Brother Hesekiel

What does a dog have to do to become a dog?

You are a US citizen, so you can't file for naturalization, as a US citizen cannot naturalize to become a US citizen. What you need to do is prove that you are a US citizen. After such a long time of procrastination, an invalid Green Card, and a deceased parent, your only path to that is filing an N-600 to the tune of $1,369.

Congratulations.

You entered the twilightzone.

There are plenty of cases where an N-400 was approved with tax debt and an IRS payment plan. If you are 100% certain that this was the only . . . um . . . black spot on your file, you just pulled the short stick and got an I.O. who wasn't in the mood.

I personally would not appeal. It adds more drama to your case. I would advise you to pay off your debt, and apply again not earlier than a year after your first denial. You really don't miss out on much as a Green Card holder, except for voting in a federal election, and that's not coming anytime soon.

I don't agree with your reasoning regarding the name change, but that's of no concern.

My wife kept her maiden name for many years after we married, as she was known under it in her professional community. I was perfectly fine with it. Eventually she changed her name, as a "Christmas present" to me, but, frankly, it didn't really matter to me at all.

Our daughter, well, her daughter from her ex (he died surprisingly at age 36), still carries her dad's last name. She's 28 now. So we were a happy family of 3 people with 3 different names, and nobody gave a hoot. Do you think anybody was outraged that there was a Bruce Willis and a Demi Moore, both married?

If you want to change your name, do it before you leave for the United States. If you change it in the US, you'll also have to get a new Green Card, to the tune of $450.00. Not fun.

In the US, you can change your last name anytime based on marriage, but as a Green Card holder, that implies getting a new Green Card, which is the master document for a foreign resident. Otherwise, the best time to change it is when you naturalize, which, if you stay married, can be as early as 3 years after you became a Green Card holder.

If your father's passport expired 10 years ago, would he lost his citizenship because of it?

There you go.

For the same reason your dad didn't lose his status as a LPR just because his Green Card expired 10 years ago. There are thousands of Green Card holders who wait with renewing their card 'til they really need it. They really need it if they either (1) want to travel internationally or (2) have to go to the USCIS. For all other purposes -- work included -- the Green Card is not needed.

There's no punishment for filing late, so all he has to do is file an I-90 for a new card.

On 12/11/2017 at 7:51 PM, David1981 said:

The only mention that my name was changed during naturalization (1980s) was hand written in a corner, on the back of the Certificate of Naturalization, which seems lost or misplaced.

A new Certificate would only show the new name.

How do I get proof of the name change?

thanks!

For what purpose would you need that?

For all practical purposes, the Certificate of Naturalization is the birth certificate of a naturalized citizen. You were re-born as an American. From that point on, your birth certificate and all documents that pre-date the N-400 become irrelevant.

Enlighten me, and I may be able to point you in the right direction.

On 12/14/2017 at 7:54 PM, americanintrainin said:

Yes, it might be wise to also apply for a certificate of citizenship/naturalization for your own records if you are financially able.

No.

That would be an incredible waste of 1,170 hard-earned Dollars.

The CoC's primary purpose is to get a US passport. People who can get a US passport without the CoC would be insane to file an N-600. But if you're a Vietnamese girl whose mommy back in 1968 got knocked up by a GI who then took off like a rocket, never to be seen again, and you want to get a US passport based on jus sanguinis, you'll can't avoid going that route.

I believe in the power of the human brain. Thus, I challenge you to answer your own question.

A women got raped, resulting in a pregnancy. The sperm donor is unknown. She never marries. 17 years later, she wants to get her daughter a passport.

Does she have to find the rapist and force him to sign the passport application?

What do you think?

Same here.

You have sole custody of your child by default.
File form DS-11. To be safe, also submit form DS-5525.

Your post makes little sense to me.

If your Green Card was stolen while you were in Europe, you'd would have to visit the nearest US Embassy or Consulate and get a Boarding Foil in order to return to the United States. No airline would have allowed you to board the plane without proof that you are authorized to enter the country.

In any case, if you did biometrics in September, you are still well in the normal processing window for an I-90. If you haven't received the card by March or April, you can get nervous.

Looks like you may have indeed triggered a 10-year bar.
The easiest way would be for you to give it a try. Shoot for a 1-day road trip across the border, smile, and keep your fingers crossed.

