US IMMIGRATION LAWS & BRINGING CHILD BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK TO US

Virginia Immigration Lawyers

1) As a child born out of wedlock, what are the requirements to petition for his child to get the green card to come to the U.S.?
2) What are the requirements to apply for N-600 certificate of citizenship for a child born out of wedlock?
3) What is the right age to legitimate the child for immigration purpose; 16 or 18? 
4) If the child is not legitimated before her 16 birthday, what are the effects of that?  can she still get the green card and then the US citizenship from her father through the regular application for naturalization?
5) What are the requirements and the procedures to legitimate a child according to VA Laws? What documents needs to be provided?

1)                  As a child born out of wedlock, what are the requirements to petition for his child to get the green card to come to the U.S.?

             By filing I-130, alien relation petition, a child gets the green card.  The client must satisfy the following requirements:

• The Client must file his petition with copies of evidence that a bona-fide parent-child relationship existed between father and child before the child reached 21 years old.
• Birth certificate of the child showing him as the father.

2)                  What is the right age to legitimate the child for immigration purpose; 16 or 18? 

For immigration purpose the legitimization should take place before the child reaches the age of eighteen years where as for the Naturalization, the legitimization should take place before the child reaches the age of sixteen.

As per INA section 101 (b) 

(1) The term “child” means an unmarried person under twenty-one years of age who is-

(C) a child legitimated under the law of the child’s residence or domicile, or under the law of the father’s residence or domicile, whether in or outside the United States, if such legitimation takes place before the child reaches the age of eighteen years and the child is in the legal custody of the legitimating parent or parents at the time of such legitimation;

(D) a child born out of wedlock, by, through whom, or on whose behalf a status, privilege, or benefit is sought by virtue of the relationship of the child to its natural mother or to its natural father if the father has or had a bona fide parent-child relationship with the person;

The right age to legitimate the child for Naturalization purpose is 16

As per INA section 101(C)

       (1) The term “child” means an unmarried person under twenty-one years of age and includes a child legitimated under the law of the child’s residence or domicile, or under the law of the father’s residence or domicile, whether in the United States or elsewhere, and, except as otherwise provided in sections 320, and 321 of title III, a child adopted in the United States, if such legitimation or adoption takes place before the child reaches the age of 16 years (except to the extent that the child is described in subparagraph (E)(ii) or (F)(ii) of subsection (b)(1)), 18a/ and the child is in the legal custody of the legitimating or adopting parent or parents at the time of such legitimation or adoption.

3)     If the child is not legitimated before her 16 birthday, what are the effects of that?  can she still get the green card and then the US citizenship from her father through the regular application for naturalization?

Even though child is not legitimated before her 16 birthday, she can get the immigration visa, for immigration purpose the legitimation should take place before the child reaches the age of eighteen years.

4)         What are the requirements to apply for N-600 certificate of citizenship for a child born out of wedlock?
The biological child of the U.S. Citizen born outside the United States, then the child must satisfy the following conditions:

• Lawfully admitted for LPR, and legal and physical custody of USC.
• She should not be reached her 18^th birthday.
• She should be legitimate or legitimated while in the legal custody of USC prior to her 16^th birthday.
• The USC had been physically present in US or one of its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after the age of 14 years.

5)         What is the definition of legal custody according to immigration laws and VA laws?

Legal Custody does not denote actual physical custody, but it means existence of actual parent-child relationship. By taking the steps to legitimate his child prior to a time when any immigration benefit was sought, the beneficiary’s natural father has shown the existence of a genuine parental relationship to his daughter. See Matter of Rivers, Interim Decision #2802.

Contact an experienced Virginia Immigration Lawyer for help.