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October 1, 2026
GWP IMMIGRATION LAW
Your Child Was Born Abroad. Form N-600K Is the Naturalization Application That Can Make Them a Citizen.
It explains what Form N-600K does, who qualifies, and the one deadline that can end the case for good.
N-600K is not a certificate confirming citizenship your child already has. It is an affirmative naturalization application, and USCIS must approve it before your child turns 18.
Updated October 1, 2026 · GWP Law · Las Vegas, NVTHE CONTEXT
What Is Form N-600K?
Form N-600K is the INA 322 application that naturalizes a U.S. citizen parent’s child who was born and lives abroad.
Form N-600K is the application for citizenship under INA § 322, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1433. It exists for one specific situation: a child born outside the United States who did not automatically become a citizen at birth.
That distinction matters. A child who already acquired citizenship automatically — for example, the moment a parent naturalized while the child was still under 18 and living with them — needs Form N-600 to document that citizenship, not N-600K.
We cover the difference between the two forms, and how to tell which one applies to your child, in a companion article on N-600 versus N-600K.
N-600K, by contrast, is a request for USCIS to grant citizenship that has not yet been acquired. USCIS decides the case; nothing about it happens automatically.
One more distinction is worth making explicit. The 2025–2026 litigation over children born on U.S. soil under the 14th Amendment is a separate legal question entirely.
That dispute concerns citizenship by birthplace, or jus soli. Form N-600K concerns citizenship by descent, or jus sanguinis, for a child born abroad to a citizen parent — we cover the birthplace litigation separately in our coverage of the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship ruling.
Who Is Eligible
To qualify, the child must be under 18 years old, and must be born and currently residing outside the United States.
The citizen parent — or, if the parent doesn’t independently qualify, a citizen grandparent — must have been physically present in the U.S. or its outlying possessions for at least five years total, including two years after the age of 14, under the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12, Part H, Chapter 5.
That physical-presence time can accrue before the parent naturalized. It does not need to happen after the parent became a citizen.
USCIS typically expects that presence documented with items like tax transcripts, employment or school records, passport entry stamps, and rental or utility history covering the relevant years.
The child must also be in the legal and physical custody of the citizen parent — or, if that parent has died, of someone who does not object to the application.
Grandparent Substitution
If the citizen parent cannot meet the five-year physical-presence test alone, a citizen grandparent — the citizen parent’s own parent — can substitute.
The grandparent must independently meet that same five-year, two-years-after-14 test, or have met it at the time of their death.
A grandparent or legal guardian may also file the N-600K within five years of the citizen parent’s death.
This substitution exists for a common situation: a citizen parent who naturalized later in life, or spent much of adulthood abroad, and simply never accumulated five years of U.S. presence.
Custody Rules Changed in 2024
On November 19, 2024, USCIS updated how it evaluates custody for both INA 320 and INA 322 cases, in an agency guidance alert on determining custody.
USCIS now treats actual, uncontested custody as sufficient to establish “legal custody,” even without a formal court order.
It defines “physical custody” simply as the child residing with the parent. The update also addresses retroactive, or nunc pro tunc, custody orders and informal custody agreements.
The Interview and the Oath of Allegiance
N-600K generally requires an in-person interview under the Policy Manual’s eligibility rules.
USCIS may waive that interview only in the narrow case where eligibility is already fully established from the agency’s own administrative records. This is not a general “no interview” path — we break down exactly when a waiver is realistic in a separate article on the N-600K interview requirement.
Every approved child must also take the Oath of Allegiance before the certificate of citizenship issues.
USCIS automatically waives the Oath for children under 14, since they are deemed unable to understand its meaning. For a child 14 or older, USCIS can still waive it case by case if it determines the child cannot understand it.
What You Receive When USCIS Approves the Case
If USCIS approves the N-600K, it issues a Certificate of Citizenship in the child’s name, exactly as the form’s own title describes.
