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By
Charles
Wheeler
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC)
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
issued a
memo on June 14, 2006, clarifying that the children of a lawful
permanent resident will not automatically lose V-2 or V-3 status when
the parent naturalizes.
Children with the V-2 status are the
principal beneficiaries of an I-130 that was filed on or before Dec. 21,
2000. Children with a V-3 status are the equivalent, only they are
derivative beneficiaries. Under a prior court ruling and subsequent
agency memo, these children are allowed to remain in V-2 or V-3 status
upon turning 21. It was unclear, however, whether they would lose that
status upon the petitioning parent's naturalizing. The official
position is that they will lose that status if they are under 21 and
convert to the immediate relative category. If they are over 21 at the
time the petitioner naturalizes and thus convert to the first preference
category, they will be able to maintain their V-2 or V-3 status.
[For an analysis of the memo, also by Charles
Wheeler, see "Opting Out
under the CSPA: The Effect of Naturalization in Family-Based Immigration,"
in this issue of Immigrants'
Rights Update.]
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