Naturalization, Citizenship Immigration Question ??

[Marcoa70]

i have a question on how to apply for citizenship, my parents were married in 1969 in mexico, my father is a us citizen and my mother has mexican citizenship, when i was born my father regestered me here in mexico, all thou i studied in the us till high school, i have never applyed for citizenship, because my parents seperated after i was born, and havent any contact with him.
What can i do to apply for citizenship ?

 

[NYClex]

It depends on a lot of circumstances:

-how old are you
-where do you live now?
-were your parents married when you were born?
-where were you born?
-is there any way you could find your father?

 

[Marcoa70]

Responce

Im 34 years old, and living in mexico, and no i have not been able to get in contact with my father, thay were married in mexico in 1969 and i was born in 1970 in mexico, both my parents registered me in mexico, my birth certificate stats that my father registered me.

 

[NYClex]

You write that your birth was registered with the Mexican authorities. Try to find out if your birth has also been registered with the American consulate in Mexico, on form FS-240. If yes you are lucky, that document will serve as proof of your citizenship.

If you don't know if such a report has been filed you might request a copy of the report from the State Department on form DS-1350. If no such report exists they will tell you, but let's hope very much that it does.

Here is how to obtain a DS-1350:

OBTAINING COPIES OF THE FS-240, DS-1350, AND PANAMA CANAL ZONE BIRTH CERTIFICATES
The DS-1350 or a replacement FS-240 can be obtained by writing to:

Vital Records Section
Passport Services
1111 19th Street, NW, Suite 510
Washington, D.C. 20522-1705

A written request must be notarized and must include a copy of valid photo identification of the requester. The written request must include:
(1) full name of child at birth (plus any adoptive names)
(2) date and place of birth
(3) names of parents
(4) serial number, if known, of the FS-240 (on those issued after November 1, 1990) if known
(5) any available passport information
(6) signature of requester and
(7) notarized affidavit for a replacement FS-240 (if applicable).
Note: For Panama Canal Zone (PCZ) birth certificates, just include items (1) through (3).

The fee for an FS-240 is $30. The fees for DS-1350 and PCZ certificates are $30 for the first copy, $20 each additional copy. Make check or bank draft drawn on a bank in the United States, or money order, payable to the "Department of State." The Department will assume no responsibility for cash lost in the mail. Documents will be provided to the person who is the subject of the Report of Birth, the subject's parents, the subject's legal guardian, authorized government agency, or a person who submits written authorization from the subject of the Report of Birth.

What if no such report exists?


Under section 301(g) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act you could claim US citizenship. You would need to file a form N-600 with the USCIS to obtain a certificate of citizenship.

However, you have to submit some proof of the fact that you were born to a U.S. citizen father and have to provide some information about him. He also has to qualify for some conditions:

-He must have been a U.S. citizen at the time you were born and must have been married to your mother at that time and must have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years of his life before you were born, of which five years must have been after he was 14 years old.

If he meets these conditions you must provide on form N-600 his current address, his citizen status, his marital status, provide the dates when he lived in the U.S. and some other information about him that you can find on the form.

Now I understand that you might have some problems providing this information because you have no contact to him.

Form N-600 can be found here: http://uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/n-600.htm


Retention requirement:

The law required of persons claiming to be born citizens abroad that they had to move to the U.S. before they were 23 years old and after they were 14 and stay at least for 5years in the U.S. If you did not do that, your citizenship automatically expired.

Later Congress passed an act that provides that your citizenship can be reinstated if you swear an oath of allegiance.


Now things get really complicated:

The USCIS usually requires that you must be a legal resident of the US to receive a certificate of citizenship.

You can circumvent this by applying for a passport instead of the certificate of citizenship. Passport applications can be made at the US consulate abroad. To apply for a passport you have to prove that you are a citizen. The consular officers will have a ton of forms to fill out and file in a case like yours.

Basically they will look for the same kind of documents and information the form N-600 is asking for.

The Foreign Service Manual provides:

b. In lieu of the documentation named in paragraph (a) above, applicants may submit evidence of parent(s)' citizenship at the time of their birth, and evidence of their own and their parent(s)' residence and/or physical presence in the United States. The consular officer must determine whether the parent(s) had sufficient U.S. physical presence/residence to transmit citizenship to the applicant under the appropriate provision of law. The passport-issuing office may require applicants to establish the marriage of parents and the applicants' relationship to them.

So that will be your task: to gather as many of those documents as you can.

Now what you should do, if you don't have that record of birth, is contact the US consulate in your district and inquire about the documentation they would like to see. If you are very lucky your birth certificate might be enough if it states your father's citizenship and you have some documentation that he lived in the US for the required time.