karin_brenig

your daughter will receive US citizenship almost "automatically" through the child citizenship act.

You need to file a petition for greencard for your child through the US consulate in Frankfurt,
then travel to the US with your child, and once you establish residence in the US, apply for her US passport.

Study these documents:

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/pressrelease/ChildCitizenshipAct_120100.pdf

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/ilink/docView/FR/HTML/FR/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-70259/0-0-0-72758/0-0-0-74195.html

http://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/PDF/PolicyManual-Volume12-PartH.pdf

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

there are two options here:

a) postpone the divorce until the naturalization process has been finalized

or b) if he is in a hurry with that divorce, naturalization will have to wait until the 5 years are up

Congrats to all fellow "Doppelpässler".

I'm looking forward to my first trip overseas with two passports.

That's going to be very different, coming home to the US afterwards - and nobody taking my fingerprints

Totally understand your pain. In my case, USCIS sent my greencard to a wrong address and it took me months to sort it out!

Did you ask them if there is any possibility you can do an infopass appointment and get the oath letter by hand? I saw from some trackers that people were able to get their letters in that way. I would give it a shot. You can explain that you repeatedly called before and were advised to wait 30 days and because of that false advice you are delayed now.

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I strongly recommend you schedule an infopass appointment.

Can't you find somebody else willing to drive you there if your husband can't take another day off?

I had been waiting for an extremely long time for my invitation to the oath ceremony, so I went in for an infopass.

While I did not recieve the actual invitation letter there, they did tell me exactly when my oath was scheduled, and where.

So, in case something would have been lost in the mail, I would have still made my appointment.

you'll be done some time this summer - probably July, give or take a month - unless you have some kind of "complication".

I like all my i-s dotted and all my t-s crossed

So after my naturalization I went to the DMV and got a new driver's license - without the 'A' on it.

While I was at the DMV I also registered to vote.

I then notified my employer and gave them a copy of my CoN.

Three weeks later I updated my status with the SSA - and received a new SS card, which looks exactly like the old one?

Then I went to the post office and applied for a new passport (book and card).

The process of updating public records and getting documentation completed took a total of eight weeks.

Like everybody told you already:

1. Your father can apply for you to receive a greencard

2. after living in the USA for 5 years as a greencard holder you can apply for US-citizenship

yes, this is normal expected behavior - SS administration is a little slow..............

You can do other things first.

Like get a new (or amended) unrestricted drivers license, tell your employer, and register to vote.

Wait with your passport application until after SSA gets their stuff done, because when you apply

for the passport you have to send your original CoN away in the mail and it will take 6-8 weeks to get it back.

DMV and SSA only make copies and don't take your original CoN away from you.

What is the average time CoNs are received back? Has anyone lost it after applying for a passport?

Average is hard to tell - depends on where your paperwork is being processed.

Start worrying/calling if you haven't gotten your CoN back three weeks after the passport arrived.

I have personally never heard of anybody losing their CoN when applying for a passport.

The woman at my local post office, where I applied, told me that out of her over 20 years of experience with this process she had never heard of a CoN getting lost in the mail.

Relax, you'll get it back

We are still waiting for the CoN and other documents from the passport processing center in Charleston. I called on Friday

and received the same info you did when you called. I guess we will just have to wait and hope that it is not lost.

Congrats on FINALLY being done with this insane odyssey.

Thank you I feel like a whole new person now. No more waiting on papers to come in the mail, no more fingerprinting when I come home from a vacation - and I get to vote now!

I believe it is safe to assume that anything you post anywhere on a public forum or the internet in general

can (and will) be read by every entity that may (or may not) be related to governments of all and any country in the world.

If you write it, the world will know.

The only way to keep your thoughts/opinions private is to refrain from writing them down or speaking out loud.

If you want your thoughts/opinions heard by the world, on the other hand, the internet (i.e. forums like this one) is the easiest way to get the word out.

ok - it's official: I'm really all done with everything now!

CoN arrived back in the mail today. Over two weeks after the passport. What a relief!

I obviously made a premature statement when I said we where done with this process. Like you, we are also still waiting for the CoN. Hopefully we will get it next week. April 11 will make 11 business days since we received the passports.

Did you get your CoN back by now?

Mine still hasn't shown up - when I called to ask how long this would take, they said up to three weeks after receiving passport.

They also gave me the address of the processing center where my application had been processed and said,

that I should write them a letter inquiring about the CoN if I don't have it back by April 24th (which would be 4 weeks after the passport arrived).

Oh boy they sure make this entire trip nerve-wrecking from start to finish!

I know that feeling - checking the mailbox every day, but still no CoN back.

A call to their customer service phone number reveals little information.

They just tell you that anything up to 3 weeks after the passport arrives is "normal".

I'd say if your CoN doesn't arrive within 4 weeks after the passport, give them a call.

