Please read an important update! This process is now half way, 3/6 kids are now U.S. citizens!! Still 3 more to work on!
I am a mother of 8 sweet children, 6 of them need to adjust their status to become US citizens. Our 2 youngest were born in the USA. I am raising money for attorney fees, USCIS filing fees and medical exam fees etc. These are absolute necessary to obtain to have our children’s statuses adjusted.
It took me a long time to write this story and it feels unbelievable that I even need to do this. But I feel strongly that this is just something I have to do. I’m doing this only for my children, for them to have a better and easier life and so they can get the rights I believe they deserve. What wouldn’t a mother do for her children?
Our story:
I was born in Seattle, Washington 1987 to a US citizen father and a Finnish citizen mother. I am a US citizen by birth. All the members of my father’s family are US citizens. Most of them live in the USA. My grandfather and several of my cousins have served for this country.
My family moved to Finland when I was 3 years old. I grew up in Finland, but I always knew that someday I want to move back to my other homeland. My father moved back to the USA 2007. I got married to a Finnish man and we are now blessed with 8 children, 6 were born in Finland and 2 were born here in the USA.
We planned to move to the USA for a long time. Finally in 2016 we started really working on our move. We sold our house and started the paperwork. We applied for a green card for my husband, and he got a 10-year green card in 2018. We applied for citizenships for our children, paid all the filing fees. At the time we had no idea they will also need green cards, as I am their US citizen parent. The only reason why they don’t automatically qualify for citizenships through the embassy is that I had lived in Finland too long at the time of their birth. In Finland we applied through my father, my kids grandfather. You can apply through your grandparent only if you live abroad, but if you live in the USA you can’t. Now we can’t apply through my father because we live here. This does not make any sense.
We waited over 2 years for the decisions from USCIS. I called USCIS several times and asked if we can come to the USA or were we supposed to continue waiting in Finland. I got no clear answers. I did not know that USCIS can’t help anyone. Only attorneys can help in America.
We moved to Arizona 2018 after my husband got his green card. I thought that we were able to do the final paperwork for our children in the USA, because we were not getting any instructions or answers from USCIS . We had no idea that something was wrong. We had received receipts for the applications for citizenships and got alien numbers too. After arriving to the USA, I contacted the USCIS again. They asked us to send our airline tickets to them. Then we waited couple months but didn’t hear anything back. Then I set an appointment with USCIS and there we found out that we had made a mistake. We should have applied for green cards for our kids, not citizenships, even though they will become citizens after they get their green cards. When they get a green card they will become US citizens, because they now live in the USA and because I am a US citizen.
We have lived in Arizona now for almost 5 years, all this time I have been trying to figure out what to do and how to get our kids status adjusted. Our children can’t travel outside the USA before we get all this paperwork done. Luckily, they have been able to be in school and live a quite normal life during this stressful time.
In March our oldest son is turning 15 and he is getting closer to the age that he really needs a social security number. He wants to get a drivers license and a job like other kids his age can freely do. Also, my children miss their family in Finland and are hoping to be able to visit there freely someday too.
My husband works extremely hard, and I am a stay-at-home mother. Our children ages are now 14, 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3 and 1. We live in a rental house. Everything is awfully expensive now and it is very hard to try to save so much money for something like this. My husband recently had two bulking discs and severe nerve pain in his back and could not work for a long time. Now he is working again, but even this made me think more that we really need help, and anything can happen, and it isn’t nice having my own children undocumented. I think it is very ridiculous that this process is so expensive for us who really want to do things right and follow the laws.
Now the only major issue is money. This whole process is very expensive. We already lost over 5000 $ to USCIS back in 2016 when we paid for the citizenship filing fees. The price has gone up since. USCIS does not do any refunds. We do not want to take any more risks loosing more. We are planning to have a lawyer to help us with our case. This whole thing has been very overwhelming for me personally. I think it is smartest to make sure everything goes right this time, and we finally get things done right. The total cost for all 6 kids is about 36615 $.
Attorney fees 18500 $
Filing fees to USCIS 15715 $
Medical exam fees 2400 $
Total 36615 $
I think this is ridiculous and I don’t think it’s very fair that we have to pay so much, only to get our kids to become citizens of this country I was born in. I really don’t think we should be considered as normal immigrants, but this is the law. I have also contacted the White House about our situation and the reply was, there is no easier or cheaper way to get through this. Also, Debbie Lesko’s office tried to help us, but ended up with the same resolution, money!
If there is any way you want to and can help, we would be so thankful. And even if you can’t help, we thank you for reading our story and maybe you can share this to your friends and family!