Father is an US citizen. I entered and lived in the US for almost 10 years but moved back to home country. Complicated situation?
Hi everyone! I’ve scoured the internet for any answers to this, and reading the immigration page and the many changes and years has confused me greatly. My situation is as follows: My father was born in the USA but was only there as a baby for about 6-12 months. Then him and my grandparents came back to my home country A. He lived his life here and met my mom, had me, and a year later they divorced. When I was 6 he filed for his usa passport and left to live in the us with his new wife. When I was 9, my father convinced my mother to send me to the USA for three months to “get my citizenship”. He had tricked my mother and he was actually taking me to stay with him forever (it’s a whole situation, but not really relevant). I entered the USA with a green card. Long story short my father was abusive (military) and when I was 17 I decided I wanted to go back to my mother. My father in those almost 10 years never processed my citizenship (which I assume I was already elegible for) saying that “he didn’t have enough money to pay for it” (false, he used it as leverage, and I had also offered to pay when I started a fast food job). I convinced my mother to take me back (she has made her life and later I found out my father was abusive to her so it explained why she was distant towards me, plus I was raised by my grandma and she greatly suffered my leaving, and was battling cancer and wanted to see me before she passed on) by promising to bring some things she wanted (essentially I was her delivery system). My father tried to convince me to stay by bringing up the papers to which I said I no longer cared, I just wanted to live peacefully in a house with no yelling and abuse (but mommy ended up doing the same thing, the irony). I’ve now lived in my home country for 6 years, I’m about to finish 5 year college and during this time I’ve been wanting to live my life out in the USA now that I’m able to support myself. My relationship with my father improved greatly, and he has actually been a great help ever since I left my mothers house to live in my own (literally had no money for food and lost jobs due to quarantine) and he also paid for my education. I want to know where does my situation put me, since my father says I became a citizen when I first entered the USA but we just never processed it. Can I claim citizenship even though I left the country for a long period of time? Or can my father do some process to petition for me again, or is there some way that I am able to get my green card again? Can I claim that I did want citizenship when I was underage but it was withheld from me? I appreciate any guidance, or I would also appreciate any numbers I could call since the email I received after making an inquiry was not very helpful.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/immigration/comments/lzgxyq/father_is_an_us_citizen_i_entered_and_lived_in/