

Article 10962 of soc.culture.china:
Path: bsu-cs!iuvax!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watmath!watdragon!violet!rzhu
>From: [email-masked] (Rupert Zhu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Passport Problem:  Question & Answer  (Part IV)
Keywords: American-Born-Chinese (ABC), US & PRC Citizenship Code
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Date: 27 Jan 89 19:49:47 GMT
Sender: [email-masked]
Lines: 205

================== Information form Xiaoping Yuan's friend =====================

The messages delivered here are for your information, correction, supplement
and comment.  Read all parts of the series to get entire information.

I apologize in advance for possible errors in the series.

Part III and IV are concentrated on the subtopics related to US-stayed Chinese
students, sorry for those who are not interested.

Question: We have an one year old baby born here in US.  I will take my Ph.D 
          qualifying examination in 1990 and my wife is applying for her second 
          master program for fall 1990, we are planning to send our baby home
          when he is two years old.  It is said that if a child resides outside
          US for more than two years, s/he will lose her/his US citizenship, is
          that true?  Also, my friend said it is against US law to separate
          child from her/his parents.
          We want our child be able to decide his own future upon his growing
          -up, i.e., choose citizenship on his own will and come back to US for
          college education.  So, we do not want him lose his natural-born US
          citizenship while he resides in China.

Answer:

Apparently, many Chinese couples abroad, especially in US, have similar 
questions in their mind if they have or are planning to have their little ABC's.
Many Chinese couples got into problems/troubles in recent two or three years
with Chinese embassy/consulate when they were preparing to send/take their 
little ABC's home.  Because it takes at least several years to see some
significant consequence of the problem, we can now only discuss about the
current point of view and policy for this issue from PRC side and US side.

First of all, it is lawful in US that a child is taken care of by her/his 
relatives but not by parents, though the parents have the obligation of breeding
their child(ren).

Second, the conditions under which one's US citizenship could be forfeited, and
the interpretation of relevant US law and code, may differ in a long time period
and there is always dispute between US courts and government regarding this
issue.

According to US Citizenship Code, anyone who was born in the US territory is a
natural-born US citizen.  Generally speaking, the people born in US won't 
forfeit their US citizenship for the sole reason that they reside outside US.
But, there are exceptions.  As per an US Act effective since 1952, an US 
citizen, who acquires dual citizenship due to that s/he was born in US, for 
her/his own benefit and on her/his own will, wants to hold the foreign 
citizenship and has continuously resided in the foreign country in question for
three years during any time period after her/his twenty-second birthday, s/he
may forfeit her/his US citizenship except any one of following reasons:
1) s/he has pledged loyalty to US during the three years period in the US 
   embassy in that country
2) s/he has special business or professional activities in that country
3) for the reason of health of her/him-self or her/his parents.

However, US administration always handles such kind of dual citizenship case 
very carefully to avoid any conflicting with relevant citizen right items in 
the US constitution.  In practice, an US citizen who acquired dual citizenship 
due to birth place reason won't forfeit her/his US citizenship except that:
1) s/he gives up US citizenship intentionally
2) her/his behavior disprove her/his royalty to US.

Now, it is seen that from the point of view of the US side, your little ABC 
wouldn't lose his US citizenship if you send him back to China.  By the way, 
US does not recognize dual citizenship.  So people can never CLAIM their 
foreign citizenship to US government while holding US citizenship.

What's the opinion of PRC government on this issue?

Since last two years, Chinese embassy/consulate in US have been refusing to 
issue PRC entry visa to the little ABC's who bear US passport if their parents
are Chinese students here. Instead, Chinese embassy/consulate insists on issuing
a PRC Travel Certificate to the little ABC's.

Last Dec., a friend of mine in Ohio took his little ABC back home because he and
his wife are too busy in their studies to take care of their three months old
daughter.  They didn't have trouble in applying an US passport for their little
ABC, just sent her birth certificate and photo by mail to local post office and
the US passport was mailed to them in a few days.  But, they made every effort
on getting a PRC entry visa on the passport and failed.  They even asked an US
travel services to petition PRC visa for their daughter.  The travel services
turned down their application and said they tried several times before for 
Chinese students but no luck, because Chinese embassy/consulate requires a copy 
of birth certificate if the applicant is an infant or little child.  The birth 
certificate indicates the parents' nationality.  Finally, my friend had to apply
a PRC Travel Certificate from Chinese Consulate in Chicago for his little ABC
and the little baby bears both US passport and PRC travel document.

The similar cases/questions were sometimes seen in SCC last year, it seems that
the unique way to send/take little ABC's back to China is to apply the PRC
Travel Certificate from Chinese embassy/consulate.  Is the Chinese embassy/
consulate lawful to force the little ABC's take PRC citizenship by dishonoring
their US passports?

