Immigration Site

I am a member of the United States military and recently married (this past month) my spouse who is visiting me in the US on a tourist visa. We have a 15-month old child together whom is also staying with us. I have read up on and believe I understand the procedures regarding filing for a green card with regards to my wife.

My question is regarding our daughter, she was born abroad while I was assigned overseas and entered the US (Hawaii) with her mother on a tourist visa (the decision to not register her as a US citizen at the time of birth was based on benefits to the mother and child as a citizen of the mothers home country). Given the fact the mother and I are now married and will be starting the process to acquire her GC what would be the easiest/fastest way to get our daugther citizenship?

Also, since my daughter entered the country on March 7th on a 90-day tourist visa along with her mother if paperwork is not processed or approval is not given prior to the 90-day mark will she need to leave the country based on an expired tourist visa or is there some sort of provision given/offered? If she does in fact need to exit the country by the 90-day mark how would that work considering both the mother and I (father) currently reside in Hawaii?

Thank you for any information you can provide. I looked through about 10 full pages of posts and didnt notice anything similar to my situation.

V/R,
Chris

90 days? That doesnt seem like a tourist visa, that appears to be the visa waiver, which presents potential problems for your wife if she plans to stay in the US for a green card. Normally entering with a tourist visa allows 6 months, unless the person had spent a long time in the US in the recent past. It also would be very strange for the US embassy to grant a tourist visa to the young child of a US citizen.

You can claim citizenship for your daughter by providing evidence that the following conditions were satisfied before her birth:

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizens...ship_5199.html
Birth Abroad Out-of-Wedlock to a U.S. Citizen Father – “New” Section 309(a)

A person born abroad out-of-wedlock to a U.S. citizen father may acquire U.S. citizenship under Section 301(g) of the INA, as made applicable by the “new” Section 309(a) of the INA provided:

1. A blood relationship between the person and the father is established by clear and convincing evidence;
2. The father had the nationality of the United States at the time of the person’s birth;
3. The father was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions prior to the child’s birth for five years, at least two of which were after reaching the age of 14. [my edit: service abroad in the US military counts as time in the US for this purpose. So if you find it too difficult to dig up enough papers showing where you were living growing up, you can provide military service records as proof of some or all of the required 5 years of US presence.]
4. The father (unless deceased) has agreed in writing to provide financial support for the person until the person reaches the age of 18 years, and
5. While the person is under the age of 18 years --
* the person is legitimated under the law of his/her residence or domicile,
* the father acknowledges paternity of the person in writing under oath, or
* the paternity of the person is established by adjudication of a competent court. If the above conditions are satisfied, your daughter would have citizenship effective since her date of birth, and cannot be kicked out of the US because of an expired visa.

File DS-11 with evidence of the above facts to obtain a US passport for her, and file N-600 to obtain her certificate of citizenship. While the N-600 is optional and some people dont think its worth it, it provides proof of citizenship that doesnt expire, and its free for military members (if you attach proof of service) so theres no reason to not apply for it.

The evidence required for both the passport and N-600 are the same, except that for the passport application they take the originals of key documents like your US birth certificate (or naturalization certificate if youre a naturalized citizen) or US passport and mail it back to you a few weeks later, whereas for the N-600 you only send copies with the application, and then present originals as requested when you show up at an immigration office to collect the certificate. Another difference is that if you first obtain the citizenship certificate, when you apply for her passport you can provide the certificate instead of a big stack of paper proving the above list of facts (but vice versa isnt true). However, the passport is usually obtained in less than a month, whereas the N-600 takes 2-6 months so it may not be desirable to wait for the N-600 first.

Thank you very much for the information you provided. I will double check my wifes passport, she is a Korean citizen and I was not aware there is an actual different between a tourist visa and a visa waiver, I do however know that her original alloted stay in the US could not exceed 90 days and this is her first time ever setting food on US soil (minus military bases overseas of course).

Its late so Ill read back over what you provided tomorrow after work to see if it sparks any new questions. Thank you again.

South Korea is part of the visa waiver program. I take it your daughter also has a South Korean passport?

If they werent in the visa waiver program and visas were required, they would have had to fill out a multi-page form and interview at the US consulate, during which their relationship with you would be discussed (the form asks about close family living in the US). They would have almost surely refused the visa to your wife because shes your childs mother and they would expect that she would stay to attempt to immigrate (which is actually what shes doing) instead of leaving the US before the end of her allotted stay. And they would have refused the visa to your daughter and required her to get a US passport.

If your wife is going to stay in the US to pursue the green card process (instead of pursuing it through a US consulate abroad) the necessary paperwork must be filed before the end of her 90 days. That includes the I-693 medical, which can take almost a month from the time you make the appointment until the results are mailed back.