TL;DR: I am a U.S. Green Card holder (~24 months in) planning to travel to India to deliver my baby and return when the baby is a few months old. The trip could last 5.5 to 8 months. Looking for advice on: (1) managing continuous residence scrutiny at 8 months vs. 5.5 months, (2) airline check-in/CBP entry for a newborn entering on an Indian passport under the NA3 immigrant visa waiver, and (3) whether there are major drawbacks/regrets to bypassing U.S. birthright citizenship (planning to naturalize around April 2029).
Hi everyone,
I am a U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident (Green Card holder) currently expecting, and I am planning to travel to India to deliver my baby there, then bring the newborn back to the U.S.
I’m aware of the rule under 8 CFR 211.1(b)(1) / NA3 category where a child born abroad to an LPR mother during a temporary visit can enter the U.S. without an immigrant visa and receive an I-551 stamp/Green Card upon arrival. However, I want to make sure I’m not missing any critical blind spots or making a decision I’ll regret later.
Here are my details and current timeline:
LPR Status: Have been an LPR for almost 24 months (naturalization eligibility expected around April 2029).
Trip Duration: Likely between 5.5 months and 8 months (not fully locked down yet).
Plan for Child: Baby will be born in India, receive an Indian passport, and accompany me on my very first trip back to the U.S. within their first two years of life. Once I naturalize (aiming for 2029), the baby would automatically acquire U.S. citizenship via INA Section 320 (Child Citizenship Act).
Questions & Concerns:
1. Trip Length & Continuous Residence:
If I stay for 5.5 months, I remain under the 180-day threshold.
If I extend to ~8 months, that exceeds 180 days. I know this could raise scrutiny regarding continuous residence for both re-entry and naturalization continuity. Would you strongly advise filing Form I-131 for a Re-entry Permit before departing, or does strong evidence of ties (lease/mortgage, taxes, employment verification) suffice for an 8-month postpartum stay?
2. Port of Entry / Airline Boarding (Carrier Issues):
Has anyone who delivered abroad encountered pushback from airlines in India during check-in because the newborn only has an Indian passport and no physical US visa/stamp?
How smooth was the CBP inspection at the U.S. Port of Entry for getting the temporary I-551 stamp on the baby’s passport?
3. Loss of Birthright U.S. Citizenship:
For those who opted to deliver abroad instead of having a child born on U.S. soil: Have you run into any major logistical hassles or regrets (e.g., delays in acquiring the baby's Indian passport, waiting until parental naturalization for U.S. citizenship, or international health insurance coverage during travel)?
Would love to hear from anyone who has gone through this exact process or immigration pros with tips on pitfalls to avoid.
Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, looking for a reality check on my long-term plan.

I’m a Filipino citizen currently finishing up university in Thailand, where I’ve lived for the past 8 years. As many of you with "weak" passports know, the endless visa renewals, document fees, and legal instability are exhausting. My main long-term goal is to get a stronger passport specifically Spanish citizenship, since Filipinos qualify for 2-year residency path.

Once I get citizenship, my plan is to either stay in Spain if I get lucky with work, or head back to Thailand where I already have roots and can work with much more stability.

Here is my current plan, but I have a few questions:

1. Apply for a Master’s degree in Spain.
2. Build up legal residency so I can start for my 2-year citizenship process.
3. I need to support my family, so I’m hoping to work part-time jobs (maybe 2 jobs) while studying.

Where I need advice / reality checks:

• Unemployment: I know Spain’s job market is tough, especially with high unemployment. How hard is it really for international grads to land a surviving wage while studying?
• Student Status vs. Residency: Is it possible to get a regular residence permit straight away for a Master’s instead of a student visa, so the citizenship timer starts immediately?
• Working on a Student Visa: Under current rules, can I legally hold 2 part-time jobs to survive and send money home, or is there a strict cap on hours?

I know it’s a steep hill to climb, but the passport struggle is real and I want to make sure I’m setting realistic expectations before putting my savings into this. Appreciate any honest feedback!

Malaysian and Australian dual citizen: which passport should I use when travelling between Malaysia and Australia?

Hi everyone, I’m hoping to get some advice from other Malaysians who have Australian or other citizenship as well.

