Here’s how to prove you are a U.S. citizen
My father naturalized in 1960. He married my mother in 1965 in Mexico and I was born there a year later. My mother never naturalized. Am I a U.S. citizen? I was living in the United States thinking I was undocumented. A judge ordered me deported, but at the time, no one considered the possibility that I might be a U.S. citizen. If I am a citizen, how do I get proof?
Name withheld, Mexico Whether you became a U.S. citizen at birth depends on whether at the time you were born your father had been physically present in the United States for at least 10 years, at least five of which were after age 14. If that’s the case, you can get proof that you are a U.S. citizen by applying for a U.S. passport at a U.S. consulate. Your having been deported will have no impact on your right to get a passport.
The rules for whether a person born abroad “acquires” U.S. citizenship at birth depend on the date of that person’s birth and other factors related to whether the child’s parents were married. The best place to get the rules are at the Immigrant Legal Resources website at bit. ly/37rPuKB.
Doctors have diagnosed me with an aggressive cancer. Can my U.S. citizen granddaughter and her mother get permission to visit me in my final days?
My granddaughter was born in New Jersey in 2017, to my U.S. citizen son and a woman visiting here from Hungary. The mother had come to the United States in 2015 with permission to visit for three months but because of her relationship with my son and her pregnancy, she ended up staying for four years. My son and the child’s mother never married.
I’m sorry to hear of your diagnosis. Your granddaughter can of course come to the United States, but she’ll need someone other than her mother to bring her here.
Having overstayed for several years and having had a child with a U.S. citizen makes it very unlikely that a U.S. consul would grant her mother a visitor’s visa.
The consul will think she is likely to overstay again.
Allan Wernick is an attorney and director of the City University of New York’s Citizenship Now! project. Email questions and comments to questions@ allanwernick.com. Follow him on Twitter @awernick.