US Citizenship through a grandparent – a guide from the initiated

I’ve found that many American expats tend to mistakenly assume that as US citizens their children are automatically eligible for citizenship.  As far as they’re concerned all they have to do is go over to the embassy and register their kids and they’re citizens.  In fact to pass on your own US citizenship to your children you need to fulfill at least one of the following requirements:

1) Be married to another US citizen OR

2) prove that you have lived for at least 5 years in the US of which at least 2 years have to have been past the age of 14.

Once they discover this requirement many older expats who moved with their children when young and whose children have married non-Americans are dismayed to realize that while their kids may have lived for 5 years in the US, the 2 years over 14 requirement means that those kids will not be able to pass on US citizenship to their children.   Some of the more savvy ones have heard somewhere about the possibility of a grandparent passing on citizenship to their grandchild but there’s really so little information out there that most either give up or at most pay out a lot of money to immigration lawyers to sort it out for them.

Well no need no more.  I’m going to explain to you here how to get start getting citizenship for your grandchild of a US citizen whose own parent is ineligible to pass on the citizenship due to the requirements stated above.  I first wish to make a disclaimer though.  I am NOT a lwayer or government official and make no guarantees.  All I present here is based on my own experience of naturalizing 3 children using the grandparent law and doing it on my own without any need for professionals – it’s just about understanding which forms you need to use.  Anyone else’s personal success will depend on various things such as the center they apply to and the documentation they are able to supply.

First I should note that the requirements listed above for naturalizing your child are for passing it on automatically at the embassy here in Israel.  If you came (as I did) before age 16 and aren’t married to a US citizen then that’s indeed not an option for you.  However there is an alternate option which is to apply for citizenship for your child under section 322 based on their US citizen GRANDPARENT fulfilling the second option (i.e. proving they’ve lived 5 years in the US at least 2 of which came after the age of 14).  Note that the grandparent needn’t be living in the US now nor will they need to go to the US at any point with the grandchild.  Unlike the automatic transfer from parent to child, however, citizenship through a grandparent will necessitate the citizen parent to take the child to the US for the naturalization interview (though there is no set amount of time you have to stay – if you want you can fly in the day before the interview and fly out a few hours after the interview).

Start the process by going to this page

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/N-600K.pdf

which is to apply for citizenship

And downloading the forms there. They’re in pdf format so make sure you have a program (such as acrobat) that can read pdfs. If you don’t have one you can download it for free at

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

and fill out the forms (the pdf file includes instructions on what they want of you).

Please note that while the citizen grandparent won’t have to appear at your child’s interview s/he will need to provide the applying parent with Xeroxes of

1) his/her own birth certificate and proof of his/her US citizenship

2) proof that S/HE indeed lived there for 5 years at least 2 after age 14. What is proof? They won’t tell you outright – they just tell you to provide the best you can. My advice is pour on the official documentation: School transcripts, degrees, employment records – anything legal which can establish his presence in the US for those 5 years. You may not need all that much but remember the interest in their becoming citizens is yours not the Immigration service’s and so the tighter the case you can build documentationwise the safer you are (which is good since living abroad its not like you can just come back in three months with more documentation).

The citizen parent must also have their own

1) birth and marriage certificates

2) child(ren)’s birth certificate(s)

3) You can submit Xeroxes of both your and your citizen parent’s documentation (in fact you SHOULD provide Xeroxes rather than the originals) but WILL be expected to bring the originals to the interview and produce them for the interviewer if asked (they never asked for my originals but Murphy’s Law says that if I hadn’t had them they’d have asked)

4) proof that you have custody of your child – ridiculous for a married parent I agree but that’s bureaucracy for you!  What I did was got a printout (15 shekels apiece) from the Interior Ministry’s census registry which showed that we both (me and my kids) have the same address and that im living with their mother and am married.

5) All non-English documents must be accompanied by an English translation with the translator affirming himself competent to do the translation. You can abilitywise probably do it yourself but they don’t approve of that as it could affect your translating.  Also it’s best to have someone with a different last name do it.  Note that the Ministry of the Interior now offers a bilingual (Hebrew/English) birth certificate for the asking so you can save on translating that.

6) since you’re going to have to take the child(ren) to the states for the interview anyhow you might as well apply to a small processing center. Applying in New York LA or Miami could take several years till it all goes through. I applied through Philadelphia which is relatively small and it still took me almost 2 years. Someone else told me they did it through the Hartford Conneticuit office (which they said was an hour’s drive from NYC) and it all got done very quickly and in a friendly manner and I’ve heard similarthings about Rhode Island.  In any case best to pick a place that nobody immigrates to.  Coming from abroad means you have the right to apply to any field office anywhere in the US so check out the list here https://egov.immigration.gov/crisgwi/go?action=offices.type&OfficeLocator.office_type=SC and send your completed forms there along with xeroxes of the documents you intend to present to them as requested on the forms and listed by me above.