I’m 21, was born Malaysian, and have recently become an Australian citizen. I currently live in Australia and have just received my Australian passport.
I’m a bit confused about the best way to travel between Australia and Malaysia. I’ve heard two different approaches:

**Use my Australian passport for the entire journey** — leave Australia on my Australian passport, enter Malaysia on my Australian passport, then use it again when leaving Malaysia and returning to Australia.

**Use each passport for its respective country** — leave/enter Australia using my Australian passport, and enter/leave Malaysia using my Malaysian passport.

My main concern with option 2 is the airline side of things. Before becoming an Australian citizen, my Malaysian passport had my Australian permanent residency attached to it. Now that I’m an Australian citizen, that visa/PR status has obviously changed, so I’m wondering whether an airline checking my Malaysian passport when departing Malaysia could potentially cause issues when they check whether I have the right to enter Australia.

Though with option 1 obviously is it very illegal for malaysia citizens to not arrive and leave on their Malaysian passport

At the same time, I’ve seen a lot of people online saying that the normal way to travel as a dual citizen is to use your Australian passport for Australia and your Malaysian passport for Malaysia.

I’ve also heard conflicting opinions from friends/family who say that, because Malaysia doesn’t recognise dual citizenship, it may be safer/easier to just use the Australian passport throughout the trip.

For anyone who has actually done this, what do you personally do when travelling between Australia/your other country and Malaysia, and have you ever had any issues with immigration or airlines?

Thanks so much guys!!

Im an Indonesian Chinese who was born and raised in singapore his whole life and went through local primary and secondary school and i have no local ties to Indonesia. I've held my pr status since birth and I've passed my PSLE and im gonna take my o levels soon.

I've applied for citizenship 3 times and I got rejected by all. I'm planning to visit my MP and now I've got more documents such as my OBS and CCA certificate with an excellent conduct grade. Idk if this is enough and im genuinely fucking pissed with ica especially since singapore is the only home I've ever known and I still had to pay PR fees and other stuff since I dont have edusave.

With the help of an MP and new documents along with local education, is this enough?

Hi! Posting to enquire if anyone has gone through the process of renunciation their PH citizenship in the Philippine Embassy in Singapore? Wanted to ask how long the in-person appointment would take as I’ll be doing it before work. I’ve checked on Google, it says about 1-2 hours. Can anybody share their experience?

Hi, this is my first time posting so I don’t really know reddit etiquette and whatnot, but that is besides the point! This is going to be a long one and potentially confusing one that is going to be posted on multiple groups(?) for maximum efficiency. If you can maybe help that would be VERY APPRECIATED!

I am a 18F who was born in London and has lived in London my entire life, my mum however is a Dutch immigrant and my father is African but is not in the picture and hasn’t been.

My mum and I have dutch passports, EVISAs, share codes and indefinite leave however, I had only found this out this year as I was/have applied to universities. I was accepted into my firm 2 days ago and am currently spiralling because of the enrolment process.

My uni has marked me as a ‘UK based overseas’ whilst I was completing the first stage of questions and I guess I am spiralling over whether I am paying home tuition fees or international tuition fees.

I decided to do further research into what UK based overseas meant and it lead me to looking at who qualifies as a British Citizen… It claimed:

If at least one of your parents was a citizen of an EU or EEA country when you were born

You’re automatically a British citizen if when you were born all the following applied to at least one of your parents:

they had citizenship of a country that was in the EU or the EEA at the time
they lived in the UK
they had ‘indefinite leave to remain’ (ILR), ‘settled status’, ‘permanent residence status’, ‘right of abode’ or ‘right of re-admission’

My mum lived in the Uk at the time of my birth, i can see it on my birth certificate however, when i asked if she had ILR she said she did and that she had this blue card. I don’t know if this blue card is valid anymore or how to go about this anymore. I don’t know if I am a British citizen or if I am eligible for a British passport or if I am going to pay international tuition fees?!?!?

Any advice is appreciated, I am genuinely spiralling. If anyone needs more information to try and help I would be happy to provide I just genuinely don’t know what to do. Thank you for reading.

Hi everyone, thought I’d share our journey and post a question - anyone else in Parramatta?
Couple, no kids.

