Nationality Question

[Bigguy]

In my next book, I want a character who is a light skinned African American with hints of Asian descent. I’d like his back story to something along the following lines:

He was bon in the Philippines, he later find that his father was an American service member. He doesn’t know who his mother was, but suspects a mixed race Philippine prostitute.

He barely remembers his first 5 years. He lived in a house with other people, almost undoubtedly not related to him. He worked (did chores) to earn his keep. At about 5 years of age, a lady shows up. After negotiating with the the adults he is lining with, she eventually takes him away. They take a ship back to her home in Highgate Jamaica. The trips takes more than a month during which they re kept in a windowless cabin and share a cot.

The lady explains that she is his grandmother and tells him to call her Granni. She enrolls him is public school where he graduates the 6th grade. She tells him that his father is an American citizen, therefore he is also an American citizen. (Is this correct?) She tells him that one day he will got to America.

Here’s where I really need help:
At age 11, Granni is ill and will not be with us very long. She uses the last of her strength to get him to America. He remembers her spending a lot of time at the U. S. Embassy.

It works best for my plot if he comes to America and goes into the system, orphanage, foster care, etc. Would that be possible, or would he have to have a blood relative to come to the U. S.
Again, for the sake of my plot, I don’t want him coming into a loving nurturing home. So if a relative is required, I want it to be a distant, disinterested relationship.

I’d appreciate any knowledgable suggestions on how to pull this off.

ETA:
Granni tells the young man that she has paperwork proving his American citizenship. She doesn't tell him what it is, but I'm thinking a birth certificate showing his father as a U. S. National. For reasons (yet to be figure out) the father abandons him, but when the father's mother, Granni, finds out about the child, she goes after him. Also, Granni is Jamaican, not a U. S. Citizen. Her husband was, so the son/father was.

[WobblyPossum]

It’s been a while since I looked over my citizenship flowchart but I recall there being several requirements for the overseas child of a US citizen father and non-US Citizen mother to gain US citizenship. I think, among other requirements, the father would have to establish paternity prior to the child turning 18 which may or may not be inconsistent with the backstory you’re trying to put together. @HCM, is this something you’d know off the top of your head?

[HCM]

It’s been a while since I looked over my citizenship flowchart but I recall there being several requirements for the overseas child of a US citizen father and non-US Citizen mother to gain US citizenship. I think, among other requirements, the father would have to establish paternity prior to the child turning 18 which may or may not be inconsistent with the backstory you’re trying to put together. @HCM, is this something you’d know off the top of your head?

As WP alludes to, there is a citizenship or nationality flowchart. You follow the chart, and as my nationality law instructor said “the chart does not lie.”

With regard to a child born overseas to a US citizen father and one non-citizen mother, the law has changed several times over the decades. A child born overseas with one US citizen parent is not automatically the US citizen.

Part of the reason for the chart is different rules will apply, depending on when the child was born.

The US citizen father may need to establish the relationship prior to the child’s 18th birthday and the US citizen parent may be required to have certain periods of residence in the US in order to be able to confer citizenship. Depending on when the child was born, the father may need X number of years residence in the US or they may need both X number of years in the US and that time must be within Y number of years of the birth.

To answer the OP’s question you’re missing relevant details and I think you’re making things way too complicated.

PS: early in my career, I dealt with several Vietnamese who were the children of U.S. GIs but did not qualify for citizenship. They had subsequently entered the US as refugees, but we’re being detained for deportation due to serious crimes.

One in particular stands out as he attempted to stab a public health service nurse with a syringe during medical treatment, and then bit me during the Donnybrook that followed. The US attorney declined the prosecute but a few months later he wound up getting state charges for assault with a deadly weapon in another incident in which he grabbed a steel can of air freshener off a cleaning cart and assaulted another detainee, breaking several bones in his face, including the orbit of one of his eye sockets.

[TGS]

I'm a graduate of the Basic Consular Officer's Course. Consular Officers are generally the people that would be applying the Immigration amd Nationality Act for purposes of adjudicating a person's claim to US citizenship while residing abroad. Consular officers issue Consular Records of Births Abroad (CRBAs) and issue passports to US citizens when applied for overseas at a US Embassy or Consulate.

