merchant
Number of posts : 83
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Registration date : 2009-02-23
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 Subject: Pinoy kid becomes first-ever US citizen outside America Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:49 pm |
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03/02/2009 | 09:46 PM
CHICAGO - Seven -year-old Martin Miles Ulsano has never set foot in United States soil. But he gained the distinction last Friday (Feb. 27) of being the first child ever to become a US citizen in a country outside America.
Martin was born in Japan to Eugeline and Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Caesar Ulsano, a native of the Philippines, who became a naturalized citizen in 2004 in Hawaii.
Martin became a US citizen after reciting the Oath of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony held in the Chapel of Hope at the Yokosuka Naval Station in Japan.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) said Martin led 62 active duty service members and nine military spouses stationed in the Pacific, who also became new citizens during the naturalization ceremony in the US Naval Station in Yokosuka, a city 65 kilometers south of Tokyo and 30 kilometers from Yokohama.
Ulsano became the first beneficiary of the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2008 signed by President George W. Bush that permits children of US service members to receive their citizenship overseas where their parent is stationed even though the child may never have been in the United States.
Previous immigration laws required these children to be physically present within the United States to naturalize.
The new law that amended Section 322 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which provides for naturalization of minor children of U.S. Citizens residing abroad.
The general conditions are that at least one parent is a U.S. citizen; that the child is younger than age 18; and resides abroad in the physical and legal custody of that parent; and the parent has been physically present in the United States for a certain period of time.
The beneficiary children must accompany their U.S. Citizen members of the military who are abroad on official orders. These children do not have to have a lawful admission in the US and the US Citizen parent members of the U.S. Armed Forces may count any period of time he has resided abroad on official orders as physical presence in the United States.
Eligible for this benefit are biological or adopted children of the U.S. citizen members of the US Armed Forces. Step-children are not qualified to enjoy this benefit.
With the closing of Subic Naval Base in the Philippines in the early nineties, The Fleet and Industrial Supply Center (FISC) in Yokosuka has taken on additional responsibilities and is now the U. S. Navy's largest supply facility in the Western Pacific.
“The successful first naturalization of a child overseas reflects the exemplary work of US Citizenship and Immigration Services employees in Korea and the military unit at our Nebraska Service Center," said Mike Aytes, USCIS Acting Deputy Director on their website.
"This also reflects the great teamwork between USCIS’ domestic and international operations divisions," he added.
Aside from Martin, the new American citizens came from different countries. Some hailed from China, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, France, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Romania, and Vietnam. - JOSEPH G. LARIOSA, GMANews.TV
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