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Child Citizenship Act Goes Into Effect
The Child Citizenship act went into effect February 28, 2001. A Child born outside of the United States automatically becomes a citizen of the United States when all of the following have been fulfilled:
- at least one parent is a U. S. Citizen by birth or naturalization,
- the child is under 18 years of age,
- the child is residing in the United States in the legal and physical custody of the citizen parent following legal admission for permanent residence. This applies to a child adopted by a United States citizen parent.
The position of the INS is that this act applies only to those children who meet each of the above referenced three requirements on or after February 27, 2001.
The INS has issued clarification May 17, 2001 concerning two cases involving adopted children. For the child who is adopted before the child's immigration, the child will be "in the legal and physical custody of the citizen parent" at the time of admission to the United States, and will become a citizen with no Form I-864 required. However, if the citizen parent is bringing the child to the United States to finalize the adoption here, the legal parent-child relationship will not exist at the time of the admission and the child will not be able to obtain citizenship until the adoption finalizes, establishing the legal parent-child relationship. The form I-864 will still be required in the later case.
Additionally, the INS stated on May 17, 2001 that for child adopted abroad, who is not an orphan, but meets the INS definition of child, and whose family is returning to the United States to reside, and the child is admitted as a lawful permanent resident, the child will automatically acquire citizenship upon admission and will not be required to submit an I-864.
In the past, adoptive parents had to formally apply for citizenship and wait for a decision by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). In some cases adoptive families were not aware of the need to file applications for citizenship for their adopted children.
It is estimated that the law created 70,000 to 75,000 new citizens by the effective date. For further information on this new law visit http://www.ins.usdoj.gov or contact the INS National Customer Service Center at 800/375-5283.
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