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I apologize if this topic belongs in another place, but I could not find any forum which addresses this subject. My Chinese wife is not a U.S. citizen and got her "permanent" green card in 2014. The increasing likelihood for the U.S. and China to be on opposing sides if a new Korean or world war breaks out has made me wonder how likely it would be for our government to rescind her "permanent" residency and deport her to China. I'm neither fostering nor looking for any political opinions. I have this genuine concern and would like to hear thoughts from other Chinese-American couples and anyone who knows more about this than I do. Becoming a U.S. citizen might be one solution, but I'm not sure there is enough time. Would she have to learn English well and study US history? Is the citizenship test in English?

The time is near as her two year green card expires in April. I am wondering what the pros and cons are to her becoming a citizen. She has family and bank accounts in China, but sold her property before coming here. She has returned to China three times in the three years she's been here, six weeks, four weeks and three weeks. She loves everything here and doesn't particularly want to go back and if she did it would be mainly to see her mother although we might go together one time mainly as tourists. There are some things I haven't seen. I'm not sure what she will do someday when I die, but I think she would stay here. Why does my computer tell me this site is not secure? In red letters no less.

This one came across my feed today. If you practice law and wish to take it up another level and become a judge (A judge is in a way voting, innocent or guilt), then perhaps you may want to obtain citizenship first... http://www.caller.com/story/news/local/2017/05/17/municipal-court-judge-unpaid-leave-pending-us-citizenship/101787872/ Sounds like she was an international student that got married and adjusted status. https://www.texasbar.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Find_A_Lawyer&template=/Customsource/MemberDirectory/MemberDirectoryDetail.cfm&ContactID=296377 Probably her law studies never brought up that voting and with it citizenship as a requirement of being a judge, and the question never came up so she slipped through the crack when the city was hiring a judge.

I decide to wait for 2 years instead of appealing because 2 years is not hard to overcome, also because it is harder to appeal from the "mandatory for employment" angle as I never got the job although I tried hard. ========================= Hello, I have learned a lot from this forum since I had to apply for 485. I would like to share some experience of a denied N-400. I have been a LPR in the US for the past 3 years through my USC spouse. When I applied for green card in 2012, I honestly answered "yes" to the communist membership question in my I-485 and explained (1) I have stopped paying the due since the end of 2006 (2)was a bonus for education (3) was mandatory for a job position I was looking for. Because it had been terminated for 5 years at that point, my I-485 was approved and thus I got my green card. However, this year I filed N-400 based on my marriage but it got denied. The decision notes that "you are ineligible for naturalization at this time because you were a member of the CP within the last 10 years". I understand it has only been 8 years since I quitted the party so I do not fit the 10-year waiver. I was prepared to explain that the membership was a must for the job I was looking to but I never got a chance to explain because I got bombed by all tricky questions. Example questions: "do you have any proof or documents that you were out when you said you did?". I carefully explain it is impossible to get such a proof because (1) I am out for many years so my record is likely nowhere to be found. It is easier to prove when something exists, but it is much harder to prove when it no longer exists if something is gone. (2) as a ruling party, CCP can feel offended about members' leaving so it is unlikely to help verify. (3) I do not feel like contacting CCP anyway ever since the departure. Despite my effort, the interviewer only marked "no proof" in the facts. Other tricky questions include: 1) Why did you only passively quit by stop paying dues? Answered because my family work in the government and I do not want to get them in trouble. 2) Why 6 months? Answered it is on the constitution of the CCP. In the denial letter, the stated facts only say "passively quit by stop paying dues for 6 months" "did not have document to prove when he was out/stopped paying the due". None of my explanation were noted. I have already consulted an attorney and was suggested to wait for 2 more years because it is not something hard to overcome, which I agree. But I am really frightened by this interview experience. I think I will need an attorney the next time. Any comments?

My wife's family has property in China which is in my wife's name and my wife's family is paying in on her national health insurance which I think in another 10 years she'll be "vested". If she becomes a US citizen will that cause complications with either her family's property and/or her health insurance? She has a 10 year green card which she's into now for 3 years. Thank you, Haoran.

My wife's son, Bingning, arrived in US on Sept. 18. He is an IR2 visa. I hear he can get US citizenship using his mom's status. She is USC since Jan 2009. No test. Is this true. How do we go about getting this done?

Ok, this is somewhat of an emergency question here. Mei has another appointment for her interview on 12/07/2015. She wants to reschedule it to have more time to study the English vocabulary words. She has a good handle on the civics portion of it but doesn't feel comfortable with the vocabulary words listed in the book she got at the USCIS office in Norfolk. HELP!!! How the heck am I supposed to get this one done for her? HELP!!!

