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Facts:

  • Father is dual citizen of USA and country A
  • Mother is citizen of country A
  • Father and mother are not married
  • Infant child was born in country A and has been issued passport for country A
  • Father, mother, and child live together in country A

Additionally:

  • Father does not meet the physical presence test to transmit citizenship to child
  • Grandparent does meet the physical presence test to transmit citizenship to child, via form N-600K.
  • Country A does not have a visa-waiver agreement with USA (visitors from country A generally apply for a B1/B2 visa)

Question:

The child will be registered as a US citizen via the grandparent and form N-600K, but this process has not yet been started (and I've heard can take up to two years). In the meantime, the father, mother, and child would like to travel together to the USA.

Mother already has an approved B2 visa to travel to the USA.

Should the child also apply for a B2 visa as well? Or is there some visa waiver situation here? The instructions for the B2 visa explicitly state that citizens should not fill it out, and although the child is not yet registered as a US citizen, technically they are in fact a US citizen since birth.

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  • 5
    This is CLEARLY not a duplicate of the question above. That question is for a child who is automatically a US citizens (not the case here), and who also holds citizenship in a VWP country (not the case here). The question, and thus the answer, is completely different.
    – Doc
    Nov 21, 2021 at 18:17
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    Like Gerard Ashton's answer says, the INA 322 process is a naturalization process. The child does not become a US citizen until they enter the US as a nonimmigrant foreigner and take the oath. It is typical that the child will apply for a B2 visa to enter the US. (See 9 FAM 402.2-4(B)(7).) So there is definitely nothing wrong with the child applying for a B2.
    – user102008
    Nov 22, 2021 at 1:34

1 Answer 1

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I'm no expert. The law referred to in the N-600K instructions is 8 USC 1433. Despite being called INA 322 for reasons I don't understand, this USCIS web page links to it. The law states

(b) Attainment of citizenship status; receipt of certificate

Upon approval of the application (which may be filed from abroad) and, except as provided in the last sentence of section 1448(a) of this title, upon taking and subscribing before an officer of the Service within the United States to the oath of allegiance required by this chapter of an applicant for naturalization, the child shall become a citizen of the United States and shall be furnished by the Attorney General with a certificate of citizenship.

So if this really is the applicable law, the child was not a citizen at birth. Rather this process is a form of naturalization.

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  • The form is N-600K, not N-400K. I agree with everything else, though, this is a naturalization application and the child isn't a citizen until a certificate is issued.
    – user38879
    Nov 21, 2021 at 21:05
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    That is the applicable law. The sections of the INA (Immigration and Nationality Act) are codified into various sections of 8 USC, with a different numbering scheme.
    – user102008
    Nov 22, 2021 at 1:29
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    Also note that subsection (a) on that same pages says that "a person who is a citizen of the United States ... may apply for naturalization on behalf of a child born outside of the United States who has not acquired citizenship automatically under Section 1431 of this title." This makes it pretty clear that the child is being naturalized by this process, and that they do not automatically have US citizenship at birth.
    – Michael Seifert
    Nov 22, 2021 at 13:25

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