Let's take a look of PRC Citizenship Code.  As per the PRC Code:
1) PRC does not honor dual citizenship
2) anyone, if her/his parents are PRC citizens, will have PRC citizenship
   automatically upon her/his birth (wherever born)
3) if one party of the parents is foreign national, the parents may choose 
   either of their nationalities for their newborn
4) if their parents are foreign permanent residents (e.g., US green card holder)
   they may follow that foreign country's law if their infant was born outside
   PRC
5) a PRC citizen, who acquires foreign citizenship, or gives up PRC citizenship
   under proper reason and the giving-up is approved by PRC authority, will lose
   PRC citizenship.
Those are about all of the applicable items to this issue in the PRC Code.

Again, our "National People's Congress" acted as a perfect rubber stamp in 
the making of the PRC Citizenship Code so that PRC government and its officials
have the maximum flexibility to do what they want.  e.g., on one hand, they
can say they follow above 2) if the parents are Chinese students.  They want 
the parents rather than their children!  On the other hand, they can declare 
that they follow above 5) in some case if they want to help someone out.  This 
is their permanent logic.

A Chinese student once asked a Chinese consul that if he takes his kid back with
his kid's US passport and without either PRC visa or travel document for his
kid, what will happen to him and his kid?  The answer is (i) the US passport
will be confiscated according to above 1), (ii) your kid is innocent and will
certainly be allowed to get into PRC as a PRC citizen, (iii) you will be sued
for taking someone pass border line without overseas travel document, because
this behavior is against PRC Citizen Exit/Entry Control Code.

In conclusion, a few suggestions from lawyers to those who want to take/send
their little ABC's back to China:

1) even if a PRC travel document is required for your kid to get into China,
   you'd better have an US passport (when you apply US passport for your kid,
   the original birth certificate of your kid will be held to issue the
   passport, so you'd better keep a copy of the birth certificate).
   The fact that your kid had a PRC travel document does not hurt her/his US
   citizenship because it is not on her/his own will to have it.  If it's a
   fault, it's not the fault of the kid.

2) keep in touch with US embassy/consulate in China, at least once a year to
   let them remember your kid--an US citizen is out there, so that they may
   provide your little ABC with support and protection in case of need when 
   your kid is in PRC.  (the kid's US passport is valid for 15 years, at 15th
   year, it must be renewed).

3) avoid signing any document which may hurt your kid's US citizenship or prove
   the kid's PRC citizenship.  e.g., don't apply for "Permanent Resident 
   Registration" (Hu-Kou).  The permanent resident registration may be used by
   someone as a proof of the acquisition of your kid's PRC citizenship.  Don't
   accept PRC Citizen Card if community office/local police station offers one.
   By the way, under current PRC regulations for urban residents, your kid does
   not need the "Permanent Resident Registration" to live with your relatives
   in any city until he applies for a Chinese college.  But you have said in 
   your question that you want your kid go to US college, so this will not
   cause problem.

It seems to get long again, I failed once more to shorten the article.

To be frank with you, I have no experience in this business at all because 
I can't "produce" my little ABC myself :-) :-).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming up information: Passport Problem: Q & A 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Part   V : Brief on Taiwan's Passport Problem
           Taiwan loosens her exit/entry/oversea-travel control to her people,
           increases the validation period of her passports, simplifies the
           procedure to renew her passports and give more flexibility to her
           official-affair/business passports bearers in recent years. 
           Taiwan's policy to issue mainlanders her passport. 

Some         How to apply to visit Hong Kong/Macao from inside/outside China? 
ideas        How will PRC passport bearers be treated when they are in West 
for          Germany, Scandinavia countries and Brazil?  how to apply visa 
subtopic:    to these countries from outside China?
             What's the procedure to apply various PRC passports in China?
             Tips on international travel as a PRC citizen.
             The skills in interview and preparing documents for visa to US.
             Apply US student visa from outside China.
             Some experience with Chinese Customs House and Frontier Station.

More         Official itemized statistics from US INS about the number of
information: J-1/J-2, F-1/F-2 and green card issued to PRC citizens in last
             three years and analysis of the statistics.
             Complete listing of US entry visa categories and their definitions
             from A through P visa.

Consulting:  Will try my best to answer/discuss/analyses questions/doubts from
             netters after Part V is posted.  (I am not going to argue with
             anyone about what's said in the series).

Note: 1. If readers are highly interested in the series, I will try to write 
         more.  As school resumes, I am extremely busy, so please allow two or 
         three weeks to deliver each of coming-up parts for better quality.

      2. Each of the coming-up parts will be posted on weekends by Rupert Zhu.
 
      3. Everybody is invited to join in and share his/her experience and
         information with readers.  Let's work together to have complete and
         exact information.

      4. Post your response here on SCC or sent it to: [email-masked]

=========================== The End of Part IV ================================