That certificate is proof of U.S. citizenship for a passport application and other purposes, the same way a Certificate of Citizenship issued under Form N-600 works for a child who acquired citizenship automatically.
Admission Status While the Case Is Pending
The child must be lawfully admitted to the United States in some status, and must maintain that status through the interview and the Oath.
The Policy Manual does not name one required visa category for this temporary admission. In practice, attorneys most often use a B-2 visitor visa to bring the child into the U.S. for the interview.
Filing Fee and How to File
The filing fee for Form N-600K is $1,385, a single fee that does not change based on whether you file online or on paper, under 8 C.F.R. § 106.2(b)(8).
That is a different fee structure than Form N-400 or Form N-600, both of which do charge different amounts for online versus paper filing.
USCIS fully waives the N-600K fee for a child who is the subject of a final adoption meeting the definition of “child” under INA § 101(b)(1)(E), (F), or (G).
N-600K can be filed online through myUSCIS, an option available since USCIS expanded online filing on January 29, 2019. Online filing does not remove the in-person interview or Oath requirement.
How Long It Takes
N-600K processing varies significantly by field office, and can take many months to well over a year.
Because the timeline directly affects the 18th-birthday deadline, check the current processing time for your local office at USCIS’s official processing-times tool before you file.
Common Reasons N-600K Cases Stall
- Custody evidence is missing, outdated, or contradicts an existing court order.
- The citizen parent’s physical presence isn’t documented well enough to survive scrutiny.
- The child’s lawful admission status lapses before the interview or Oath can happen.
- The filing fee is calculated from an outdated figure instead of the current amount in effect at filing.
- The case is still open when the child turns 18, ending eligibility entirely.
Source: USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12, Part H, Chapter 5.
A REAL CASE
The Case That Turned on an Informal Custody Agreement
A father called me about his eight-year-old daughter, born in Peru, for whom no court had ever issued a custody order.
She had lived with him and her grandmother for six years, with no written custody agreement between him and the child’s mother.
Before November 2024, that gap could have sunk the case, since USCIS often expected a court order establishing legal custody.
I filed the N-600K arguing that his actual, uncontested day-to-day custody satisfied the legal-custody requirement without a court order.
I documented physical custody with school records, medical records, and a sworn statement from the grandmother confirming the child had lived with her father the entire time.
USCIS approved the case, and the child took the Oath before her ninth birthday. The custody question could easily have gone the other way without the updated guidance.
Before You File: A Practical Checklist
THE PATH FORWARD
What Happens After You File Form N-600K?
USCIS reviews the case, schedules an interview, and administers the Oath before issuing the certificate.
Each of those steps takes time, and none of them can be rushed on the applicant’s side.
Because the entire sequence must finish before your child turns 18, timing is the single biggest risk in every N-600K filing.
We walk through exactly how that deadline plays out, including what happens if a case is still pending as a child’s 18th birthday arrives, in a companion article on the N-600K age-out deadline.
For families weighing N-600K against other paths to a child’s citizenship, our citizenship services team can map out the fastest route for your case.
References
- USCIS, Form N-600K, Application for Citizenship and Issuance of Certificate Under Section 322
- INA § 322, 8 U.S.C. § 1433 (Cornell Legal Information Institute)
- USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12, Part H, Chapter 5
- USCIS, Alert: Updated Guidance on Determining Custody for Children Acquiring U.S. Citizenship (Nov. 19, 2024)
- 8 C.F.R. § 106.2(b)(8), Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
- INA § 101(b)(1), 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (Cornell Legal Information Institute)
- USCIS, Announcement on Online Filing Expansion (Jan. 29, 2019)
- USCIS Case Processing Times Tool
Confirm N-600K Is the Right Path for Your Child
An immigration attorney can confirm eligibility, calculate physical presence, and build the custody record USCIS expects before you file.
Book a Consultation →This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified immigration attorney before taking any action. · Last verified: October 1, 2026 · Reviewed by: Kathia Quirós, Immigration Attorney · GWP Immigration Law
