You don't lose your US citizenship because you have lived out of the US for a very long time. You should apply to renew your US passport - online

U.S. Passports

How to apply for or renew your U.S. passport if you live in United States

travel.state.gov

However, because you have not lived in the US since age 2, you are not, automatically, able to pass down your US citizenship to your children. Read the following website:

U.S. Citizenship Through Parents

There are several paths to obtain U.S. citizenship through parents at birth or after birth. Determine if you're already a citizen.

citizenpath.com

YOU have to sponsor your British husband - if you are unable to fulfill the financial requirements, then your relatives can act as co-sponsors. His, getting a job when you get to the States will not be relevant to getting the visa.
YOU have to complete form I-130 to start the petition

Family of U.S. Citizens | USCIS

This page describes how you (a U.S. citizen) may petition for certain family members to receive either a Green Card, a fiancé(e) visa or a K-3/K-4 visa based on your relationsh

www.uscis.gov

The whole process will take between 10 and 12 months.

 

Start with getting your US passport and filing US taxes for the last years. Read through Green Card process for immediate family members on uscis.gov and travel.state.gov. Your children will be attached to the father. Always triple check forms and attachments before submitting anything!!! Your situation is not unusual. Best of luck!

 

Thank you for your comment! Is filing US taxes a requirement before you move over there? I’ve also read online that if we were to ever return to the UK later down the line, we would be liable to pay both UK & US taxes?
I think it’s time to dig the laptop out and get reading!!

 

I was hoping you would reply, thank you so much for the insight.

Am I correct in thinking that once I’ve applied to renew my US passport, that’s me considered a full US citizen? So that from there we can complete all the relevant forms/petitions from the UK and eventually travel over all together once they have been approved?

I realise now that it would be my son that needs to be in the states for 5 years (2 over 14) in order to be considered a US citizen. I would love for him to have the same options as I do later in life.

Thank you again

 

Your US passport defines you as a US citizen.. Once petition and visa have been issued then you can all travel over together.
You should investigate whether you can get US citizenship for your 2 year old. You should have registered his birth with the US Embassy.
The following website gives further info as to those who can claim US citizenship. While you cannot pass on your citizenship automatically, your US citizen father (ie. child's grandparent) may be relevant to any claim.

Technical Difficulties

 

Thanks again. I read the following on one of the above links you posted about claiming citizenship for children (which I realise I misread after reading over it again lol):

If one parent is a citizen and the other is a foreign national, the citizen parent must have been physically present in the U.S. or its outlying possessions for five (5) years, at least two (2) of which were after age 14.

Does this mean that if we lived over there for over 5 years he would then have the right to become a US citizen?

Unfortunately, my father passed away over 20 years ago now, but I’m very close with his birth mother.

It all seems very complex doesn’t it!

 

Just to clarify on the US tax issue - there is a procedure called the Streamlined Compliance Procedure (or something like that). You want to complete that before you start processing a move to the US because there are two versions: Offshore (i.e. for those not living in the US) and the procedure for those living in the US. The offshore procedure is quite a bit easier so start working on it as soon as you can.

Basically, you file the current tax year (i.e. currently 2023) plus 3 years in arrears, plus a statement of "why" you haven't been filing (which usually amounts to "I didn't know I was supposed to, having lived outside the US since the age of 2" or some variation of that. Start here for more detail:

Streamlined filing compliance procedures | Internal Revenue Service

IRS streamlined filing compliance procedures are for taxpayers who mistakenly failed to report foreign financial assets or pay taxes on those assets.

www.irs.gov

You file as "married, filing separately" so you include only your own income. Check IRS Publication 54 for more information on that: About Publication 54, Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad | Internal Revenue Service

And you're on your way!

 

You may want to read up on Child Citizenship Act of 2000.

 

Its worth noting that the mentions of the Child Citizenship Act above provide a pathway for your child to obtain citizenship through their US citizen grandparents without a 5 year wait as mentioned above.

If the child’s parent does not meet the physical presence requirement, the child may rely on the physical presence of the child’s U.S. citizen grandparent to meet the requirement. In such cases, the officer first must verify that the citizen grandparent, the citizen parent’s mother or father, is a U.S. citizen at the time of filing. If the grandparent has died, the grandparent must have been a U.S. citizen and met the physical presence requirements at the time of his or her death.

That may be difficult if your father died 20 years ago, unless you have kept all of his records, but if the child's US Citizen grandmother is still alive.. that may be far easier to obtain the pertinent evidence.

A U.S. citizen parent of a child born outside of the United States who did not acquire citizenship automatically (ie your child) may file an Application for Citizenship and Issuance of Certificate Under Section 322 (Form N-600K) for the child to become a U.S. citizen and obtain a Certificate of Citizenship. The application may be filed from outside of the United States and if your child is under 14 the USCIS may issue a Certificate of Citizenship after the application has been approved (particularly if a citizenship interview requirement is waived). What I am not sure of is whether the USCIS has authorised citizenship interviews to the Department of State (ie the consulates).

This is all something you could discuss with the consulate as you will require a visit to your local consulate when you obtain a new US passport (I presume your current one has been expired for long enough that it will not be considered a renewal.


In light of the fact that you mention employment by family members and potential sponsors, there is one other thing that I will mention if you are trying to expedite matters. That is consider the possibility that YOU are offered a job in that family business as a potential means to expedite the whole processing of the petition.

While I was uncertain about the delegation of citizenship interviews, the USCIS has definitely authorizes the Department of State to adjudicate the petition case in certain emergency situations.