After a certain amount of time which can range anywhere from 3-4 months to 3-4 years depending in large part on what field office you apply to you’ll receive a letter from USCIS instructing you to appear before them at the field office with your child on a day they’ll set for you (usually about 3 months or so from when they send the letter).   At that point you make your travel plans and submit a request to the embassy for a visa http://telaviv.usembassy.gov/consular/niv/Apply.aspx#1 and include a copy of your letter from the USCIS with your other documentation to the embassy.  They’ll issue you a limited 60 day visa to take your child to the States for the interview.

The interview itself is a formality essentially.  They’re not likely to invite you to come to the US unless they’re already convinced after reviewing the documentation you sent them that your case is sound.  Of course they may want to check that you didn’t just create the documentation and that’s why it’s so important to have the original documentation with you.  I don’t know what they do for older kids but for my kids who were all under 5 when I took them, they spoke exclusively to me, asked me basic questions about my dad’s documentation and then printed up naturalization certificates for the kids within an hour or so at which point they were US citizens.

One final note: in the interview letter they ask you to bring proof that thevidence of the applicant child’s entry into the US.  What they want you to do is the following.  On the plane they give you this white card to fill out about your plans for being in the country etc.  When you go through border control they’ll take part of that card and leave you with the other part of it and stamp your kids passports (and yours) to show that you came through border control.  The citizen parent should make a photocopy of the page in each applicant child’s passport that has that border control stamp on it and bring to the interview (with the other documentation of course).  The interviewers appreciate that, especially since most people forget and then they’ve got to go photocopy the passport themselves – best to get them in a good mood right off by saving them the hassle.  Naturally they should also bring the kids passports and that white card from the plane with them to the interview as well.

Relicensed to drive

Well if today’s subject is going to be driving, I might as well take this opportunity to address the issue of Israeli and international driving licenses. A lot of people are confused about whether they need an international license to drive abroad or whether their Israeli licenses alone are enough. Many have heard of people being arrested for driving with just their Israeli licenses.

So first let me point out that different countries (and different States in the US) have different law regarding who they allow to drive with a foreign license unaccompanied by an international license if at all. The advantage to the Israeli license is that the information is written on it in English in addition to hebrew so that a US or British policeman doesn’t have to try and guess as to whether the foreign script on the card means you’re a rotary club member, licensed to drive, or licensed to kill.
On the flip side, the biggest problem with the Israeli license is the loaded wording. Israeli licenses are called “permits” which while all fine and well denotatively, is problematic in those places (such as New York State for example) where a permit is not a license but merely permission for a student driver to do their practice driving under certain conditions (such as with an adult with a valid NY State driving license) in the car with them. Therefore there was a problem awhile back where Israeli drivers were being arrested in New York City for driving with their Israeli licenses simply because of the wording.

To me the isue doesn’t seem worth fighting over. On a recent trip to the US I decided to go check out the cost of an international driver’s license and discovered that it cost a measly 13 shekels to get one and you get it on the spot. Essentially all it is is an internationally recognized document you keep with your license to tell foreign police that you’re a licensed driver in your home country.

An Item of Notary

I often see people asking on forums where they can find a US notary in their proximity so that they don’t have to shlep over to the embassy in Tel Aviv and pay for their notary services. The answers given are generally wrong. Following is information I received from 2 local US notaries on this issue AFTER having first shelled out money to have the notarization done by a local American notary.

1) Being both a US citizen and a licensed notary does NOT make you an American notary (obvious you’d think, but you’d be suprised how often when the question arises people in my town are referred to an Israeli licensed notary just because they know she’s American born)

2) Even those who ARE licensed US notaries are ONLY allowed to notarize while physically present in the state in which they’re licensed to notarize (possibly in the embassy as well but if you’re going to the embassy why drag a notary along?). Therefore for those matters that don’t require that the person whose document it is be present when the signing is done, US notaries can sign and claim they did it while abroad and physically in the state in which they’re licensed. However, if your document needs to be notarized with you physically present then your only choice is the embassy.

Should you wish to take the risk of having a non-embassy notary sign it you do so at your own risk and may well end up (as I once did) paying money only to have the whole thing rejected and sent back to you from the US department requiring the notarization with a notice that they only accept notarization abroad from an embassy notary. Thus not only have you paid for a useless service but you’ve delayed the process you wanted to get done and still have to go to the embassy.

Therefore check carefully as to whether your document requires your physical presence during notarization before deciding how to proceed. if you’re unsure and can’t get a concrete answer then best not to take the risk.