen and other endless nonsense.

Why not try the DOS OIG first? Might get you the result you want. Squeaky wheel gets the grease concept. Not sure how long outside of "normal" processing time your child's application is. Also wondering why its taking so long, and when you filed the application?

USCIS ombudsman just published a memo regarding the complaint process and lack of channel for complaints at USCIS. Not sure how that relates to NVC but have my opinion that most of the problems are a result of the anonymity of the folks behind the scenes. I am sure it stems from the same issue, If you don't know who is handling your paperwork its difficult to call that person into account.

I certainly "feel ya" and your frustration. Having dealt with "third world country bureaucracy" I can tell you that its all the same BS, too much power in the hands of folks who have never been and never will be called into account for their ineptitude.

Best of luck. Hope this is resolved quickly.

A helpful and reasonable post. Thanks.

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I am surprised by the people who think it's OK for government agencies to manage cases at the pace they want. An advanced government would work towards efficiency not inefficiency. How hard is it to see the growing inefficiency in most government agencies today? It is very sad that America is going backwards instead of forwards.

I agree with people who state that filing a lawsuit against government agencies is costly, will take alot of time (like all other government processes) and might not work out in the end. But do not agree with 'Just Bob' that we should fear them. I do not agree with 'Just Bob' that we should be afraid of filing a suit; that because of our lawsuit, their attorney can request psychiatric evidence to prove that we are not mentally stable to be the parent of our children. And I do not agree with 'Just Bob' that we should fear that they will revoke our citizenship because of our lawsuit against them. His post was irrational and falsely attempted to instill fear. It is completely wrong to attempt to instill fear of government in people, the end result of citizens fearing their government is more corruption in government agencies. I should have known better than to post in a forum requesting for infromation, or maybe I posted in the wrong forum. I will continue with googling lawyers and calling a few of them to see how they can help me.

What can I say; good luck everyone, and enjoy the wait.

One question that just springs to mind, were you a USC when he was born?

No, I became a citizen about 2 years ago.

I want to file a lawsuit or a class action lawsuit (if there are others who want to file a lawsuit too) against the State Department

I'm a US citizen, I have a 3 year old I've been trying to get a visa for. I can't bring him into the country and apply for immigration here. He has to wait for the USCIS and then the NVC to process his case and set up an interview with the consulate. The NVC is very slow. I have to be in the States because of the AoS requirements and this separation is very devastating for my son. He's lost a lot of weight and he grinds his teeth at night, due to the stress this has placed on him.

He was saying to me today "You go and you don't take us". I really didn't have anything to say in response. This is so sad. America claims they value family, but that is just talk, in action they don't give a f_ck.

I am tired of waiting for the NVC and seeing my son go through so much stress, even after the NVC is done I have to wait for them to set up an interview date at the consulate.

I wrote to my Senator and they sent a letter from his office to the NVC, but it's not helping.

Does anyone know a good lawyer that has experience with filing lawsuits against the State Department?

I googled to find such a lawyer and I found these two offices

http://www.bridgewest.com/visa-services/litigation-bringing-lawsuits-against-uscis-and-consulates/

http://www.fitzgeraldlawcompany.com/

Does anyone have any experience with them?