One of those emergency situations reads

• Short notice of position relocation – A U.S. citizen petitioner, living and working abroad, has received a job offer in or reassignment to the United States with little notice for the required start date.

Each diplomatic mission has its own process for receiving these requests (so you will need to research it), and they can reject such a request, but if YOU were to have a job offer that met the requirements above then you would have grounds to request your local consulate adjudicate your I-130. Its worth nothing that this MUST be done BEFORE you submit the I-130.

This is not an express pass to the front of the queue, but anecdotally, I have heard that this can cut 2-3 months off of the process.

 

Thank you for your reply Moulard. I don’t think I need to go to the US embassy to apply for my US passport. From what I’ve found online the process seems pretty simple:


Primary Application Forms for a U.S. Passport
1. Application For A U.S. Passport (DS-11)

• You should complete this form if you're applying for the first time, you're applying for your child who is under age 16, or you don't meet our requirements to renew your passport.

It looks as though I apply via the above DS-11 form (different to the renewal form)

I have all of the below documents to send off with the application, so I presume if what I’m reading is correct it should hopefully be approved and sent back to me

When applying on Form DS-11, you must submit primary evidence of U.S. citizenship:

• Full validity, undamaged U.S. passport (expired passports are accepted). Full validity means the document is/was valid for 10 years for adults and 5 years for children under 16.
• U.S. birth certificatethat meets the following requirements:
  • Issued by the city, county, or state of birth
  • Lists applicant’s full name, date of birth, and place of birth
  • Lists parent(s)’ full names
  • Has the signature of the city, county, or state registrar
  • Has the date filed with registrar's office (must be within one year of birth)
  • Has the seal or stamp of the city, county, or state which issued it.

 

Sorry new to this forum and I couldn’t continue my previous message without bullet pointing it.

With regards to what you say about the grandparent fulfilling the presence requirements; my father was a US citizen for 5 years prior to his death, not sure how I would prove this. My mum (my child’s grandmother) is British so it would only be his paternal great grandmother that could potentially do this for him. Paternal grandfather died a long time ago.

I’m not in any real rush to get over there, at the moment I’m in full research mode, weighing up the pros and cons for my little family!

Really appreciate all the responses and insight so far!

 

With regards to what you say about the grandparent fulfilling the presence requirements; my father was a US citizen for 5 years prior to his death, not sure how I would prove this. My mum (my child’s grandmother) is British so it would only be his paternal great grandmother that could potentially do this for him. Paternal grandfather died a long time ago.

Sorry, yes, I failed to remember that you stated that your Mother was British in your original post. The route I mentioned would required evidence that your father was a US citizen and met the eligibility requirements for your child to inherit the ability to nationalize automatically. And yes, if he died quite some time ago it might be difficult to acquire evidence such as a birth certificate, death certificate, school records etc that would show he met the citizenship and residency requirements. But that said, I am aware of people who have gone down that route, including trying to source the details through public records requests... long, slow and hard.. and probably not necessary.

 

It looks as though I apply via the above DS-11 form (different to the renewal form)

You can only renew a passport that was issued less than 15 years ago.
If it is more than that it is treated as a new passport.
So yes, a different form.

Thank you for your reply Moulard. I don’t think I need to go to the US embassy to apply for my US passport. From what I’ve found online the process seems pretty simple

My understanding is that the passport application for a new passport or replacing a passport issued over 15years ago requires that the DS-11 must be signed in the presence of a consular official and that this requirement cannot be waived. But regulations can change and I am not across all of them.

I would also note that most consular websites used to have warnings that DS-11 instructions do NOT apply for those applying for a passport outside of the US. But when they revamped and standardized the websites a year or two back, many of those warnings were lost or at least are much harder to find.

 

You can only renew a passport that was issued less than 15 years ago.
If it is more than that it is treated as a new passport.
So yes, a different form.



My understanding is that the passport application for a new passport or replacing a passport issued over 15years ago requires that the DS-11 must be signed in the presence of a consular official and that this requirement cannot be waived. But regulations can change and I am not across all of them.

I would also note that most consular websites used to have warnings that DS-11 instructions do NOT apply for those applying for a passport outside of the US. But when they revamped and standardized the websites a year or two back, many of those warnings were lost or at least are much harder to find.

Looking into it further it appears you are correct:

knowledge is power - thank you!

Applying for your first U.S. passport

• Step 1) Gather your evidence of U.S. citizenship. ...
• Step 2) Complete the passport application form (Form DS-11) ...
• Step 3) Take a U.S. passport photograph. ...
• Step 4) Assemble your documents. ...
• Step 5) Book an appointment. ...
• Step 6) Pay fees during the appointment. ...
• Step 7) Processing and delivery.

More items...

Homepage › citizenship

 

The great grand mother is alive if I understand it correctly. She can transfer citizenship if she is qualified. Otherwise she should have details about death certificate and info to start gathering documents on great grandfather. I would speed up research as it involves elderly. School/military/birth records are not hard to obtain. Worst case - use a genealogy forum or contact local FB groups.

 

The great grand mother is alive if I understand it correctly.

No this is not correct.

The USCIS policy manual on INA 322 (addressing the Child Citizenship Act of 2000) makes no mention of great-grandparents.

Chapter 5 - Child Residing Outside the United States (INA 322)

A. General Requirements: Child Residing Outside the United StatesThe Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) amended the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)

www.uscis.gov

 

Sorry, got my grands mixed.

 

You should get your US passport and filing US taxes for the last years.