pixie77

Hi! 

I just finished going through the process of proving legal custody of my daughter. I was married to her father and divorced him here in the US. It will help if aside from the DS3053, you get a notarized letter from the dad that he knows and doesn't object to your current custody arrangement  and the release of your child's passport and your travel plans and that he supports all your decisions regarding your child. You also need to contact a lawyer from the Philippines to write a letter that states that the law when in comes to custody of an illegitimate child in the Philippines.

We were once denied for the passport of my daughter because I only submitted a few paper works and then the DS3053. It can be a difficult process but it is what it is. I applied again and after 6 months, we now have my daughter's passport. Too much back and forth but don't give up on your paper work and you'll be fine.

Feel free to message me.

Good luck!

Hey Bart,

Finally got the passport today after 6 long months! What helped was I found a decided case wherein the son of the naturalized citizen was in the same predicament as my daughter and I with the father re: proving legal custody but this time it was the son who lodged the appeal to the Supreme Court that he was entitled to derive citizenship.

Anyway, after all is said and done, I realized that I could have done this on my own without the lawyer. The Passport people even refused to speak to my lawyer and I was told lawyers become involved on appeal not during regular processing. So what my lawyer just did was make a letter and his letter confused the people at the passport agency. I had to make another letter.

It's all water under the bridge now, we are happy we got the passport and planning our vacation outside the country soon.

Thanks Bart..

I will keep you posted. I am submitting a notarized letter from my ex, will see if this works.

Hey Bart! Great news for you!

I am still on the bureaucratic train! So frustrating! Was your wife married to her ex? Did she obtain legal separation from her ex? Just curious because they are asking me proof of legal separation when I already submitted my divorce decree. Just curious, what kind of affidavit did you execute as their step-father?

On 1/25/2018 at 10:49 PM, Bart R. said:

Hi pixie77,  have you made any progress on your daughter's case?  My wife is in a similar situation.  There were never any custody orders in place before her kids immigrated with her (she has since naturalized).  The kids' dads have agreed to sign the DS-3053, but I'm worried that we'll get the same letter back from the State Dept. after we submit their passport applications.  Did you have to get a court order concerning custody, or is some other kind of documentation sufficient?

Hi Bart,

I don't know if you can call it progress but I am still going through the process. I have already retained a lawyer to deal with this but I am still having some issues in terms of proving legal custody.

No court order, I submitted a signed affidavit described below.

To date I have submitted the following:

Original Copy of my Naturalization Certificate

Original Copy of daughter's Green card

Original Copies of my marriage certificates (current & previous)

Original Copy of my divorce decree

Original Copies of letters from schools ( But they want exact months to included and not just the school year and that it also explicitly states that I am the guardian on record. Even if the letter states that I am the mother. (mind boggling!!)So They want me to re-send all these letters.

Copies of our health insurance showing her as our dependent ( but they want medical records specifically stating that she was seen at such and such time and I am the parent on record.)

Original copy of signed affidavit by my ex-husband stating that he is fully aware that my daughter lives with me and has custody and it also included a statute stating that under Philippine law, in the absence of a custody order, joint custody is exercised. (But no they do not want this, they want a letter from the court or judge stating that the Philippines recognizes that I have custody of my daughter (which is impossible because there is no divorce in the Philippines, the lady on the line told me a letter from the court will suffice, but again this is impossible because there is no divorce no custody agreement there. Our agreement was in good faith.)

 Letter from my lawyer explaining everything.

After all these they're still not happy and need more as I mentioned on the parenthesis. It is ridiculous! I'm hoping someone on here will chime in and let me know how they were able to prove legal custody in the absence of a custody decree. I am hoping our lawyer will be able to work through this. By the way, they also suggested I file custody here (NY) but the clerk of court told me the length of time varies plus expense. This is really getting ridiculous aside from it being an utterly frustrating process. I can understand bureaucratic red tape, however they need smart, think outside the box kind of people dealing with this process.

I will keep you posted.

Sorry for the late reply and a little vent. I was just on the phone with the lady from Dept. of State a couple of hours ago.

Thanks, Randy! 

After speaking to the representative at the Departments of State, we decided to acquire the services of a lawyer. 

I will update this thread as to our process as soon as the documents have been prepared and submitted to benefit those who are in the same boat as I am.

i cannot wait to get this over with really. 

I brought up the school district because it is under the Department of Education which is considered a State Agency. The 3rd bullet point states a competent authority certifying that your state or country of residence presumes that you are in the legal custody of your US citizen parent. I am still researching/looking for the statute relevant to this.

