Children of military members born overseas won’t automatically be U.S. citizens

[Boats]

Children of military members born overseas won’t automatically be U.S. citizens
By: Tara Copp - The Modesto Bee - 8-28-19
RE: https://www.modbee.com/news/nation-w...234484177.html

You gotta be kidding???

Children born overseas to U.S. service members, State Department or other U.S. officials will no longer be automatically granted the residency status needed to be considered U.S. citizens, the government agency responsible for registering them confirmed Wednesday.

A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official, who confirmed the policy change to McClatchy on the condition they would not be identified, said the policy change, which was released Wednesday, “explains that we will not consider children who live abroad with their parents to be residing in the United States even if their parents are U.S. government employees or U.S. service members stationed outside of the United States.”

Instead of the previously granted automatic citizenship, the service member or government employee will have to “obtain a Certificate of Citizenship, their U.S. citizen parent must apply for citizenship on their behalf under [Immigration and Nationality Act] 322, by filing Form N-600K, and show they meet the qualifications,” the agency said. “As a result, these children will no longer be considered to have acquired citizenship automatically under INA 320,” the current provision U>S> Code of the Immigration and Nationality Act that grants those children automatic citizenship.?!

The Defense Department did not have an immediate comment on the policy change.

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Well then doesn't the military just fly their wives back stateside to have their babies on US soil. I thought military bases were considered U.S. Soil under contract to whatever Nation they were in. This is NUTS!

Boats

[Boats]

Citizenship for Family Members
RE: https://www.uscis.gov/military/citiz...family-members

Citizenship for Family Members

Spouses of members of the U.S. armed forces (service members) may be eligible for expedited or overseas naturalization. Children of service members may also be eligible for overseas naturalization.

For information on the general naturalization requirements and procedures for spouses of U.S. citizens who do not qualify for expedited or overseas naturalization, see the Citizenship section of our website. For general information on acquired or derived citizenship for children of service members, go to our Citizenship Through Parents page.

For information on citizenship for surviving spouses or children of deceased service members who died as a result of injury or disease incurred in or aggravated by military service, see the Survivor Benefits for Relatives of U.S. Citizen Military Members page.

Expedited Naturalization for Spouses of Military Members

Spouses of U.S. citizen service members who are (or will be) stationed abroad may be eligible for expedited naturalization in the U.S. under section 319(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

To apply for naturalization under INA 319(b), you generally must:

- Be age 18 or older;

- Establish your spouse is a U.S. citizen who is, or will be, regularly stationed abroad as a member of the U.S. armed forces for a period of one year or more;

- Be authorized to accompany your spouse abroad by your spouse’s official orders;

- Be present in the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident at the time of your naturalization application interview;

- Be present in the U.S. at the time of naturalization;

- Declare in good faith upon naturalization an intent to reside abroad with your U.S. citizen spouse and to reside in the U.S. immediately upon your spouse’s termination of service abroad;

- Be able to read, write, and speak basic English;

- Have a basic knowledge of U.S. history and government (civics); and

- Have been, and continue to be, a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the U.S. Constitution and well-disposed to the good order and happiness of the U.S. during all relevant periods under the law.

Expedited Processing

Military spouses who are on their active-duty spouse’s PCS (permanent change of station) orders must contact the Military Help Line at 877-CIS-4MIL (877-247-4645), TTY (800) 877-8339 or militaryinfo@uscis.dhs.gov to let the team know they are moving according to military orders and, therefore, are requesting expedited processing. This is a case-by-case review and is not automatically granted to 319(b) spouses. In most situations, all military spouses are routed through the normal processing.

We may also consider expedited processing in other unique cases (for example, if a U.S. service member is deploying and needs to update their family care plan). However, we cannot guarantee that we will grant every expedite request.

Overseas Naturalization for Spouses of Military Members

Under section 319(e)(2) of the INA and 8 U.S.C. § 1443a, a lawful permanent resident (LPR) who is married to a member of the U.S. armed forces can naturalize abroad without traveling to the U.S. In general, to be eligible for naturalization abroad under section 319(e)(2) of the INA and 8 U.S.C. § 1443a, you must:

- Be the spouse of a member of the U.S. armed forces who is stationed abroad in that capacity;

- Be authorized to accompany your spouse abroad by your spouse’s official orders;

- Reside abroad in marital union with your spouse; and

- Meet the requirements of either section 316(a) or 319(a) of the INA at the time you file your naturalization application.

- Section 316(a) applies to you, if you have been an LPR for at least 5 years immediately before the date you file the naturalization application and have been physically present in the U.S. for periods totaling at least two and a half years. Time spent living in marital union with your spouse who is abroad under military orders counts toward the continuous residence and physical presence requirements.

