Girlfriend living illegally in UK want to bring to US

[tboynt]

I have a girlfriend who is living in the UK undocumented. She has a passport from Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Africa. She came to UK four years ago without refugee status but the border control let her into the UK because of the civil war in Cote d'Ivoire. Since, she has had a son with a British citizen, who refuses to give her the necessary papers (birth certificate) to allow her son to get a UK passport. In short, she is kind of in immigration purgatory.

I am an American citizen by birth and have a US passport. I am interested in bringing her to the US on a K3 visa and her son on a K4 visa. I have a few questions:

1) In this scenario, is the K3/K4 Visa the fastest way to get her and her son to the US to live with me?
2) Since she does not have a British passport, did not get an entry clearance, and does not have her "right to abode" in the UK, do we apply for her Visa at the US Embassy in the London or in Abidjan, Ivory Coast?
3) Will the US allow someone to apply for a K visa who is living undocumented in a country other than what their passport indicates?

Thanks in advance!

[John]

she has had a son with a British citizen, who refuses to give her the necessary papers (birth certificate) to allow her son to get a UK passport.

The child's birth certificate, does it name the father as well as the mother?

If it does name the father, does the mother know enough detail about the father? That is, does she know his date of birth and where he was born? If she does then she can get a copy of his birth certificate.

And as it might be relevant, when was the child born?

I am presuming the mother and the father of the child are not married. Is that correct?

[Administrator]

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You need to resolve the citizenship of the child. There will be nothing but difficulty throughout the childs life if this is not properly documented.

If the child was born in the UK, the mother has rights and legal recourse to get him documented as a UK citizen and obtain his UK passport. I am not certain about this, but it seems that she cannot be summarily deported if she is trying to get the childs citizenship clarified and documented.

Look into that aspect carefully. Given her circumstances, there may be assistance available to help her.

MAYBE.

Her current illegal status makes it very difficult. The U.S. is not going to make it easy for someone residing illegally in another country to come into the U.S. Worse, if the child has no official citizenship of record, the difficulty level will dramatically increase.

If she attempts to immigrate from the Ivory Coast, I'll assume she can pretend she was never in the UK ... a smallish white lie that could be constructed carefully.

However, if she wants to bring the child, how will she prove the childs citizenship ...? She won't be able to claim he is British.

Given the story you have told, there should be some options, but you guys are going to have to tread very diplomatically and with an ironclad story all the way.

The Admin