The law regarding this stuff can get pretty Byzantine and actually varies on what year the child is born, if the child is born out of wedlock, time the father spent in the US prior to the childs birth, and a host of other issues. For the purposes of your book, I think it's better for you to take a general take than getting too nitty gritty. In general, US citizenship does not apply to family trees of what you might consider "generational expatriation" (my own term inspired by generational welfare). Every year, thousands of people show up to US embassies and consulates to get citizenship to find out they're ineligible.

In short, the child born out of wedlock would have a claim to US citizenship if:

1) the father spent at least 5 years of physical presence in the US/it's territories prior to the kid being born
2) the father committed in writing to financially support the child until they're 18

If you want to keep it easy, you could say that the father had filled out the financial commitment letter when the kid was born and was issued a CRBA (which proves US citizenship) but stopped short of getting the kid a passport, but the CRBA was lost, and that's what the grandmother was at the US embassy attempting to obtain a copy of in order for the kid to then get a passport and travel to the US.

The grandmother would also need a court order or some other form of legal document recognized in the country in question to prove theyre the legal guardian of the kid in order for the kid to get a passport if below the age of 16.

If you really want to nerd out about it, you can read about it from an official source here: https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...sessions%20for

PS: you can't use the term US National and US Citizen interchangeably. US Nationals are from US minor outlying possessions, like American Samoa. While they have a codified status, they are not citizens, and children of a US National are not eligible to claim citizenship.

[Blades]

I can tell you what happened to my father. He died an "illegal alien" after living in the United States almost his whole life. I think he came here when he was 2 or 3. His mother did not put his father's name on his birth certificate. I forget where he was born, but it doesn't exist(name was changed?) or it was no longer a British possession(?); his mother was British, and his father was an American serviceman. Now, the father he knew and grew up with never adopted him, or his mother never allowed him to adopt him, I'm not sure who was to blame. He didn't know it wasn't his real father until his 30's. He also found out he wasn't a citizen at that time, but he never filed the paperwork to become a citizen.

[TGS]

He also found out he wasn't a citizen at that time, but he never filed the paperwork to become a citizen.

From what you wrote, he never would have been able to anyway. He had no claim to US citizenship.

[Blades]

From what you wrote, he never would have been able to anyway. He had no claim to US citizenship.

Maybe that's why he never tried to get his citizenship, he'd have to go through the whole process. No telling.

[Bigguy]

Guys, thanks so much for the input. @TGS, looks like I'v got some reading to do.

[UNK]

In my next book, I want a character who is a light skinned African American with hints of Asian descent. I’d like his back story to something along the following lines:

He was bon in the Philippines, he later find that his father was an American service member. He doesn’t know who his mother was, but suspects a mixed race Philippine prostitute.

He barely remembers his first 5 years. He lived in a house with other people, almost undoubtedly not related to him. He worked (did chores) to earn his keep. At about 5 years of age, a lady shows up. After negotiating with the the adults he is lining with, she eventually takes him away. They take a ship back to her home in Highgate Jamaica. The trips takes more than a month during which they re kept in a windowless cabin and share a cot.

The lady explains that she is his grandmother and tells him to call her Granni. She enrolls him is public school where he graduates the 6th grade. She tells him that his father is an American citizen, therefore he is also an American citizen. (Is this correct?) She tells him that one day he will got to America.

Here’s where I really need help:
At age 11, Granni is ill and will not be with us very long. She uses the last of her strength to get him to America. He remembers her spending a lot of time at the U. S. Embassy.

It works best for my plot if he comes to America and goes into the system, orphanage, foster care, etc. Would that be possible, or would he have to have a blood relative to come to the U. S.
Again, for the sake of my plot, I don’t want him coming into a loving nurturing home. So if a relative is required, I want it to be a distant, disinterested relationship.

I’d appreciate any knowledgable suggestions on how to pull this off.

ETA:
Granni tells the young man that she has paperwork proving his American citizenship. She doesn't tell him what it is, but I'm thinking a birth certificate showing his father as a U. S. National. For reasons (yet to be figure out) the father abandons him, but when the father's mother, Granni, finds out about the child, she goes after him. Also, Granni is Jamaican, not a U. S. Citizen. Her husband was, so the son/father was.

In what language does Granni communicate with the boy. English is taught in the school system and hes only 5. How would she have his birth certificate? Thats not a document a serviceman, or anybody actually carries around.

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