JAJ

Of course.

The risk of a false positive is probably highest in adoption cases due to the complexity of the law and the diversity of supporting documentation. While citizenship certificates can also be issued by mistake, the chances of two government agencies independently doing do are minimal. Also, in this particular arena, I would think the risk of a false positive from USCIS is a lot lower and if a citizenship certificate is held, the chances of anything being reviewed in future are a lot smaller.

If they decide not to get citizenship certificates they need to make sure that they have a good set of documents proving that the requirements of the Child Citizenship Act 2000 were met in full before they were age 18. And be prepared for possible delays in proving their status in future, in case they need to re-evidence their claim to U.S. citizenship. Note that most people do not keep comprehensive records.

If by some chance their U.S. passport cards were issued by mistake, and they are in fact green card holders, it would be much better to find out now (when naturalization is most likely still an option) than in future when they may be living outside the United States.

MarylandNed

I understand what you're saying but from what the OP has said they are clearly US citizens. Yes, a citizenship cert would be good proof in addition to the other documentation - but that other documentation should always be kept safe as well. For example, a citizenship cert could also be lost or destroyed and that other documentation might be needed to obtain a replacement. I'm sure you'll say that citizenship cert records can be looked up in that case but the same can be said of passport records.

The problem I have with the citizenship certs is that they are so damned expensive. If my 3 kids (who derived US citizenship when their parents naturalized) couldn't get by without them, then I would be forced to purchase them. However, the fact is that they can get by without them as long as they look after the other documentation they have. All have US passports but none have citizenship certs. If the price of citizenship certs was more reasonable, I probably would get one for each child. They can always make the decision to do so themselves later.

JAJ

Neither you nor I have seen the immigration/adoption paperwork involved, so I don't see how we can be sure there's a citizenship claim. They probably are, since whatever documents they have were enough to convince a passport examiner but that still leaves a chance that a mistake was made.

Of course. No-one should ever rely on government record-keeping. But it is generally better to have more documentation rather than less. The consequences of being unable to immediately prove identity and/or citizenship are never good.


Understood. The N-600 is expensive, unnecessarily so ($600 normally, $550 for adopted children, although there are fee waivers). That said, the equivalent document in Australia is A$60 and people still try to save the few dollars involved. Which is a poor strategy, it's becoming more and more necessary as different government agencies are not interested in understanding the intricacies of citizenship law and simply tell people to get the necessary proof (that they are citizens) from the Department of Immigration.

If the money is available I would always recommend getting the certificate. And especially so in an adoption scenario. Consider it a contribution towards the United States federal budget ...

MarylandNed

From what the OP has reported, it looks pretty clear that they are USC's. Remember this case has already been looked at at least twice...once when issuing an immigrant visa and once when issuing a US passport card.

If the adoption was in order, they would have become USC's automatically on Feb 27th 2001 under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 - if they weren't already USC's. If the US passport cards were issued, the adoption must have been in order - as it must have been anyway for the kids to obtain immigrant visas in the first place. So it's not like it has only been checked once. It's highly unlikely that at least 2 different government officials (the one that issued the immigrant visa and the one that approved the passport application) would botch such a simple scenario and cause them to have their US citizenship overturned later.

Can you be certain you were born where your parents say you were born? You were too young to know. All you have to go on is their word and some paperwork. The OP's have the same thing. In terms of percentages, I'd say they are about as certain that they are USC's as you are certain about where you were born.