Form N-600, Application For Certificate Of Citizenship - Uscis: Fill & Download for Free

It’s not a matter of which is “easier”. You have to fill out the correct form that applies in the circumstances, not the form which is easier.You cannot file Form N-400 for a minor; minors cannot be naturalized using Form N-400. Except for certain extraordinary situations, minors can only be naturalized in the United States by derivation. The primary pathway for the naturalization of a minor is under INA 320, 8 U.S. Code § 1431: a minor child is naturalized automatically when:(1) At least one parent of the child is a citizen of the United States, whether by birth or naturalization.(2) The child is under the age of eighteen years.(3) The child is residing in the United States in the legal and physical custody of the citizen parent pursuant to a lawful admission for permanent residence.At the first moment that all three of these conditions are true simultaneously, the child becomes, automatically by operation of law, a US citizen. A person who has become a US citizen by the operation of INA 320 may get documentary proof of this fact, in the form of a Certificate of Citizenship, by filing Form N-600 (Application for Certificate of Citizenship). A parent may file Form N-600 on behalf of their minor child. Do not file Form N-400 in this situation; if you file Form N-400 and USCIS determines that you are already a citizen due to INA 320 (or any other provision of law), your N-400 application will be denied, your N-400 fee will not be refunded, and you will have to file a separate N-600 application with separate fees to get your Certificate of Citizenship.However, to get condition (3) above true, you’ll first have to arrange for your child to “resid[e] in the United States … pursuant to a lawful admission for permanent residence”. For that to happen, you’ll have to file an I-130 petition to have your child immigrate as your immediate relative, have that petition granted, have your child issued an immigrant visa, and have your child arrive in the United States using that immigrant visa. If your child is in the US already, in some other status, you may instead skip the issuance of the visa and move directly to filing the N-600 once the I-130 petition has been granted.If you are a US citizen and meet certain residency requirements, or if either of your parents is a US citizen and meets certain residency requirements, your child may alternatively be granted citizenship under INA 322 (8 U.S. Code § 1433) without an I-130 petition. In this case, you would file Form N-600K instead of Form N-600, and your child will become a citizen at the first moment she is physically present in the United States in any legal status, provided all other conditions of INA 322 are met. Note that INA 322, like INA 320, also operates automatically as a matter of law, and so if its conditions have occurred at any time in the past (even if without intent to cause naturalization), your child has already acquired citizenship, and you need only file Form N-600K to obtain proof. (The requirement to swear the oath of allegiance in INA 322 is waived for children under 14.)Note also that if your child was born a US citizen, you cannot file an I-130 petition for them because citizens cannot immigrate to the United States. If your child was born a US citizen, but you did not obtain a CRBA (Form FS-260 or its predecessor, Form DS-1350) before she turns 18, she will need to file Form N-600 to have a Certificate of Citizenship issued for her in order for her to obtain proof of citizenship. Once she has her Certificate of Citizenship, she can then apply for a US passport. If she is not yet 18, you may still be able to file for a CRBA, which you should do at a consulate in the country where she was born (if at all possible).You might want to consult with an attorney. US naturalization and nationality law is complicated, and many people, especially in uncommon situations, are easily and understandably confused as to what their legal status is.

If your father was a U.S. citizen and you can prove it, then you may be U.S. citizen too. The DNA test you reference will have to be acceptable to the U.S. Department of State or you will need some other acceptable form of proof of paternity such as a court order or a copy of your birth certificate with your father's name on it.Now let's say you have all that. Then things get really complicated. The law that will apply is the law as it was when you were born. Also, as your U.S. citizen parent is your father, there are other considerations that involve the relationship between your father and your mother. I am also assuming your mother is not a U.S. citizen.You should read the instructions to form N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship. You may also want to visit the U.S. embassy or consulate near where live and discuss your circumstances with a consular official.USCIS webpage for form N-600: Application for Certificate of Citizenship

The list of documents you might need to submit with Form N-600 is quite long. I am not going to enumerate all of them here, especially since many of them are needed only in certain specific circumstances.Fortunately, USCIS provides concise, detailed instructions that will tell you everything you need to know. You can find them over here: Application for Certificate of Citizenship. There is a section of the instructions, entitled “What Evidence Must You Submit?”, that discusses in detail each item you must attach to the application for it to be accepted.