Thanks for your reply, Ontarkie.

Nothing was asked regarding custody during immigration process. I just gave my divorce decree. 

She applied on her own, I went with her to give my naturalization certificate and my ID. 

Hi Everyone.

I am hoping to find someone who is familiar or has gone through a similar situation as we are going through right now and can guide me as to how to proceed with our situation regarding my daughter’s passport application.

My daughter is 16 years old born in the Philippines. Her father was on her birth certificate as I was married to him when she was born. We were married in the Philippines and separated in 2003. He lives in the Philippines and has not visited the US.

In 2008, I divorced him in NY. He signed the divorce papers and waived his right to contest. We had no custody decree or agreement stipulated on our divorce and there is a line on our divorce decree stating this.

Remarried in 2010, my USC husband petitioned her and after all immigration processing were approved, she arrived in the US in 2011. I became a US citizen in 2014. She is deriving citizenship from me as a minor.

We applied for her passport a few weeks ago, and now we got a letter from the Department of State asking for more paper work addressing custody.

                                               
It was only last year where her father sent her a couple of messages through FB. But it wasn’t substantial, just a hi & hello. He doesn’t call her or send any kind of support. My husband and I make the decisions when it comes to school and medical situations.

To go to court for custody is too expensive, a couple of lawyers quoted us around $4,000 minimum initial cost and a lengthy process with no guarantees.

My hope is to comply with the 3rd bullet evidence. In this case from a STATE AGENCY presuming legal custody.

Has anyone experienced something like this? How did you proceed? What do you suggest I do?

Is the school district considered a State Agency? I was thinking it is and thought of requesting the school district to give us a letter indicating her attendance and my husband and I are listed on her school forms as her parents.

Does anyone know of a statute regarding presumed legal custody? I know this is a question for a lawyer, but with the lawyers we’ve consulted it felt like we needed to retain them to get a clear cut answer to our question. I have been looking into this too,  but so far have not found anything yet for NY state.

We have 90 days to comply. It is so frustrating as you can imagine. All your inputs will be greatly appreciated. Really, whatever little hope I can get from all you I will truly be grateful. Feel free to message me. After all the exhaustive immigration process, we’ve come to this. It’s exasperating! 

Please help.

Your ex having custody in your divorce was a very important detail you left out.

That is why you were denied.

Yes, as explained by my lawyer. My divorce papers also indicated that there was no custody agreement that's why it was confusing.

Thanks @Lettyana

Need to clarify on this:

*** After we get married (but before filing aos) Can we get a Life, health, or dental insurance?

She can include you in her existing insurance after your marriage. Check Obamacare if you qualify when you get your SSN.

We'd like to submit these in aos submission as evidence for bonafide marriage. After I get my EAD we'll gather more and submit on the day of the interview.

But since I won't have any SSN yet, not sure if there are insurance companies willing to give us insurance or any of these. Google'd it but it's not clear. Please advise.

*** Would it be better to open joint bank accounts / credit cards / financial commingling BEFORE we get married or AFTER?

Co-mingling your finances is a good evidence before is fine after is fine. This is just the first step, make sure that during ROC you have your finances together.

Additional Questions:

* We thought and agreed for her to just keep her maiden name, as it comes with a lot of hassles as well (she's still in college with a part-time job) will it pose any red flags? This is no biggie for me but it might be for USCIS

Yes she can. Some change to their husband's name just to make sure it doesn't cause any red flags.

* Obviously we need co-sponsorship, so her mom (who earns a lot) gladly volunteered to become the co-sponsor. Is this fine?

Perfectly fine.

Thanks

So basically I met my USC fiance last April 2015, planning to get married this September.

I entered on a B1/B2 visa last April. I'll be 6 months on October.

Questions:

1* For evidence for a bonafide marriage, should we start co-mingling our funds even if we're not married yet? I believe we can already get a joint bank / credit cards without a marriage documents yet. Or should we only open accounts for co-mingling of funds afer marriage?

Yes, as soon as you can have a joint statement the better.

2* Since my visa permits me to stay till October, is it advised that we submit documents for change of status before my status expires? I feel like we won't be ready to submit everything (including evidences for bona fide marriage) by then, so thinking of submitting everything by November, which at that time I'll already be out of status.

It takes awhile to submit paperwork.You can't submit something you don't have.

3* Will it pose any red flags about our age? My USC fiance is 21, I just turned 30. Both of us have never been married, no kids, no crimes whatsoever. Our age gap is almost 9 years.