Section 319(a) applies to you if:

- You have been an LPR for at least 3 continuous years immediately before the date you file your naturalization application;

- You have lived in marital union with your U.S. citizen spouse for at least 3 years immediately before you file your naturalization application;

- Your U.S citizen spouse has been a U.S. citizen for at least 3 years immediately before you file your naturalization application; and

- You have been physically present in the U.S. for periods totaling at least 18 months out of the 3 years immediately preceding the date you file your application. Time spent living in marital union with your spouse who is abroad under military orders counts toward the continuous residence and physical presence requirements.

You can file for naturalization up to 90 calendar days before you meet the time requirement for being an LPR. For example, if you are filing under section 319(a), you can file when you have been an LPR for 2 years and 275 days. However, if you file early under section 319(a):

- You must have been married to your U.S. citizen spouse for at least 3 years at the time you file;

- Your spouse must have been a U.S. citizen for at least 3 years at the time you file; and

- Meet all other eligibility requirements such as good moral character and etc.
Use our early filing calculator to determine your earliest filing date for naturalizations.

For more guidance on naturalization for qualifying spouses of U.S. military personnel, including a quick reference chart on overseas naturalization, and filing tips, please see our policy manual.

Overseas Naturalization for Children of Military Members

Certain children of service members, including certain children adopted by U.S. citizen parents, can become naturalized U.S. citizens under section 322 of the INA without having to travel to the U.S. for any part of the naturalization process. To be eligible for overseas naturalization, the child must appear on the service member’s official orders and live abroad with the service member.

Generally, under section 322(a) and (d) of the INA, a parent who is a U.S. citizen (or, if the citizen parent has died during the preceding 5 years, a citizen grandparent or citizen legal guardian) may apply for naturalization on behalf of a child born outside of the U.S. who has not acquired citizenship automatically under section 320 of the INA. The general requirements are:

- At least one parent is a U.S. citizen or, if deceased, that parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of death.

- The U.S. citizen parent or the U.S. citizen grandparent has (or at the time of death had) been physically present in the U.S. or its outlying possessions for at least 5 years, at least two of which were after the parent or grandparent turned 14 years old.

- If the parent is a member of the U.S. armed forces, any period of time during which he or she is residing abroad on official orders is treated as physical presence in the U.S.

- The child is under the age of 18 years.

The child is residing outside the U.S. in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent (or, if the citizen parent is deceased, an individual who does not object to the application).

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Talk about RED TAPE!! Let's hope they have all the forms readily available at time of birth

Boats

[Boats]

Trump Administration Tightens Citizenship Rules for Children of U.S. Military Abroad
By: Reuters - 8-29-19
RE: https://ijr.com/trump-administration...litary-abroad/

Some children born to U.S. citizens stationed abroad as government employees or members of the U.S. military will no longer qualify for automatic American citizenship under a policy change unveiled on Wednesday by the Trump administration.

Effective Oct. 29, certain parents serving overseas in the U.S. armed forces or other agencies of the federal government must go through a formal application process seeking U.S. citizenship on their children’s behalf by their 18th birthday, the policy states.

A government fact sheet, however, listed several caveats appearing to exempt many such children from the new requirement, including those with at least one U.S. citizen parent who lived in the United States before the child’s birth.

Currently, children born to U.S. citizens stationed by their government in a foreign country are legally considered to be “residing in the United States,” thus allowing their parents to simply obtain a certificate showing their children acquired citizenship automatically.

But in an 11-page “policy alert,” the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency said it found the prevailing rules contradictory and at odds with other parts of federal immigration law and State Department procedures.

Beyond that, the rationale for the policy revision remained unclear.

“It’s a solution in search of a problem,” Tennessee-based attorney Martin Lester, who chairs the military assistance program for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told Reuters. He added that the scope of the change seemed fairly limited.

“I’m sure, to be fair, it’s a relatively small number of people,” Lester said.

Acting USCIS director Ken Cuccinelli stressed on Twitter that the new rule “does NOT impact birthright citizenship” – the doctrine – criticized by President Donald Trump – by which anyone born in the United States or its possessions automatically acquires U.S. citizenship.

But the change could conceivably give Trump room to argue that his administration curtailed birthright benefits that a citizen with little or no actual U.S. residency can automatically confer to their foreign-born offspring.

“It only affects children who were born outside the US and were not US citizens,” Cuccinelli tweeted.

The larger American expatriate community is likewise unaffected. Children born overseas to non-military, non-government parents still automatically gain U.S. citizenship so long as at least one parent is a U.S. citizen who has previously lived in the United States for five years or more.

The new policy, which is not retroactive, sparked immediate consternation on the part of some organizations representing members of the armed forces.

“Military members already have enough to deal with, and the last thing that they should have to do when stationed overseas is go through hoops to ensure their children are U.S. citizens,” said Andy Blevins, executive director of the Modern Military Association of America.

He urged Congress to take action to address the situation to “ensure our military families don’t suffer the consequences of a reckless administration.”​

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Bill Tarrant and Simon Cameron-Moore)