The child was born in China. The father is a naturalized U.S. Citizen. The mother is a LPR. The child could not obtain automatic citizenship, because the father did not reside in the U.S. for 5 years. The child had to go thru immigration processing and entered the U.S. with IR-2 visa. Now the confusion begins. There are two laws INA 320 and INA 322. INA 320: the child receives citizenship automatically upon entering U.S. INA 322: the child must apply and his/her U.S. parent must prove 5-year residence in the U.S. Initially, it is believed that the child falls under INA 320. But when applying for a US passport for the child, the US parent was asked to provide secondary evidences, one of which including: "A statement of your U.S. citizen parent detailing all periods and places of residence or physical presence in the United States and abroad before your birth." (See link; scroll down to "Foreign Documents + Parent Citizenship Evidence") Does this mean the U.S. citizen parent has to meet the 5 year residence, as INA 322 required, anyway? Another question is: is it necessary to get a Certificate of Citizenship first? Or directly get a passport is OK? And which form to file? N-600 or N-600K for the Certificate? Thank you for your help.

Hello Everyone, I landed US in 2011 with IR1 Visa. It has been 3 years. I am preparing to apply for US citizenship. N-400 form has a question regarding CCP membership. What should be filled for "Purpose of the Group" in Question 9B? I thought it can be "Political Party". Also, from this site, I saw some people with the membership were rejected for citizenship. It seems there is a sort of 10-year ban of citizenship eligibility after the membership was terminated. Should I wait for several years and then apply? Frankly this is not what I want. If apply now, do I include a statement regarding the membership? Such as the statement I submitted when applying for IR1visa. Or a new statement? Thank you very much for your suggestions.

Hello, My 16 years old step son entered the States on 2/12/2015 with an IR2 Visa and I have few questions: 1) How long does he have to wait for his green card? It has been almost 2 months. 2) Will he automatically become an US Citizen after receiving his green card? 3) When can he apply for US Passport?

Hi all, I have a couple of tricky questions. First a little background. Wife and her son came to US in 2008. He just barely made it, got permanent residence with condition in May 20009 just before he turned 21 in September. Then, they both removed conditions on schedule, no problems. He enrolled in College here, graduated in May 2014. Problems: Each year, he went back to China for about one month during Christmas break. He also went back during Summer at least one of those years. We did some calculating, and he still did seem to qualify for continuous permanent resident and continuous physical presence at the time of his graduation, but he went back to China for an internship around July 31, 2014. The internship led to a permanent full time job for a Chinese Investment Bank. We did have the foresight to apply for a 2 year re-entry permit on his green card and it was approved. Now, however, he and his mother are talking about him applying for naturalization. And, they even want him to do it in Hong Kong. As I read the guidelines, he does not qualify for citizenship now because he broke the continuous physical presence rule (30 months immediately preceding application) so he will have to start over when he returns and stay here continuously (more or less) for another 5 years. Finally, even if he did qualify, I have not found anything about applying for naturalization in Hong Kong. My wife is not a citizen either. Am I understanding all of this correctly?

A new wrinkle on this topic: Americans abroad find citizenship too taxing to keep It seems the State Department has found a way to punish American Citizens when they renounce citizenship. MORE: http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/08/30/government-fee-to-give-up-u-s-citizenship-is-raised-fivefold/ Unintended consequences....

I saw this one in the news the other day, this guy entered the USA Legally from Cuba with parents when he was age 9 or so and has always assumed he was conferred citizenship from the special circumstance of refugee status from Cuba. He has held several government jobs, and served in the military, even voted in elections going back to the Carter years, Only now when wanting to go on a Cruse after retiring he runs into this issue when trying to get a US Passport for travel. I guess no one told him or his family needed to apply for green-cards (Adjust Status I-485), and 5 years after getting the cards file N-400 to naturalize. I am amazed that the military, and various government jobs he held did not catch his non resident status. I believe he could have even applied for citizenship based on military service, but then again that may still need to have a green-card while in the military. USCIS shows Lawful Permanent Resident Status as a requirement for Military Naturalization. http://www.uscis.gov/news/fact-sheets/naturalization-through-military-service-fact-sheet Now he is in hot water for voting when not a citizen, this is one of the reasons why many states are trying to require ID and/or prof of citizenship to vote. I wonder how many more non-citizens have been voting in elections without even knowing that they are in fact not citizens? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/us/after-forming-deep-roots-in-us-man-discovers-he-isnt-a-citizen.html?hp

