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Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

#21

Post by erkose »

rdtsc wrote: post #18
erkose wrote: post #11

This is just wrong. He entered the country legally. The Adoption Citizenship Act seems like the right way to handle this.

It isn't, not without an amendment it seems. These people were too old to qualify. The reason the law was that way is to prevent loopholes like someone adopting a 30 year old person and then using this law to naturalize them.

If he was entitled to citizenship at the time of his adoption, and his adoptive parents failed to file the paperwork, then he should be entitled to citizenship regardless of his age. There are certainly many ways to abuse the system, but I prefer to err on the side of good faith.

Re: Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

#22

Post by khuey »

rdtsc wrote: post #16

I thought an executive decision is all it's needed but apparently not. Interestingly, there is a special law to expedite naturalization for those who "made an extraordinary contribution to the national security of the United States or to the conduct of United States intelligence activities". But even there it's a 5 person per year maximum. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title8/html/USCODE... Congress can c…

That provision is presumably for "this guy told us where to find Bin Laden/Edward Snowden/Satoshi Nakamoto" level activities.

Re: Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

#23

Post by drdeadringer »

stcredzero wrote: post #17
nickpsecurity wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they become citizens, they can vote. They might be likely as a whole to vote for or against things that bother certain groups in Congress. That by itself will be a reason for those parties to prevent them from being citizens. We see the same thing with the islanders. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CesHr99ezWE

That's simply putting political gamesmanship over humanity, in the most inhumane way imaginable!

Sounds like a perfect job for Congress. More at 11, here on Fox.

Re: Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

#24

Post by rdtsc »

khuey wrote: post #22
rdtsc wrote: post #16

I thought an executive decision is all it's needed but apparently not. Interestingly, there is a special law to expedite naturalization for those who "made an extraordinary contribution to the national security of the United States or to the conduct of United States intelligence activities". But even there it's a 5 person per year maximum. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title8/html/USCODE... Congress can c…

That provision is presumably for "this guy told us where to find Bin Laden/Edward Snowden/Satoshi Nakamoto" level activities.

I was wondering why they need a quick citizenship and why a green card wouldn't be sufficient. Guessing could be in case of defectors maybe their original country would revoke their citizenship or at least their passport. So they might be left for years in kind of a limbo.

Re: Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

#25

Post by nickff »

drinchev wrote: post #20

I know a girl that had to leave the U.S. >24 The story ( as far as I can remember ) is that a family of Germans moved to the U.S. with their 1 year old child. 24 years later the child graduated university and ... needs to apply for a green card or permanent VISA. US government refused, so she had to come back to Germany. I've never understood why U.S. is so protective in terms of citizenship. In most of the EU countr…

The USA does have similar rules, but there are some restrictions based on what you can prove, and your status upon entry.

Re: Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

#26

Post by 8611m »

nickff wrote: post #25
drinchev wrote: post #20

I know a girl that had to leave the U.S. >24 The story ( as far as I can remember ) is that a family of Germans moved to the U.S. with their 1 year old child. 24 years later the child graduated university and ... needs to apply for a green card or permanent VISA. US government refused, so she had to come back to Germany. I've never understood why U.S. is so protective in terms of citizenship. In most of the EU countr…

The USA does have similar rules, but there are some restrictions based on what you can prove, and your status upon entry.

What are these rules that you refer to? I know a lot of people who could benefit from such rules having come to the United States legally and spending 10 years and has to leave because their visas were expiring.

Re: Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

#27

Post by justinlardinois »

drinchev wrote: post #20

I know a girl that had to leave the U.S. >24 The story ( as far as I can remember ) is that a family of Germans moved to the U.S. with their 1 year old child. 24 years later the child graduated university and ... needs to apply for a green card or permanent VISA. US government refused, so she had to come back to Germany. I've never understood why U.S. is so protective in terms of citizenship. In most of the EU countr…

In the US you can begin the naturalization process after five years of permanent residency.

A green card is what establishes permanent residency. (I don't think we have permanent visas, but I could be wrong.)

I can only speculate how your friend was allowed to live in this country that long without ever obtaining permanent residency, but regardless, it's an example of the system failing, and that's a really terrible thing to happen to someone.

Re: Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

#28

Post by jzwinck »

The more bizarre part is how the various federal agencies do not coordinate. For example, the "fear they will be unable to collect Social Security benefits they have paid into." This means these people are paying taxes to the IRS who collects SS money from them yet they are "not eligible" to work in the US. This is "impossible" but the tax man doesn't ask questions when people send him money.

I think if someone has paid, say, 20% of their total lifetime earnings, with a minimum of $50K over ten years, in taxes to the US government, and they have not committed any crime, they should be given citizenship. This gives the USG ten years to find anyone they'd rather not have in the country, and let them leave before they contribute more than their fair share to a country that rejects them.

Re: Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

#29

Post by drinchev »

justinlardinois wrote: post #27
drinchev wrote: post #20

I know a girl that had to leave the U.S. >24 The story ( as far as I can remember ) is that a family of Germans moved to the U.S. with their 1 year old child. 24 years later the child graduated university and ... needs to apply for a green card or permanent VISA. US government refused, so she had to come back to Germany. I've never understood why U.S. is so protective in terms of citizenship. In most of the EU countr…

In the US you can begin the naturalization process after five years of permanent residency. A green card is what establishes permanent residency. (I don't think we have permanent visas, but I could be wrong.) I can only speculate how your friend was allowed to live in this country that long without ever obtaining permanent residency, but regardless, it's an example of the system failing, and that's a really terrible…

Well as far as I can remember the story, their parents were there with a working VISA ( extended through time ) and she got at one point ( I think at 18? ) a study VISA until it all expired after university.

Re: Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not

#30

Post by vacri »

drinchev wrote: post #20

I know a girl that had to leave the U.S. >24 The story ( as far as I can remember ) is that a family of Germans moved to the U.S. with their 1 year old child. 24 years later the child graduated university and ... needs to apply for a green card or permanent VISA. US government refused, so she had to come back to Germany. I've never understood why U.S. is so protective in terms of citizenship. In most of the EU countr…

Perfectly understandable for the US to behave that way. After all, they have barely any living space, have trouble feeding the citizens they do have, nothing in the way of natural resources (mineral, agricultural, or other), a very weak economy, live in the shadow of an oppressive and warlike neighbour, and don't have so much as a statue welcoming migrants to their shores.

Oh... wait a minute...

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