SirenDoll

1. Helena, MT USCIS office - Yes, grandparent required to attend. 2. Orlando, FL, USCIS office - Yes, grandparent required to attend.

Hi Rami, > is the presence of the grandparent essential during the interview in US or the child's parent is enough? My experience was that the US citizen grandparent was required at the interview. I am a US Citizen, but did not have enough US residency to qualify. My father was necessary to attend the USCIS interview. He is US Citizen, and had the required US residency.

Hey Alura, First off all congratulations! What an exciting time! You have 17 years to sort out an N-600K, so I recommend that you try the CRBA with the Consulate first. If that is not successful then come back here and let’s talk. To answer your question though, the purpose of the N-600K is to get a Certificate of Citizenship to prove your child is a citizen. It can then be used to get the US passport. So yes, you can get an N-600K. The downside of the N-600K vs CRBA is the expense ($1000+ USD) and time taken. The N-600K can take a few years. Try the CRBA first.

I had a school acceptance offer for my youngest child, school reports, and evidence of our house lease agreement. And for my eldest child, I also included her IB exam schedule. if you child is under 16, I’m not sure how important all that is. Both mine were over 16.

@auroraluz I'm sorry for the late response. I had some life issues and then got Covid. ESTA is "Electronic System for Travel Authorization.". It's short for a visa waiver. Some nationalities are eligible for it. Usually citizens of countries like Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zeland, Great Britain. It may not apply in your case. CRBA "Consular Report of Birth Abroad" is when the child is born to US Citizens and the consulate can register the child as a US Citizen. It has strict criteria. My children were not eligible for this, even though I am a US Citizen. This is why I did N-600K. The regulation in the PDF was sent to me from an American lawyer with understanding of how the Dept of State works. The consular official should be able to review what is in the PDF and understand it. It's a Dept of State regulation, and the structure should have some familiarity to a senior consular official. Consular officials all work for the Dept of State. This is the key part. If you have the USCIS appointment letter AND proof that the child intends to return to a residence abroad after naturalization then they should issue a B-2 visa. The wording says "may issue a B-2 visa" so it's still up to their judgement. However, the PDF should help them to make that decision.

Hi Aurora, I'm so sorry that is happening. In my post on this page: I have a PDF which shows the specific law that tells the consulate/embassy that they have to provide a B visa for the child. I've uploaded it again here. Please read this post and PDF thoroughly. Present this PDF at the interview. As long as the child and grandparent (or parent) fulfil all the requirements, the consulate/embassy is breaking the law if they deny the B visa. At the consulate/embassy ask to speak to someone higher up and show them this document. Show the USCIS interview document for the N-600K. If they ask about "intent to return", then show them return flight schedule. Be very clear that this is NOT immigration. The child has a US legal right to attend the interview for the Citizenship Certificate. It's not immigration. It might be wise to get yourself a letter from a US lawyer on this as well, and present that at the consulate. I would also recommend if possible that the American parent / grandparent attends the consulate interview with the child and advocates for the child. Consulate/embassy officials listen to the Americans more than the non-Americans. Good luck INA 322 USCIS N-600K - Google Docs.pdf

I didn’t have to do biometrics before the interview. My kids biometrics were done IN the interview. Hope that helps.

Oh wow that’s a good find. physical presence before being a citizen counts. nice!! Regarding the passports. Wait until you have returned to Pakistan to apply through the consulate/embassy. My understanding is that if you have a US passport then you are obliged to use it for travelling in or out of the United States. But the N-600K requires you to enter on the foreign passport, and if you don’t leave on that passport then ICE may believe you have overstayed. I could have the wrong understanding there, but to me it made sense just to get the passports once I returned to my home country. (Also because of hassle, wait time, cost etc) Embassy/consulate does not care about you getting the passports in USA or not. We needed the Certificate of Citizenship, local ID, birth certificate, photos, and parent ID to get the passports It was very straight forward.

Focus on one grandparent, because that's how the form works. Use the one you have the most evidence for. Residence needs to be from when they became citizens. The time period before that won't count. N-600K, Application for Citizenship and Issurance of Certificate Under Section 322 (uscis.gov) That quote is what the instructions say. Things that prove residence are things that have an address on them. Or things like school, university, employment records before the internet let everyone work and study remotely. We had tax returns car registration passports birth certificate utility bills medicare social security

Hi Saiftariq I can't answer the credit card question, as I used my own. But I suspect it won't matter who's card it is. Proof of presence for the grandparent for 5 years: high school diploma university diploma and transcripts car registrations social security reports tax file reports utility bills The form and form guide give you suggestions and links. Yes, I had to do separate online accounts for each child. I managed it by having a gmail account. Most people don't know this, but you can have a gmail account, and by adding a full stop / period anywhere in the email prefix it can be an alias. Eg firstnamelastname@gmail.com you can make aliases that look like: firstname.lastname@gmail.com first.namelastname@gmail.com firstnamelast.name@gmail.com f.irstname.lastname@gmail.com f.i.r.s.t.namelastname@gmail.com etc All of which can be used to setup USCIS accounts and then any emails will come into the firstnamelastname@gmail.com account Link: Make Several Gmail Addresses Out of One - The New York Times (nytimes.com) Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses - Gmail Help (google.com) I just tracked every account in a spreadsheet, as well as all the application numbers and receipt numbers etc. Yes You can look up processing times. But my advice is just make it somewhere convenient to the family member helping you out. That's unlikely to be an issue. Just make sure that when you visit the embassy/consulate to get the B visa for the visit, that you take the PDF that I attached in an earlier comment. The N-600K is a not frequently used process, so a lot of consular staff are not very familiar with it. Initially, I was told "oh no we can't give your children a tourist visa as they are supposed to be citizens", but then I showed them that PDF with the laws about it, and then they read it, and instantly said "oh right... yes we can". Because the whole purpose of the B visa is to get them into the country to get them the citizenship. Your B visa shouldn't be any issue at all. If your children are 16 or 17, make sure that you highlight that in the application for expedited processing! Good luck.