Not really..

4* Wont USCIS think our relationship is too soon to get married? Met in April, gonna be married by September.

Very soon actually..may look dodgy to them especially because your entry expires in October. How do you get to know someone well enough to marry in 5 months. You need to have extra strong/solid evidence you are not circumventing immigration laws otherwise it will be bad.

5* We live on the same house, living with her parents and siblings, so there's no lease documents for us. What's a good alternative to prove this? I already have one bank account sending me my bank statements on this address.

An affidavit attesting that you live in their house and whatever the conditions of the accommodations and have it notarized.

6* After we get married (but before filing aos) Can we get a Life, health, or dental insurance? YES We'd like to submit these in aos submission as evidence for bonafide marriage. After I get my EAD we'll gather more and submit on the day of the interview. But since I won't have any SSN yet, not sure if there are insurance companies willing to give us insurance. Google'd it but it's not clear. Please advise.

Once you get your EAD you can apply for your SSN. You can have your company's insurance if you have work or perhaps apply for Obamacare.

7* What other Strong evidences can we gather before submission? (no ssn for beneficiary) Aside from pics and joint bank accounts.

Strong evidences = financial evidences/ You may also add affidavit from people you know attesting to your relationship and have it notarized.

Right now the evidences we can submit along with the AOS application are: (these im sure we can get)

* Joint bank account(s)

* Joint Credit Card(s)

* Joint Debit Cards - personalized, with our pic on the card

* Family plan on at&t

Are these enough for evidence when submitting AOS? All the others we'll bring in the interview especially when I get my AOS and SSN.

Read instructions carefully on the different forms. Make a checklist of documents per form. You have to remember even if you concurrently file, your I-130 must be approved first before all else can proceed.

Sorry for all the Questions, and thank you so much for all the help.

there's a category of filing, i think you need to revisit the category under which she is applying - i sense you put the wrong category on that last application.

For the passport application? what category should it be?

Maybe she meant "annulled"? Only Muslims in the Philippines can file for divorce.

And even if they were annulled, it is quite rare in the Philippines for parents to battle over child custody. Usually, if not almost all the time, the children stays with the mother that's why she didn't have any issues bringing her daughter to the US. Documenting such "custody" is also not properly done (or even non-existent?) unlike for custody issues here in the US.

Hi Apple21,

I meant Divorced not annulled. I was petitioned while in the US and not from the Philippines.

Agree, to the rest of what you said.

Did you apply for a N-600 for your kid after you got your citizenship? I have been told that uscis are being extremely ####### about them right now and many many passport offices seems to go by their own head. I'm getting my son a N-600 as soon as I get my citizenship but I'm just expecting that to be a another long story like everything else

Hi Alaska,

I did not file for N600, I did the passport route because I was wary of denials. At least, the passport isn't that expensive compared to the N600 and won't hurt that much when denied. I also relied on the posts here on the forum where most did the passport route first than the N600. We planned to get the N600 when she starts applying for colleges at least that was the plan.

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/under-16.html

It's stated here that you need to show parental relationship like a divorce decree or custody papers.

It also lists citizenship requirements.

Yup, this is correct.

are you currently married to a uscitizen , who sponsored your initial visa into the usa? yes? no? if yes, there's another route.

Hi Darnell,

Yes I am married to a US citizen. My current husband husband petitioned me, we did I-130 and I485.

ya, still, i think something was wrong with the passport application paperwork.

Hi Darnell,

Please let me know if you have any ideas as to how I should I go about this without going to court because at the moment this is the only recourse that I see, modification of our custody agreement. I submitted everything thats needed with the application and I don't know what else to send.

I was thinking of re-submitting the application with all the paper work and a more expository affidavit of consent from the dad.

What are your thoughts?

How did the kid leave without sole custody docs, or a consent letter to immigrate

from dad, I think thats what they want proven or addressed to issue a PP, the US

believes in the rights of both parents support or not, so his recent letter may

need backing up by one you should have had for the child immigrating 2011

Hi Jawaree,

Yes, I need to modify my custody on my divorce to state that I have legal custody of my daughter. In my case, consent was not asked during the immigration process. However, we still submitted the affidavit of consent from the dad to which they did not accept. This has nothing to do with 2011. This is really a custody issue more than anything, a paper work indicating that I have legal custody of my daughter in reference to INA 320.

The OP stated she married him and they were "divorced in 2008". Where did the divorce take place? Any divorce in the USA that I've ever heard of contain custody and mention of any minor children produced in the marriage. Something doesn't seem right here.