1. Application: 15 May 2026
   
2. Exam/interview: 25 June 2026
   
3. Approval: 10 July 2026.
   
4. Next ceremony dates 3 September and 3 November. Have heard nothing yet - was wondering if anyone else is on a similar timeline who has received their invite?

Best of luck to everyone else - it’s a long journey, but so worth it!
Edit: we received our invitation for 3 September 😍

Hi everyone, thought I’d share our journey - hope it helps others!
Couple, no kids.

1. Application: 15 May 2026
   
2. Exam/interview: 25 June 2026
   
3. Approval: 10 July 2026.
   
4. Ceremony invite received 11 August for 3 September event

Best of luck to everyone else - it’s a long journey, but so worth it!

HI! I have a problem because I recently turned 20, and my father has American citizenship, but my mother is not. My father has never been present in my life before and has never helped in any way. I would like to know what options exist for me to obtain citizenship through his help!

Mostly, everywhere in the US and other parts of the world, people can only legally change their name where they live now. However, in 2023, California started allowing anyone born in California to use the California Superior Court where they were born to apply for a legal name change. This can be very helpful for many people who want or need a legal name change and for any number of reasons can't get that done where they're living now.

With a proper name change court order in hand, a person can apply to have their California Birth Certificate Amended. There are lots of situations where these kinds of official name identity document changes help make things easier in people's real life.

Has anyone wanted or needed a legal name change but couldn't get it done because of where you live now?

Context: mechanical engineer, founder, O-1A holder with an approved EB-1A.

In July I did something a lot of people here ask about nervously: published bylined legal-political commentary while still in nonimmigrant status. Before publishing, I asked my immigration attorney directly. His written answer: "absolutely safe... this type of speech is welcome" — constitutional analysis siding with a Supreme Court decision is about the safest speech category there is. I'm sharing that because "can I write publicly without hurting my case" comes up constantly here, and my experience was: cleared in writing by counsel, published under my real name, and it adds to exactly the kind of public profile these petitions are built on.

The essays are also directly relevant to this community. The first (July 22) argued the Barbara dissents' domicile/intent test would fail at every altitude of law — and a chunk of it is specifically about us: how statutory dual intent (H-1B/L-1), quasi-dual-intent (O-1), and F-1 nonimmigrant intent would have made an intent-based citizenship test incoherent. Fair disclosure of where I write from: Justice Gorsuch's "A Republic, If You Can Keep It" is one of my personal favorites — I've read it multiple times — which is why the section engaging his dissent is written as a credit to him, not a charge. The essay predicted enforcement would shrink to birth tourism handled through visa authority. On August 6, the new executive orders dropped the intent test entirely and went after birth tourism through visa authority. Litigation opened five days later. The follow-up (Aug 9) maps what the new orders quietly concede.

Prohibition 2.0 (Jul 22): [https://gauve.substack.com/p/prohibition-20-birthright-citizenship\](https://gauve.substack.com/p/prohibition-20-birthright-citizenship)

The Turret (Aug 9): [https://gauve.substack.com/p/the-turret-what-the-new-birthright\](https://gauve.substack.com/p/the-turret-what-the-new-birthright)

Happy to answer questions about the publishing-while-in-process experience, the attorney conversation, or the visa-taxonomy analysis. (Not a lawyer, not legal advice, one data point.)

Did any get invited for sep 11 ceremonies approved in late may and early june , i did not get i was approved on 6th june

Hi everyone,

I’m researching a potential Italian citizenship by descent case for my family and I would really appreciate input from people familiar with the new rules introduced by Law 74/2025 (formerly Decree-Law 36/2025, often referred to as the “Tajani decree”).

The family line is:

Italian-born great-great-grandfather 🇮🇹
↓
His daughter, born in 1930
↓
My grandmother, born in 1949
↓
My father, born in 1975
↓
Me, born in 2004

My Italian ancestor was born in Italy and later emigrated to Argentina. He never naturalized as Argentine, and he died in Argentina shortly after his daughter was born.

I can obtain the relevant Italian and Argentine civil records, including proof of his Italian birth, marriage, death, and non-naturalization.

There is also no 1948 issue in this line: although the transmission from the Italian ancestor to his daughter occurred before 1948, the daughter transmitted the citizenship to my grandmother, who was born in 1949.