Hi FS1907, I don't remember your whole situation. If the child does not live overseas, then the form needed is the N-600. This has similar eligibility criteria to the N-600K. The difference is whether the child lives overseas or not. N-600 - child lives in USA N-600K - child lives overseas. In both cases, these are applications for a Citizenship certificate. This is because the child has inherited citizenship through either their grandparent or parent, but needs the certificate to prove citizenship to get a passport. With the N-600K, you may encounter problems if you do not have proof of a return flight to the origin country. (The I-94)

Beep - we had B visas as well. I did NOT over-explain at the border. We had B tourist visas. I said we were visiting my family which was true. We were asked why we didn't have ESTAs, I said I didn't know why we were refused (true) and that the consulate was satisfied to give us tourist visas. I carried everything in case I was asked (see previous posts on what I carried.) I think it's critical to have the PDF I added in one post about the laws about being permitted to travel on a B visa for the N-600K visa. But I wasn't going to explain it unless I had to, otherwise we would have missed our connecting flight (which we did anyway thanks SFO TSA and United!). Just remember, tell the truth, but don't over-explain. If you get taken aside and require more explanation then pull out all the paperwork. Travelling on B visas for the N-600K is legal, correct and you can prove it with that PDF. And as a backup have a lawyer that you can call.

Hi Beep: >First, my father lives in another country and obviously I can not take his original passport with me to the interview. What can be done? You are expected to take original documents with you. Ideas: You could ask the USCIS through the application form, as there is messaging there You could ask your father to FedEx his passport to you It may depend on what other original evidence that you have, but it would be better to ask USCIS directly. >Second: after the interview a few people have mentioned they got the US passport in the US. Are we supposed to travel back on the new US >passport if we get it , or can the child travel on the passport on which he entered? Because the return tickets will be on first passport. My understanding, and I am not a lawyer, is that the child had to enter AND leave on the original non-US passport. And as a US citizen is required by law to use their US passport if they have one, I chose to not get the US passports while in the US. Instead, we returned to our home country and have applied through our local consulate, and the passports are on their way. Also, this whole process is a LOT, so adding on the application for passport and waiting for that to arrive in time before leaving the USA, it just made more sense to me to do it later, so I was not too stressed.

Hi FS1907 The conditions of the N600K are that you and the child reside overseas. and intend to return. if that is not your plan then you may need to do the I-130 and/or N-600

Some things I discovered going down the I-130 route with my children (I am US Citizen) 1. While your child(ren) cannot age out for the I-130 process, if we then immigrated after my child(ren) was 18, then they would not be eligible for the "instant citizenship" that is referred to, and they would not be eligible for the N-600. As that has to occur before 18. They would have to go through the PR-> Citizen conversion like any other adult. 2. N-600 and N-600K are similar but different. They are both applications for certificate of citizenship for under 18s, which is needed before getting a passport or a SSN, if the child was not born in the US. N-600 is if you reside in the USA N-600K is if you do not. For me, the process of N-600K was the right one, as we ended up deciding not to immigrate. N-600 and N-600K can only be done for under 18's. The reason I would consider applying the children first and with an N-600K is that 1. Them all being US Citizens provides added weight to the I-130 for your husband 2. N-600K costs about $1K USD vs (I-130 + N-600) which is about $2K USD (if I recall correctly). With 5 kids ( I think you said) that's a huge possible cost for you. But it depends on why you want to immigrate, and when. And yes, doing the I-130 for all may be the best and quickest course of action. The children will receive "instant US citizenship" as children with PR and US Citizen parent. However proving it when applying for passports and SSNs _might_ be harder, and then N-600s might be needed. Regarding visas/ESTAs, the US frowns upon people applying for visas with the intention to immigrate. ESTAs can get denied, and even tourist visas can get denied. I just had a look at some of your previous posts, if it's an internal transfer and his company files for the visa, they will also be involved in the filing for visas for your children, as dependents. Once in the country then you can apply for PR for all. And then if you need to, you can apply for N-600s. You may not need N-600s if you can prove residency. As I'm sure you are already finding there are multiple routes for visas and citizenships. Good on you for doing the research before applying for anything. I had no resources when I started, so this forum is an amazing help. I'm not one of the lawyers in this forum. I am someone who started the I-130 and then got screwed by the pandemic and embassy closures, and ended up going to N-600K for my children. My husband's I-130 is still sitting in the system in case we want to pick that back up again. All I can share is that I wish I had just done the N-600Ks for my children when they were young. I had family circumstances that prevented it, but that's absolutely what I should have done. Good luck with your decision making.