Hi LionessDeon,

Yes, you are correct. Custody is always mentioned in the divorce. Divorce took place in NY and I regret having a bozo for a lawyer for not informing all the important details which is costing me more right now.

Pardon my french..

Divorce is not allowed in the Philippines only annulment if she was married. I am curious as well how did she bring the child here if the father was on the birth certificate, because you have to have the father sign off with the child leaving.

Hi Cyberfx,

Yes, divorce is not recognized in the Philippines, however if you become a US citizen you can have your divorce recognized in the Philippines for as long as you don't file for dual citizenship. I have been living in the US since 2005, re-married in 2010 and subsequently my husband petitioned me (I30 and I-485for adjustment of status) while in the US and not from the Philippines. I think that makes a difference.

The Philippines is a very matriarchal country in a way. I was not asked for the father's consent during the US Visa interview of my daughter but was asked if he knew to which I answered yes and no father's consent needed when exiting the Philippines because according to the social welfare department there, as long as the child is traveling with the mother OR father consent is not needed. Most often than not, a consent is needed if a child travels with the father but not with the mother. I was also not asked to produce consent at point of entry.

I reckon it's a matter of which country you come from.

I would love to know how this works out because in the near future I will be applying for my daughter's passport as well. The only difference between the OP and I is that I was never married to my child's father.

Hi Blesskaye,

I may be wrong but if your ex acknowledge your child and is on the birth certificate you will need his consent. Please check with the Department of State website.

Good luck!

Doesn't your divorce decree mention minor children and specify who has custody or is legal custodian? Mine does and I submitted that with my son's passport application. No problems.

Hi LionessDeon,

Yes, my divorce decree mentioned custody was with the father as my daughter was with him at the time of the divorce. My then, divorce lawyer never mentioned to me that I can add a clause which specifically states that in the event that a passport is needed I will not need his permission. We thought that my ex-husband submitting an affidavit of consent will be enough to get the passport approved however, we were wrong.

As per my lawyer, I will now need to go to court to modify our custody agreement which I will do.

I agree with Darnell, something seems missing from this story. If the father is on the birth certificate, how did she immigrate without the consent of the father? If the daughter was naturalized N400, the passport office should have accepted her application. Without proof of custody, she would have to get a notarized authorization from the father to travel outside of the US on said passport, but again it seems we are missing some details.

As far as an attorney goes, I would not settle for 1 attorney until I have talked to at least 3. Attorneys are notorious for telling you what you want to hear to get you to sign up. Then they rack up the bills and it gets expensive fast. Go learn what it will take to get her passport without attorneys first. Only go to them when you know Exactly what you need and you tell them to do something.

Hi Dmck,

Yes, the father is on the birth certificate and I was not asked to produce a consent from him. In the Philippines for as long as you are traveling with you mother OR father you can exit the country. In most cases, if you travel with the father that's when you need consent but the mother almost always are not questioned at the exit point.

I am hoping to do the N600 for my daughter as I am already an American citizen. If you read through the post here on the forum, most will advise to get the passport first because the N600 costs an arm and leg which was what I followed. My ex-husband is rather cooperative at the moment. He has sent his affidavit of consent and a general consent letter just in case we travel.

I have been a little impatient and spoke with my attorney over the phone yesterday and met with him today. What we will do is just to go ahead and file for modification of custody as there is a significant change in our situation.

I hope I have answered all your questions.

wait - something is weird.

you are attempting to get uscitizenship for your child because you just acquired your uscitizenship, right?

something's amiss at the passport office.

Hi Darnell,

Yes, we attempted to get the passport route first instead of the N600. We submitted my ex-husband's consent but their denial letter states I met most of the requirements but I have failed to comply with the LEGAL custody part as stated on Art.360 of INA. My divorce indicated my ex-has custody because at the time of the divorce my daughter was in the Philippines. We thought that the father's consent will somehow be sufficient enough for the passport to be approved.

Hi Ontarkie,

The Philippines is not a party to the Hague Convention. If it is, then it will be a more complicated case. So far, the father's been rather cooperative. I was informed that since my daughter is considered an American citizen and has been living in the US for more that 2 years now, litigation for custody can proceed here as the US now has jurisdiction over custody. If the father wants to contest, he can come here and appear in court with his lawyer.

Anyway, I'll see what the lawyer says tomorrow as I was just on the phone with him.

Thanks again for your thoughts and will keep this post updated just in case someone benefits from it.