Travel information needed

[sgvasan]

Hi Friends,

I am a Green Card holder and have applied for Citizenship for my wife and myself and in about a month we will be having an interview as per the USCIS website. My elder daughter is an Indian citizen and has Green Card. Here are my questions.

1) Once myself and my wife receive our US Passport after naturalization, can we travel abroad and come back into USA with my elder daughter with her existing Indian passport with Green Card?.
2) If option 1 cannot be done then,
How to apply US Passport for my daughter?.
I saw in other website that Certificate of Citizenship is mandatory for the child to get the US Passport, is it true?. If so, she can't travel until she gets her passport work done?.

Request to provide inputs.

Regards,
Giri

[newacct]

Hi Friends,

I am a Green Card holder and have applied for Citizenship for my wife and myself and in about a month we will be having an interview as per the USCIS website. My elder daughter is an Indian citizen and has Green Card. Here are my questions.

1) Once myself and my wife receive our US Passport after naturalization, can we travel abroad and come back into USA with my elder daughter with her existing Indian passport with Green Card?.

There will most likely be no problems.

I am assuming you are asking this question because your daughter will be under 18 and in the US living with you on the day you take the oath, and thus she will automatically become a US citizen on the day you take the oath. Although US citizens are required by law to enter and exit the US with a US passport, there are no penalties or other consequences for violating this law.

When leaving the US, there are no exit checks. When re-entering the US, she will have a green card, and she should be able to enter no matter what. Whether she derived citizenship depends on many factors, including whether she was living in your legal and physical custody, etc., which they would not be able to adjudicate at the border anyway. And finally, regardless of whether they think she's a US citizen or not, logically speaking, she is eligible to enter either way. In other words, there are two possibilities: she is either a US citizen or she is still a permanent resident. If she is still a permanent resident, then she can enter on her green card. If she is a US citizen, then she cannot be denied entry to the US no matter what, even if she doesn't have a passport or other required documents. So either way, without needing to know which of the two is true, we can conclude that she will be able to enter.

2) If option 1 cannot be done then,
How to apply US Passport for my daughter?.

Your certificate of naturalization showing you naturalized before she turned 18, her green card showing she was a permanent resident when you naturalized, and your marriage certificate indicating she was living in your legal and physical custody.

I saw in other website that Certificate of Citizenship is mandatory for the child to get the US Passport, is it true?

No, that is false. She does not need a Certificate of Citizenship before getting her passport. She does not ever need to get a Certificate of Citizenship if she doesn't want to. She can just use a US passport as proof of citizenship for almost all purposes.

[sgvasan]

Thank you. She is only 8. Your replies clears my confusion. Thanks again.

Regards,
Giri