Would my kids (under 16yrs) who have US Green Card but live in UK get US passport?

[OmoNaijaUK]

Hello Everyone,

Please, I need your advice. Would my children (under 16yrs age) who have US Green Card but live in UK be able to get US passports when I get US passport?

My three children who have US green cards live with their mother in UK while I work in the US with Green card. We have have held the green card for five years now and I am planning to apply for naturalisation very soon.

Since having the Green Card, the children have always come to US every July in order to maintain/revalidate it with 12 month rule.

So, as I am qualified to apply for US naturalisation, are the children also qualified even though they had never stayed/lived in US for more than three weeks per year during the last five years of holding the green card.

QUESTIONS
(1) Will they be able to get naturalisation with me or they also need to live in US for minimum of 2.5yrs in order to be naturalised as US citizen?

(2) Any help on the web link to processing the naturalisations/passport process or information for submitting application (as a Green Card Holder) would be appreciated.

[newacct]

First of all, they cannot maintain residence by visiting every 12 months. Even visiting every 6 months will not prevent them from losing residence. They need to live in the US to maintain residence. It might be retroactively determined later that they have already abandoned residence now, and were allowed to enter by mistake.

As for US citizenship, the key question is whether they will automatically become US citizens under INA 320, as US permanent residents, under 18, living in the US in the physical and legal custody of a US citizen parent. So (besides the issue I described above where they might have already lost permanent residency) the issue is whether they are living (residing) in the US some time between when you become a US citizen and when they turn 18. The discussion of what constitutes residence for citizenship purposes can be found in 12 USCIS-PM H.2(E) and 8 FAM 301.10-2(F). There is no particular length of presence that determines residence; it is determined based on the overall character of their stay.

[OmoNaijaUK]

First of all, they cannot maintain residence by visiting every 12 months. Even visiting every 6 months will not prevent them from losing residence. They need to live in the US to maintain residence. It might be retroactively determined later that they have already abandoned residence now, and were allowed to enter by mistake.

As for US citizenship, the key question is whether they will automatically become US citizens under INA 320, as US permanent residents, under 18, living in the US in the physical and legal custody of a US citizen parent. So (besides the issue I described above where they might have already lost permanent residency) the issue is whether they are living (residing) in the US some time between when you become a US citizen and when they turn 18. The discussion of what constitutes residence for citizenship purposes can be found in 12 USCIS-PM H.2(E) and 8 FAM 301.10-2(F). There is no particular length of presence that determines residence; it is determined based on the overall character of their stay.

Thank you for the reply. However, this looks ambiguous.

I have seen many people (adults) who hold US Greencard but don't live permanently in US but only comes there occasionally and such was never an issue (i.e. losing it). I know a Nobel Laurate (Wole Soyinka) who held Greencard for more than 20years but does not live in US. He only use it to go to US for lectures and speeches: https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...fter-trump-win


The condition for Greencard states that you should not leave the US more than 12 months. I know an adult friend who holds GreenCard for more than 20yrs but never lived in US but only come there for business. He recently attempted to apply for naturalisation but was told that even though he had entered US more than 60 times within the 20yrs, he had not lived up to accumulated 2.5yrs to get passport. So, two years ago, he partly relocated to US in order to spend more time in US and make up for the number of required days so as to get the passport. However, the issue of abandonment was never raised in his case.

I know adults need to live minimum of 2.5 year within 5yrs period but for children (oldest currently being 12), I am not sure which rules are applicable.