Cabazon, CA Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

If the Department of State issued you an American passport, you are an American citizen. Even if your US passport expired, you are still an American citizen. Based on the law in 2000, if you had a green card and your parents naturalized before your turned 18, you automatically became an American citizen. Your became an American citizen on that same day your parents naturalized, even before your US passport was processed. You are a "Ghost" because you probably never filed for a certificate of Citizenship. This is in my opinion an unnecessary step, something to make you spend money in USCIS filing fee. The INS / USCIS never got "Official confirmation" that your became a citizen because you never filed the N-600, application for certificate of citizenship. Do not worry. You are OK. Just make sure to renew your US passport when it is about to expire.

Your brother can petition for you but this does not make you legal nor allow you to remain in the U.S. The curernt wait time in this classification is upwards of ten years so it will not give you an immediate benefit. When the date does become current you will not be able to take advantage of it and file in the U.S. since you are out of status unless you are eligible for Section 245(i). Students do not accrue unlawful presence until USCIS determines you are out of status so you would be able to consular process at that time under current rules. You should probably consult with an attorney on your specific situation for more details on what you can and cannot do and whether this would be a good idea for you. We do charge for consultations $350 per hour - but the amount paid would then be a credit toward the fees for your case if we are retained after the consultation for additional work.

You need to meet the person within the last two years unless there is a strong reason why that is not possible. You also must heavily document that the relationship is real- ie speak same language, communicate often, etc. Fiancee visas are increasingly being denied and people are only getting approvals on the second set of applications. This is time consuming and expensive. The fiancee better speak English or be in immersion classes unless the USC speaks Cambodian or as a practical matter, it will not be approved. I would not recommend filing without a competent immigration attorney also some people are able to do this on their own.