rweb

Hello,

just out of curiosity, I'd like to here opinions of you experts.
Following situation:

A man, born 1980 out-of-welock in Germany, to a U.S. citizen father and
a German mother. The father is documented in the birth certificate, but
the father didn't take any further actions, did go back to the USA while
the child is a baby, didn't ever commit to child support and never paid
child support.
Now, when the child is a man, he finds his father. Can the father help his
child to get U.S. citizenship?
(To be complete: The father fullfills the requirements of physical presence
in the USA)

My understanding always was "no". I always believed the father must take
two actions:
1. Acknowledge paternity (being named in the birth certificate should be
good enough for that, I think)
2. Must agree in written to provide child support until the child is 18

From my understanding, both actions must be taken BEFORE the child turns
18. So, related to my example, the child should not be eligible to U.S.
citizenship because the father failed to fullfill the 2. requirement.

However, there is a German forum where a couple of people claimed they
got U.S. citizenship under exactly this circumstances, so I'm a little
bit confused about the real situation. Maybe I got it completely wrong.

Thanks in advance for clearing this up for me.

ian-mstm

Your original question asked if the father can help the child to get US citizenship. The answer is yes, he can. The father would need to file an I-130 petition for the son. Once the immigrant visa is approved (may take a year or more... and longer if the son is married), the son will become a US PR the day he enters the US with that immigrant visa. In 5 years, the son can apply to become a USC.

The trick here is not to confuse "being able to become a USC in due course" with "being able to become a USC immediately".

As for your other question regarding "legitimizing" (= your 2 requirements)... if the son can be legitimized then, very likely, he already is a US citizen.

Ian

rweb

Of course I didn't mean the I-130 route. :-)

So, do you think the person in my example already is a U.S. citizen?

Specifically, I mean the following condition in U.S. citizenship law:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/8/1409.html

What does this mean fo a child which is older than 18 and whose American father never agreed in writing to provide financial support?

zerlesen

This seems odd. I always thought that if a kid in this situation derived US citizenship through the parent, they generally would have been a USC at birth regardless of what the USC parent does or doesn't do (assuming the USC parent is eligible to pass on citizenship - don't know how the out-of-wedlock issue affects this). Point 2 above seems like it could essentially penalize the kid for the inaction of the parent, which I thought the system generally is set up to avoid. So I see how the kid could not be a USC, and I see how the kid could be retroactively deemed to have been a USC since 1980, but I don't understand any result in between. However, I'm sure someone who understands this stuff will be along in a minute.

rweb

To be specific, I mean this condition of U.S. citizenship law:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/8/1409.html

What does this mean for a child which is older than 18 and whose father never agreed?

Noorah101

Is this all theoretical, or is it you?

Rene

rweb

No, it's not about me, I'm asking because I'm interested in these citizenship rules, that's all.

fatbrit

There's also an N-600 route using the grandparents.

paulpur

i agree with zerlesen , i thought that if the father was eligible to pass on citizenship to a child born abroad , then it doesnt matter whether he has paid child support or not , the child is a USC and has been from birth, proving it is the key in that instance

Noorah101

In that case, I believe this goes against Site Rule #10.

http://britishexpats.com/site-rules/

Thread closed.
Rene
Moderator