Americans have always enjoyed the privilege of living abroad without losing citizenship. Think Hemingway and Fitzgerald decamping to write in Europe after World War I, or Gen. MacArthur spending decades in Asia around World War II. Expatriates remain Americans, and have generally been welcomed back to our shores with open arms. But today there are at least 3,000 fewer Americans than there ought to be. That’s how many people live overseas and voluntarily gave up their citizenship in 2013 alone. And they won’t be coming back—at least not as Americans. Their decision to become foreigners is being driven, in many cases, by changes to domestic laws. The United States is one of only two countries that attempt to tax money citizens earn while working overseas (Eritrea is the other). And two laws aimed at bringing tax revenue back into the U.S.—the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)—are actually driving Americans away. FBAR focuses on citizens, demanding that anyone with $10,000 or more in a foreign bank inform the IRS about that account. FATCA is even more invasive, because it attempts to compel foreign companies to cooperate with the IRS. Instead, many companies are simply deciding to dump their American customers. Congress passed FATCA in 2010 to make it harder for Americans with foreign accounts to illegally evade U.S. taxes. Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of FATCA has been a painful burden inflicted on innocent law-abiding U.S. citizens residing abroad whom the law is forcing to make life-changing decisions. From USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/03/08/usa-citizens-relinquish-passports-tax-filing/5859371/ http://blog.heritage.org/2014/04/23/thousands-americans-gave-citizenship-status-last-year/ The United States has always been the exceptional nation, the land of opportunity, even if some Americans chose to pursue opportunities abroad. We’ve been able to lure the best of the best from all around the world to become Americans and help build our economy. However, if the federal government continues to pile on burdensome regulations, that may not always be the case.

Before I tell my wife this I want some extra minds in the process. Because if I am wrong I will hear about it for a LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG time. Yuan asked about becoming a citizen the other day. Due to her being out of the country with me her continuous time in country is shot. For her N-400 I was reading that she can apply after 3 years if married to a US citizen and having a physical presence in the states for 18 months. We will return to the states April 16th her ROC can be filed late OCT next year. With the processig times running what they are now. Can it be possible that she can try for citizenship almost at the same time that her 10 year GC arrives in the mail? This is the site that I saw the information at for filing the N-400 http://www.immihelp.com/citizenship/naturalization-eligibility.html

Part 1,sec.C.......Maiden/Chinese name before we got married (which was more than 5 years ago) ? Part 8,sec.F......does this concern China and here or only here? Parts/sections that don't pertain to her/us,do we need to write in "N/A" in the box(es) as we did in previous applications (AOS,etc.)? Finally (maybe),in writing the application,do we need to write in all capital letters or is that only if you type in?

Hello, My husband just recieved a letter in the mail denying his naturalization. I was a little surprised since I did not personally know of anyone who had not passed before. The reason has to do with him being a former CCP member. Below is an excerpt of his letter: On October 5, 2009, you obtained permanent residence status through your spouse in immigrant classification Ir1. USCIS received your form N-400 on June 24, 2013, and on September 11, 2013, you appeared for an interview to determine your eligibility for naturalization. During the naturalization interview and review of your application, the Immigration Services Officer asked you about your involvement in the Communist Party. You stated that you were a member of the Communist Party and that you stopped paying the membership fee since 2008. You also stated that you joined the Communist Party for a better future. According to your statement, you had a been a member of the Communist Party within the 10-year period immediately preceding the filing of your application for naturalization on June 2, 2013. Your membership was voluntary since you stated that no one forced you to join the Communist Party. You did not terminate your membership of or affiliatioin with the Communist Party prior to becoming 16 years of age because at the time you stopped paying membership fee, you were in the age of around 26 years old (2008). Based on the foregoing, you are ineligible for naturalization because you failed to establish an attachment to the principles of the US Constitution and be disposed to the good order and happiness of the US. My questions are these: 1.) The letter goes on to explain how we can overcome the grounds for denial by submitting a Form N-336. The cost is around $600 to do this and it doesn't seem likely the decision will be overturned (but I really don't know how high the rate of overturned appeals are). Has anyone had to go through this process and what more could we possibly say to help his cause? He joined the CCP in his mid twenties for a chance at a better job position (but did not get the job in the end) and said that once someone stops paying their dues after 6 months, they are not a part of the CCP anymore. He stopped in 2009 sometime. 2.) I looked online about non-profit immigration organizations but haven't found very many in the Sacramento, CA area. Does anyone have any experience with these types of organizations and do you think they will help our cause? 3.) My husband doesn't want to appeal because of the cost (it is a lot for us) but I'm afraid this will somehow affect his chance either at extending his 10 yr green card or another try at naturalization in the future. Can anyone elaborate on this? 4.) What do we have to prove with this sentence? He is a law abiding citizen, he pays taxes, he hasn't been in any trouble with the law. I'm really not sure how to interpret this... Based on the foregoing, you are ineligible for naturalization because you failed to establish an attachment to the principles of the US Constitution and be disposed to the good order and happiness of the US. My husband said that when he faced the interviewer, he felt the officer was already in a bad mood and was not friendly in any way. The officer had a thick accent, so when my husband asked if he could ask the same question again, the officer barked that he should be able to understand and answer the question if he wanted to be an American citizen. The officer then asked my husband about the CCP connection and my husband said that a letter had been enclosed in the packet, but the officer insisted on asking him a lot of the questions. I can understand this, maybe he wanted my husband to elaborate on his answers. The officer sent him home with a paper that said he didn't pass the US History portion, We thought we would get a letter asking him to come back for another interview to retake the portion he failed. We were very surprised he received this letter. Based on what my husband relayed to me, I feel like the officer was in a bad mood and chose my husband as a whipping boy. My husband is a very hard worker and a humble person. I know of other people whose character could be questioned and were once CCP members that have become citizens. I feel that this situation with the officer and his treatment of my husband was unfair. Could anyone offer advice, please? Thank you, Christal

