Practice Area - Naturalization

Plans for adoption of a foreign born child should always be reviewed with an attorney. There are significant differences with adoption for children residing in a foreign country, whether an adoption agency is used, or whether the adoption takes place for a child residing inside the U.S. Immigration through an adoptive parent also compromises the child’s ability to petition his or her biological parent

The Child Status Protection Act is a complex statute affecting several different groups of immigrant children in different ways. For children of U.S. Citizen petitioning parents, their age is “frozen” for immigration purposes at the time of filing of a petition. For children of Legal Permanent Resident (Green Card) petitioning parents their age is “reduced” by the number of days, months or years that their immigrant visa petition is pending before approval. CSPA is applied to several other groups of visa petitioners including: I-130 (family based) I-140 (employment based) I-360 (Vawa or Religious Worker) I-516 or diversity visa petition. A one year deadline from the date of approval of a visa petition must be observed.

Marriage based petitions can be filed by a United States Citizen spouse for immediate processing or by a legal permanent resident spouse (green card holder) and subject to a waiting period for the visa to become current. Petitions filed for persons residing in the United States typically process within a 6 to 8 month period and rely heavily at the time of interview upon proof of a bona fide (real) marriage. Documentation of the marriage and preparation for the interview are the key to success.

Citizenship may be obtained through birth in the United States or proof of one or both parent’s citizenship if they are born abroad with certain important restrictions. Immigrants who have maintained status as a legal permanent resident in the United States may naturalize after three years, if they were petitioned and remain married to a U.S. Citizen spouse. Legal permanent residents must otherwise file after establishing 5 years of residency in the U.S., good moral character and passing the citizenship and English exams.

Many persons entered the U.S. under the V Visa program allowing entry to the U.S. for persons whose immigrant visa petitions were pending more than three years. I prosecuted a case for V-2 recipients which resulted in them being able to maintain status in the U.S. despite reaching the age of 21. Persons who now seek to adjust status can avoid filing for a waiver under 245i and paying a thousand dollar penalty if they can show they were a qualified V-2 visa recipient at the time of entry to the United States.