Born in Puerto Rico? You need a new birth certificate, and so does everyone else born before July 1, 2010. 

According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) press release, there is a new Puerto Rican law establishing that all certified copies of birth certificates that were issued before July 1, 2010 will no longer be valid after September 30, 2010. This is because the Vital Statistics Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is now in the process of issuing more secure birth certificates to U.S. Citizens born in Puerto Rico.  New birth certificates will now be absolutely necessary in order to file for immigration benefits or to submit an application any time after September 30, 2010. 

What happens if an old version of a Puerto Rican birth certificate is submitted to USCIS after September 30, 2010?

If your birth certificate is invalid at the time you submit it, USCIS will send you anotice requesting that you submit a valid birth certificate in order for your application be processed.  Thus, your application will not be automatically rejected or denied - USCIS will give you another chance to submit the correct documentation.  If you submitted your birth certificate before September 30, and your application is still pending when the new birth certificate law goes into effect, the adjudication of your application will not be affected.  If you want your application filed quickly before September 30^th, come to BOILA PC, where your case will be filed right away.

Will citizenship status be affected if a birth certificate expires before a new one is obtained?

No.  This new law has no effect on a person's citizenship status.  It affects the validity of birth certificates ONLY.

How to obtain a new Puerto Rican Birth Certificate:

Those who were born in Puerto Rico and are currently residing abroad can apply for new birth certificates online.  To do so, please visit: www.prfaa.com/birthcertificates or, for a Spanish version, please go to: www.prfaa.com/certificadosdenacimiento .  

To read the full article, please go to: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/

Generally, people are born U.S. citizens if they are born in the U.S. or born to U.S. citizens. Senator John McCain was born to U.S. citizen parents in the Panama Canal Zone,  but was eligible to run for President as a "natural born" citizen.  Another example, is President Franklin Roosevelt who was born in Canada of U.S. citizen parents.  For the child to be considered a United States citizen "at birth", the U.S. citizen parent had to have been physically present in the United States for at least 10 years, 5 of which had to be after attaining the age of 14 if only one parent was a U.S. citizen until 1986.  If the child is born abroad to two U.S. citizens, in most cases, the child is a U.S. citizen if both of the parents were U.S. citizens when the child was born and at least one of the parents lived in the US at some point in their life. If the child was born abroad to one US citizen, then in most cases, the child is a U.S. citizen if one of the parents was a U.S. citizen when the child was born, the citizen parent lived at least 5 years in the U.S. before they were born, and at least 2 of these 5 years in the U.S. were after the citizen parent's 14^th birthday.

In March, 2010 the Supreme Court in Flores-Villar v. United States, agreed to hear arguments to decide whether this law violates equal protection principles. The case deals with Ruben Flores-Villar who was born in Mexico to a Mexican non-citizen mother, but  raised by his U.S. citizen father and U.S. citizen grandmother  in San Diego, California since the age of two months.  Flores-Villar is now facing deportation.  At the time of his birth, his father was only 16 years old, but his father had acknowledged paternity with the Civil Register in Mexico.   If his mother had been an American citizen who had lived in the United States for just a year before he was born, he would have qualified for citizenship. Unfortunately, since Flores-Villar's father is the American citizen, his father has to have lived in the United States for 10 years prior to Flores-Villar's birth, and at least 5 of those years after the age of 14. 8 USC §§ 1401(a); 1409(a) and (c).

In a prior Supreme Court case Nguyen v. INS in 2001, different requirements were imposed for the child to acquire citizenship based on whether the father or the mother was a U.S. citizen.  This case survived constitutional challenge because the statute served two important governmental interests: assuring the existence of the biological parent-child relationship and showing the developed real everyday ties between the U.S. citizen parent and child.   Nguyen had been born out of wedlock in Vietnam from an Armed Forces father. Writing for the Court, Kennedy reasoned that men may not even realize their paternity in these situations.   In Flores-Villar, the difference is one of residency of the father and not the relationship to the child. 

One possible argument would be that countries who follow the "jus sanguinis" rule assign the father's nationality to a child born out of wedlock rather than the mother's, thus leaving those children stateless.  Under § 1409 c to extend the same lengthy residency requirement to unwed mothers as to fathers would further exacerbate the problem of leaving children stateless. 

Should Congress extend the benefits to both father and mother equally as a remedy for the Equal Protection violation will be the subject of discussion in the Supreme Court.   For Flores-Villar to meet this residency requirement would be physically impossible even with serious manipulation to the father's time line, since his father was only 16 years old when he was born. Balancing gender equality and citizenship will be the task of the Court.  It will be interesting to see what the future of Ruben Flores-Villar's case holds and its effects on children born out of wedlock to a citizen parent.

The Immigration and Nationality Act permitted a foreign-national child to be legally adopted only before they turn 16.  The International Harmonization Act of 2010 will raise that age bar to 18 years old, allowing for more time to adopt children.  

Look for more information on this in upcoming issues.

 by Andres Gonzalez