Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(B)  Advise Parents to Naturalize to Obtain Citizenship for Their Children.  Perhaps the greatest service counsel can do for a permanent resident minor is to advise the parents, in the strongest possible terms, to obtain derivative citizenship for the minor before the minor turns 18 and acquires adult convictions that may bar naturalization or trigger deportation.  A child automatically becomes a U.S. citizen through a process called “derivative citizenship” or “naturalization” if, before s/he reaches the age of 18, the following three events happen in any order:

(1) the child becomes a permanent resident,

(2) at least one of the parents becomes a U.S. citizen, and

(3) s/he lives in the United States in that parent’s legal and physical custody.[42]

This rule applies to adopted children as well. An adopted child automatically becomes a U.S. citizen if, while under the age of 18, s/he (1) becomes a permanent resident; (2) is legally adopted by a U.S. citizen before she reaches the age of 16, and has resided at any time in the legal custody of the U.S. citizen for two years; and (3) is residing in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent.

                Where a child is a permanent resident, encourage a parent who has custody to naturalize to U.S. citizenship. If this occurs before the child’s 18th birthday, the child will become a U.S. citizen automatically, without having to prove that s/he has Good Moral Character or meet any other requirement, and will be made safe against immigration consequences of any adult convictions that s/he may receive in the future.

[42] See 8 U.S.C. § 1431.