When does an asylee become a naturalized U.S. citizen?

Allan Wernick’s reply to your questions:

Q. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services granted me asylum and later permanent residence. I will soon have four years here as a green card holder. When can I get U.S. citizenship?

Rita, Brooklyn

A: You can naturalize four years after you became a permanent resident.

An asylee may adjust status to a permanent resident one year after getting asylum. The asylee can become a U.S. citizen four years from the day the USCIS approved his or her permanent residence application. When USCIS grants permanent residence based on a person being an asylee, USCIS should backdate the former asylee’s green card one year. Sometimes USCIS mistakenly notes the date of permanent residence approval on the card without backdating. That has no impact on the asylee’s right to naturalize four years after the permanent residence grant. You can submit your naturalization application three months before you qualify to become a citizen. For individuals who came here as refugees, USCIS should backdate their residence to the day of entry. Then, they qualify to naturalize five years from that date.

Q. Our U.S. citizen son will soon turn 21. My wife and I are hoping he can sponsor us for permanent residence. Will the injunction stopping the Obama deferred action plan affect our right to get green cards? My wife and I came here as tourists visiting Miami. We decided to stay and we have been here illegally for 20 years, working with a false Social Security number. I’ve read about the court injunction against President Obama’s plan to grant legal status to the parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. It made us concerned.

Name withheld, Dallas, TX

A. No need to worry. The court injunction that temporarily halts the Obama plan has no impact on your right to get permanent residence. A federal court stopped that plan based on its finding that Obama exceeding his executive powers. Your right to get a green card based on a petition for a U.S. citizen son age 21 or older, is based on a federal statute. Only Congress can take that right away. I doubt that will ever happen.

Allan Wernick is an attorney and director of the City University of New York’s Citizenship NOW! project. Send questions and comments to Allan Wernick, New York Daily News, 7th fl., 4 New York Plaza, New York, N.Y., 10004 or email to questions@allanwernick.com. Follow him on Twitter @awernick.

Courtesy: Daily News, New York.