Your status as a lawful permanent resident, a.k.a. Green Card holder, NEVER expires, even if the document does.

Still, you'll have to provide proof about (1) who you are and (2) that you are authorized to work.

The accepted documents for that are on the bottom of the I-9 form, in List A, List B, and List C.

List A documents prove (1) and (2).

List B documents only prove (1).
List C documents only prove (2)

A = B+C

https://www.uscis.gov/system/files_force/files/form/i-9-paper-version.pdf

About 98% of all people do that by showing their driver's license (proves 1) and their unrestricted SS card (proves 2), US citizens and Green Card holders alike. I've NEVER shown my Green Card to any employer.

If you don't have a driver's license or state ID, get one before your Green Card expires.

Problem solved.

If the question comes up at the AoS interview, and chances are rather high that you will, you'll have a problem that potentially could become a deal breaker.

If you are working authorized or not (even drug dealers and hookers are not exempt), you should be filing your federal income tax return, and since you are married, you can do the 2017 return now, today, start filing jointly, being married. Your income will be counted as well for I-864 purposes as long as you are going strong in your source of income, so maybe that will bring you over the poverty line. Since VJ doesn't allow certain advice, let me phrase it this way: I'm not sure I would mention that you plan to move to NY, as that would change your "source or your income" which is equal to losing your current job.

In addition, you can make up for the discrepancy via assets in the ratio of 1:3. Current requirement for a household of 2 is $25,525 annually, so if you both are hanging on the beach, enjoying the Florida weather, but have $76K in the bank or own real estate or have a solid stock market account, that will work as well.

Finally, if none of this applies to you, it wouldn't mean "financially stable" in my book, but you could still pull this off by getting a co-sponsor to sign on the dotted line in your behalf.

10 hours ago, Alan German said:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/nyregion/making-choice-to-halt-at-door-of-citizenship.html

Fascinating.

Thank you for sharing.

Usually, they would not.

Only if there's an apparent discrepancy, the I.O. would dig deeper.

For what it's worth, this "calling immigration and getting someone deported" isn't even good enough for a very, very bad Disney movie. We have an estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the United States, perhaps millions more, plus a few million visa overstayers. Do you really think we could not find those folks if we wanted to? On the same token, do you think ICE is waiting for a phone call from some Schmuck, complaining about a Green Card holder, for them to get out of their chairs and rush to the white van, visiting, interrogating, and then deporting you? If so, I have a great business proposition for you . . .
 

6 hours ago, Kathryn Baer said:

It was just something I heard from a friend now pursuing a K-1 Visa. I figured he was wrong, but just wanted to check.

 

Do any of you know if they allow triple citizenship? My husband has dual, US & Italian. We we looking into obtaining Italian Citizenship for me as well. But would it be possible for each of us to have US, Canadian & Italian Citizenship's?

There is no difference between dual, triple, quadruple, quintruple, etc. citizenship as they are only variations of multiple citizenship. Either all countries involved allow their citizens to hold another citizenship, or two, or three, or four, etc., or they don't. In the case you mentioned, we are talking the United States, Canada, and Italy.

The United States doesn't recognize multiple citizenship, so it's neutral.

Canada not only allows it, but openly encourages it. Probably the most multiple citizenship-friendly country on Earth.

Italy is one of the two countries on the planet that extend jus sanguinis to a 2nd generation, meaning someone can claim Italian citizenship if a grandparent was an Italian citizen. Italy has no problem with multiple citizenship either.

Thus, the answer to your question is "yes." I'm a citizen of the United States, Sweden, and Germany.

President Trump is not anti-immigrants. After all, his current wife is an immigrant and so is one of his ex-wives. He won the elections primarily based on his promise to get a hold of ILLEGAL immigration and immigration abuses. DACA is part of illegal immigration and the H1-B visa abuse is part of legal immigration abuse.

Like it or not, President Trump promised "the wall" and it is destined to become part of his legacy. In order to pull this off, he offers the Democrats  800,000 get-out-of-jail cards free, to be distributed to the DACA recipients. If the Democrats do not play along, the USCIS will use the list and ICE will visit the parents of the DREAMERs, invite them to a drive, and process them for expedited deportation. That will not sit well with the voter base, so my educated guess is that the Democrats will agree to work with the Republicans on a compromise.