Hello everyone, I have been silent for a long time, but I have stopped in from time to time to check up on everyone. My wife Yizhen has decided to file for citizenship, she went to CASL in chinatown Chicago. They helped her to fill out the N-400. My wife thought it would be easier, but she was wrong. They made a big mistake on the very first page, they checked the wrong box for eligibility. They checked box 1, instead of box 2, and we got a rejection notice. Also, they sent copies of our last 3 years of tax forms with w-2's. I have 2 questions, 1. do I just replace the first page, with the correct box checked, or do I send the corrected page on top with a letter of explanation? 2. I have a copy of the tax transcripts, should I use those instead of the copies of my e-filings? and if so do I need to note that somewhere? Thanks for your help, Mike & Yizhen

Surprised my green card only good for 4 more years. Time flys!!! Should I start the application process, especially after last May "illegally working in america" issue?

Hi, My wife and daughter are both Japanese citizens, and I'm a US citizen. We live in China, currently, but we are considering moving back to the US during the years when my daughter goes to college. It looks like some things would be easier if my daughter had a green card while she is attending college. For example, it will be easier for her to get a part-time job, tuition might be lower, etc. Maybe there are other benefits, too?? As I understand it, getting a green card for her will be more difficult after she is 18. Is that true? Are there any other age limits that I need to worry about? She is currently 14. She is my wife's biological daughter, but not my biological daughter. Would it make any difference if I formally/legally adopt her? thanks ciao

My wife and I have been married for eight years. Two kids of our own. One is 7, the other is 2. My wife had a son from her first marriage. He stayed in China as his Dad would not let him come. Now he is 16. He will turn 17 in August. My wife is thinking let him come to US after he is finished with high school. Someone told her that she could bring him while he is 17 (next year). He can get his green card once he arrives. Apply for Advanced Parole for him to return to China to finish his last year of High School. Does this sound like it will work? My wife says a few on 001 said they have done it this way. If we wait too long. Then he would have a long wait. What is the maximum age she can bring him without waiting years for visa. Also, my wife is a US Citizen. She obtained citizenship in 2008 to bring her parents. What avenue does this provide her son if he wants US Citizenship? Does he need to apply by a certain age to use her citizenship as a path? My wife is planning for her son to attend University in the US. We thought of him coming on a student visa. Not a great option. Cost will be less if he is a resident with green card or citizenship. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all, What are the benefits of going through the citizenship process to become a US citizen? Just voting and such? My wife doesnt need to become a US citizen if she doesnt want to, right? She can stay in the USA with greencard, right? Just need to get it renewed every 10 years? Our concern is she is listed as owner on the home her parents currently live in (in China). How does China view this is she becomes a US citizen? Is it best for her to stay a Chinese citizen? Can she? How will she travel in and out of the USA down the road? Greencard and China passport? China passport expires in 5 years. She needs to be US citizen to get US passport, correct? Sorry for all the questions. We are confused

My wife finally received the I-797C for the N-400 (Naturalization) today. She mailed her application on 8/8/07. The notice said she should expect to be notified within 365 days for interview. That is a long time. At least we don't have to worry if the the check (for the $675) has expired.