Schools don’t care if there is dual citizenship. The financial aid is dependent on US citizenship.
My daughter was adopted from China in 2001. That was before certificates of citizenship were automatically issued. I applied for and got her citizenship certificate anyway about 10 years ago. Just to be safe. She was admitted to colleges with no citizenship issues. I highly recommend getting the certificate of citizenship as a safeguard. With the state of immigration issues these days you can’t be too careful.
Never thought I’d see a thread relevant to my little sister here! She’s 9 years old, one of the last healthy baby girls to be adopted from China before the program became totally focused on special needs kids. I’m forwarding this thread to my mom 
thank you for the info!
All. Social Security maintains a database that is often used for citizenship status, even though it is no more up to daye than the last time that you had contact with social security. The SSA is not responsible for determining visa status or citizenship status. That is Homeland Security’s job. SSA cares about births, retirements, and deaths. There is no master database of Americans and their vitals in this country. If you are being asked for proof, most likely your child is getting flagged by eVerify.
If you are being asked to prove the citizenship of an adopted child, most likely SSA doesn’t know that the citizenship process was ever completed - neither you nor ICE/INS (the old name) ever told them. All SSA’s records contain is the SSN that your child was assigned when your child got residency.
The solution is to talk to SSA and prove your child’s status once and for all to SSA. It shouldn’t be hard because you should have the paper work. You probably got a lecture about keeping the naturalization papers in a safe place at the swearing in - I know we did. Once you get the SSA record updated, your child should stop getting flagged. It is probably good to take care of this.
“Quick question regarding citizenship and applications. Have all of you with kids with dual citizenship included that on College apps? Wondering if it’s a plus or a minus??”
Our observation was that at least one school considered our child “international” for their bragging stats at orientation. It seemed to have no bearing on admissions at all.
We included it whenever asked, and I believe the common ap does ask.
SSA cannot determine citizenship status. Only USCIS (by certificate of citizenship or naturalization) or the state department (passport) can do that. The SSA can only change their records if you present either a COC/CON or a passport.
We got the dreaded (I guess not really dreaded) notification that social security did not confirm citizenship on the FAFSA. It seems this school simply needs S19’s passport. Funny thing is that our EFC will not be in range for federal aid but we did it just in case it’s required for merit or the Tuition Exchange program for which we qualify.
@MAandMEmom Based on my experience last year, I suggest to go up to Social Security office to make sure the child’s citizenship is updated.
Have you gone to the SS office to update your child’s citizenship? If adopted prior to Feb 2001 you need to do this.
I don’t think I did for my S19 as his SS card did not have that funny “work permit” message but D20’s did. So I only did hers thinking his was ok. Funny he was home more than a year before her???
If the ‘child’ is over 18, he/she has to go to the SSA. They will not let the parent of an adult change anything at the SSA.
Well I guess that needs to happen before the 24th then…thanks!!
I don’t think it is specific for adoption prior to 2001. My older DD was adopted in 1999 and has no issue, my younger was adopted after Feb 2001 and we had to go up to the SS office to update the information.
Whether you have to change the SSA status depends on how the status was recorded at entry to the US. If the child entered on an IR-4 status, so the adoption wasn’t finalized when entering the country, the child would have entered as a permanent resident and thus had a green card and the status would need to be changed. When the US adopted the Hague convention, it changed the visa status from a lot of countries and those old IR-4s were now entering on H (Hague) visas and immediately citizens.
There were also a lot who entered between 2001 and 2004, when the certificates of citizenship began to be issued automatically under the child citizenship act, who were issued SSN but not listed as citizens. SSA is not the best at getting the status correct, or making the change when presented with a passport or C of C (or marriage license or change of name documents - the SSA is just bad!)
Yup, the status was simply incorrect and they changed it on the spot after presenting his SS card and US passport.
@twoinanddone what you described also did not apply to my younger daughter, she was adopted in the summer of 2001. At the time the law had changed, I believed she became a citizen as soon as she arrived in the US. She has a copy of the certificate of citizenship (I think it is what is called), she also has her US passport for many years. For some unknown reasons SS office did not mark her as a citizen.
Also received the “please verify” email. Sent in a copy of her passport and received the following:
“As a courtesy to our incoming freshman class of 2023, we will be temporarily accepting the copy of your US Passport to satisfy the federal requirement of citizenship documentation on your 2019-2020 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
The following comment was listed on the Student Aid Report (SAR) on your FAFSA:
** The Social Security Administration did not confirm that you are a U.S. citizen. Please provide your financial aid office with documentation of your U.S. citizenship (such as your U.S. Passport, Certificate of Naturalization or Birth Certificate). If the documents support your status as a U.S. citizen, the financial aid office at your school will make a copy of your documentation and can continue to process your federal student aid.”
Yes @SoFloDad that’s the exact message we received.
That means the school will accept a copy of the document (passport, CofC) to keep the process going, but the school needs to see the original C of C or passport before disbursing the federal aid. It’s a federal regulation.
My daughter came into the country on an IR-3 and received a green card and I applied for a SSN. On Feb 27, 2001, she automatically became a citizen under the Child Citizenship Act. She was still listed as a resident alien with SSA. Because I’d already filed her paperwork to become a citizen (and paid the fees), she was issued a C of C, so I took that to the SSA and had her status changed (and they actually did it!). SSA cannot determine citizenship, and can only change status after it is determined by USCIS (C of C) or Dept of State (passport). If your daughter received a C of C in 2001, @annamom, it’s because you filed and paid for it. They didn’t start automatically issuing them until 2004, so those who came into the country before that were citizens but had no documentation. SSA wouldn’t change status without documentation. The child had to get a C of C or passport and show that to the SSA.
The SSA is a bureaucracy at its finest. Recently went there with my mother so she could get benefits as a widow. They wanted her marriage certificate from 64 years ago (which doesn’t exist) even though her name was changed for her SSN 64 years ago. Luckily, she had collected payments under my father’s name about 20 years ago and they accepted that. A friend just went to start getting benefits and she too needed to prove her name changed when she was married 40 years ago, so marriage license needed.
We never applied for or received a CofC and swiftly applied for passports upon returning home. This was 2001 and 2002. SSA changed the status for both. S19’s SS card had no notation so I had no idea that his status was never updated and I did that on Monday.