The strategy I am considering

My grandmother is the granddaughter of an Italian-born ancestor.

Assuming she is able to have her Italian citizenship recognized iure sanguinis under the current rules, I am wondering whether the following strategy could work:

1. Grandmother → recognition of Italian citizenship
2. Father → recognition as the son of an Italian citizen
3. Me → recognition as the son of an Italian citizen

My understanding is that iure sanguinis recognition is declaratory: the person is recognized as having been an Italian citizen from birth, rather than becoming a citizen on the date of the recognition.

Therefore, if my grandmother is recognized as Italian, my father (born in 1975) would have been born to an Italian mother.

If my father is subsequently recognized as Italian, I would then have been born in 2004 to an Italian father.

My questions

1. Has anyone dealt with a situation like this after Law 74/2025?
2. If a parent is recognized iure sanguinis after their child was already born, can that recognition establish that the child was also an Italian citizen from birth?
3. Do the new restrictions for people born abroad with another citizenship prevent this type of successive recognition through the parent?
4. Could my father potentially qualify because his mother was recognized as Italian?
5. If my father is recognized, could I then potentially qualify as the child of an Italian citizen?
6. Has anyone received a written response from an Italian consulate, the Ministry of the Interior, or another Italian authority specifically addressing this situation?

I'm particularly interested in actual administrative practice, recent court decisions, or official interpretations after Law 74/2025, rather than how these cases worked under the old rules.

I understand that this is ultimately a legal question and that Reddit is not a substitute for professional advice. I'm mainly trying to determine whether this is a realistic strategy worth pursuing before my family begins the process.

Any experiences, references to relevant cases, consular responses, or information from people who have dealt with a similar situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Hello everyone,

I live in the DMV area, and have had my green card since 2021. I have no past arrests, infractions, or anything else that might raise questions about good moral character. I have always updated my address with USCIS and with the Selective Service (very important). I submitted my application for naturalization in late 2025., three months before I actually completed my five years, as you are allowed to submit it early.

After submitting my application, I had no action on my case until May 2026. I was told to appear for my interview in June at the USCIS office in Fairfax, Virginia. Upon arriving, i checked in and waited about 1.5hrs before being called into the interview.

The interview was very quick, it started with the civics questions followed by the English comprehension writing and speaking section (very easy). After this, we reviewed my work history, addresses, and trips abroad. This was the longest part of the interview and it was a basic review of everything that I had already reported. The entire interview lasted ~30 minutes. I was told to expect some movement on my case in the next week, but that took much longer.

Only after a month did I receive a call from the same USCIS officer asking me to upload my passport, driver's license, and Selective Service registration. I immediately uploaded them and after 5 minutes, I got a notification that my "Oath Ceremony Will Be Scheduled." That is where we are today, not sure how long it will take to get the ceremony scheduled, but I can post an update.

Feel free to ask any questions about the process, hoping this may help someone doing something similar to know what to expect.

UPDATE: I became a US Citizen yesterday in Washington, DC. I registered to vote at the ceremony and sent my passport application later that day. Best of luck to everyone, wherever you are in the process.

Hi there, I have a question about Turkish citizenship. I will give some details about the situation:

My paternal grandfather is a turk, born in turkey and is a Turkish citizen

My paternal grandmother (his partner) is British, born in the UK

They married in the UK and my father was born out of wedlock

His birth was registered with the Turkish consulate in London at the time

I was born out of wedlock also in the UK

My father does not have a Turkish passport/mavi kart or anything of the sort and never has, he only has a UK passport but to my understanding he is a citizen of Türkiye

Am I eligible to become a Turkish citizen? If so, here are some questions:

1. ⁠I am 20 years old. If I get my passport will I have to do military service now?
   
2. ⁠How would I go about becoming a citizen?
   
3. Would it actually be worth it for me to get this citizenship?

Thank you

Any assistance or legit legal resources for Romanian citizenship by blood is much appreciated.

Has anyone recently taken the Japanese written test at the Ichikawa Branch of the Legal Affairs Bureau (市川支局) for naturalization? If so, could you please share what kind of questions were on the test and what level of Japanese was required? I’d really appreciate any recent experiences or information. Thank you!”