Every legal immigrant should have no problem with getting control of illegal immigration and abuse of the legal immigration system. We can by sympathetic to DREAMERs, and most people are, but on the same token we need to understand that no country can tolerate having many millions of illegal aliens living within its borders.

There's no requirement to file your taxes before April 15, 2018. Thus, your 2016 tax returns are your latest current taxes and you can use them for AoS purposes.

7 hours ago, Alan German said:

I prefer not to. 

 

I know it's none of my business, but I'm just curious why not.
The only reason I understand is if you'd automatically lose your current citizenship when naturalizing and plan on returning to your home country eventually, i.e., when retiring.

On 12/20/2017 at 3:49 PM, Alan German said:

For your information, I applied for renewal of my Permanent Resident Card in early July, and it arrived today. The entire process from online application to receiving the new card took 5 1/2 months. I live in Houston. I have been  permanent resident since 1997.

Isn't it about time to naturalize then and be done with all of that for good?

I don't post here often anymore (although I answer lots of immigration-related questions every week), but this is a clear-cut case.

US residency is considered voluntarily abandoned if the Green Card holder either (1) stays out of the US for a year or longer or (2) establishes residency outside the United States, whatever comes first. If such a Green Card holder pulls out her Green Card after having been out of the US for 7 years, one of two things will happen:

1) she will be refused entry,

2) she will be paroled in, with the requirement attached to see an immigration judge.

Since somebody who has not been "admitted" (but only paroled in), AoS is not an option.

My advice to the OP is simple: file an I-130 NOW, and return with an IR-1 to the US once it's been issued.

No,

it's not a red flag at all.

But if you have a non-American name, one that identifies you as a foreigner, you may want to change it, to "americanize it," when you naturalize.

It won't have any impact on your German name (should you retain your German citizenship via Beibehaltungsgenehmigung), so you'd be living with two names and two passports, perfectly legal.

As a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) of the United States, you are required to permanently reside in the United States. Of course, you can leave the country for a while if you have a good reason to do so. A good reason is if you work for a US company abroad. In that case, you'll pay income taxes in the United States, not abroad.

What you cannot do, is establish (or reestablish) residency outside the United States. So if you work abroad, you will have a work visa for that country. Since a citizen cannot get a work visa for his country of citizenship, instead would work there by establishing residency, that's a no-go from the get-go, and the CBP officer in charge of "admitting" you to the United States again would have you bend over and have his go with you if he found out. He *may* conclude that you voluntarily abandoned your US residency by establishing residency in your country of citizenship and just "parole" you in with the requirement attached that you'll have a chat with an immigration judge.

For what it's worth, the same applies to those studying abroad. A citizen of the Ukraine can study in Russia as a foreign student, and if he uses every opportunity to return to the US, he may be able to do this for years without problems. But if that Ukrainian studies in the Ukraine, he won't be able to do that is a foreign student, but only as a Ukrainian residing in the Ukraine, and that's immigration suicide.

Only crazy stupid people carry their GC with them "at all times." The Green Card is needed for (1) international travel, in order to return to the United States, and (2) when going to the USCIS directly. For all other purposes, including work and I-9 form, a sane person, even a moderately stupid one, will carry what all people carry: their driver's license. I had two Green Cards, and they both lived all their lives in a locked Firesafe box inside a locked (vintage) Steelcase steel cabinet inside a locked room in my locked house.

Only federal agents in the line of duty can ask you for your Green Card. So, yes, if you are a drug or gun dealer and get frequent visits from the ATF, having your Green Card handy makes sense. Otherwise, not, like totally not.

To answer your question: nothing. The document expires, but not the status. I personally know folks whose GC expired many, many years ago, and they don't renew it because they don't want to spend the money before they absolutely have to. When do they have to? See 1) and 2).

Every US citizen residing in the United States and every LPR (who by default resides in the United States) is required to have health insurance. Some states extend Medicare for this, others don't. Under the ACA's minimum requirement falls pre-natal care, so that would already be a sufficient answer.

It is true that many pre-natal services are covered under Emergency Medicaid, and even though it's not listed as a means-tested benefit, the petitioner's I-864 still applies and the beneficiary's SSN will pop up at the next federal background check, at the very latest at the N-400 interview. At that point, it's (1) payback time, and (2) the N-400 may be denied.