U.S. Citizenship and Immigration and Services announced updates to their guidance for children of U.S. citizens deriving naturalization from their parents. Guidance is expanded for derivative citizenship as well. Updates clarify and expand current guidance on legal and physical custody of children of U.S. citizens for citizenship purposes. Below are highlights of the updates.
Clarification of when a child is considered to be in the legal custody of their U.S. citizen parent, including retroactive updates to custody orders, and when private custody agreements are recognized;
A U.S. citizen parent with uncontested custody of a child has legal custody when considering citizenship acquisition when no judicial determination is present and the jurisdictional law doesn’t address which parent has legal custody of the child;
If the child physically lives with the U.S. citizen parent, that parent has custody;
Additional guidance on derivation of U.S. citizenship claims before the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 with detailed clarification of each requirement, including legal custody requirements;
Specifies that a Certificate of Citizenship cannot be issued to any applicant who does not take the Oath of Allegiance who is not eligible for a waiver of the oath.
The updated guidance is effective immediately and applies to all applications pending on or after November 19, 2024.
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