Karin dont worry. i got my passport on one day, the passport card the next day, and the CoN 2 weeks after that. i was biting my nails too. i even called there to see what happened to my CoN. give it a few more days.

thank you Jemmi, I know - this whole entire process is just an exercise in patience

after well over 6 years of exercises, though, I'm simply worn out and want to be done with it.

BTW - there is a process for replacing a lost CoN. It costs $340 and takes 6 months

oh my............. still no CoN back.............. twiddling thumbs, nervously biting fingernails, hair turning more white......... secretly started to investigate what does one do when a CoN is lost........ it's not funny.............................

About most things, you know a lot, about this, maybe not so much.

The US decided not to appeal the case to the Supreme Court, and that was the end of administrative

denaturalization.

just a question, out of curiousity - would you personally want to find out?

I'm really not that brave, so I'll stick to the old "better safe than sorry" and tread lightly

short answer: no

long answer:

I am (or rather, was) in the same boat.

My father worked in the USA for a year, back in 1960, when the US still happily accepted immigrants and handed out greencards to anybody who wanted one.

My entire family (mom, dad, and three young children) each got a greencard back then.

I still have mine. It is really green! A piece of laminated cardboard, with a black-and-white baby picture of me, and my details written on it with a mechanical type-writer.

On the back of the card it says, that it will become invalid if I leave the US for more than 12 months, or if I leave before I turn 18.

1960 was not the only year my dad worked in the USA.

He did it again in 1976, again for one year, again taking his family - 4 kids by then - with him.

The USA had already become stricter in 1976.

None of us received a greencard. Everybody got their own temporary visa.

Since I was going to college, I had a J-1 visa in 1976.

None of that was considered relevant when my husband applied for my greencard in 2005.

We had to start from scratch.

An executive department cannot simply decide, without express

statutory authorization, to create an internal executive

procedure to deprive people of those rights without even

going to court.

if you say so - let's hope you're right, for those people who chose to take risks and don't want to follow my advice

about how to answer questions at your next PoE - especially if you carry two passports.

I'm curious: do you still have a Polish passport, or just the US passport?

Some time this year will probably be my first time travelling with two passports.

Will be interesting to see how that works - apart from the theoretical aproach.

most certainly I can help you educate yourself about what USCIS calls "administrative denaturalization".

Be prepared for some shocking read, though:

http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2274&context=llr

Neither does the UK for Aus (VWP type deal) but maybe the airlines screwed up? It's entirely possible Alright I'll concede you know more than I about US/German (one would certainly hope!!)

let me add one last note to the final step (when coming home to the USA and being asked about the lack of stamps in your US passport):

make very certain, that you DO NOT say anything that could be interpreted as claiming to be "not a US citizen".

DO NOT say something like ".....because I am German"

DO NOT say something like ".....because I am a dual US and German citizen"

ONLY claim holding a German passport by saying "....because I hold a German passport".

This is extremely important especially for the first two years of your newly acquired US citizenship,

because during those first two years your US citizenship could be revoked on the spot by an IO.

After the first two years are over, it takes a federal judge to revoke your US citizenship - and the offense would have to be major.

Don't think I ever caught you making a mistake, 'Nessi, but here you did, which proves that you are human after all . . .

An American don't need no smellin' visa to visit Germany, thanks to the VWP.

Good job, Karin.

Now enter two entirely different names to the game to make it more exciting . . .

I can do without the "excitement" of different names

I never even changed my last name when I got married to any of my two husbands.

My Name is easy to pronounce in most countries that I woudl ever want to live in or travel to, has no Umlaut in it either, works fine for me, isn't too common to get me confused with the millions of other Jane Smiths - so I'll keep it.

One minor caveat here in the USA though: I have to constantly tell people to, please, don't "e"liminate my "i".

Most of these "offenders" then look at me funny, until I explain to them that my first name really does have an "i" in there - which belongs in there and serves a purpose

ok, four days after my passport book I had the passport card in the mail.

Now just waiting for my CoN to make it back to me - and then open a bottle of Champagne

DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! DUAL IN HAND! Can not stress how greatful we are to all that helpped us in this processss...

Now we have a trip to Germany planned in June, does he need his american passort to travel or can we save the expense for now and still travel in and out with his German pass? hmmmm

Best of luck to all!

Hey, congratulations!

Your husband needs a US passport. When travelling to Germany he needs to take both his US and German passports.

Here's how this works

Flight from USA to Germany

Check-in at the airport in the USA: show US passport.

Leaving the US: show US passport

Entering Germany after you pick up your luggage: show German passport

Flight from Germany to the USA

Check-in at the airport in Germany: show US passport (only if they specifically ask to see it: also show German passport)

Leaving the public area of the German airport: show German passport

Going through airport security and gate to your flight: show US passport

Entering the USA: show US passport (only if they ask why there is no stamp in your passport say "because I also hold a German passport")

I used this website to crop my US passport photos - and also my German passport photos.

http://www.epassportphoto.com/

I like the fact that it works for many different countries and has all those different requirements stored on the website.