US Citizenship Status
Meaghan Elizabeth FuLing

The last "paperwork" step involved in a foreign adoption is getting your child recognized as a US Citizen.  Meaghan is currently a Chinese citizen here as a Resident Alien with a Green Card.  

Hopefully, soon this will be an unnecessary step in the process as these is legislation being considered to allow the child to be automatically deemed a US Citizen upon adoption finalization by virtue of being adopted by a US citizen.

PLEASE - Write your US senators and congress person in support of this legislation.

Meaghan with our Congressman, Vern Ehlers

Meaghan is a US citizen!

-----

Meaghan will be a US Citizen on 12/13/99.  We will be traveling to Port Huron, MI for the event!

-------

INS cashed the check on 7/13/99 which might mean her citizenship appointment will be around her 2nd birthday!

----------

Application for US Citizenship paper work filed with the INS 5/1/99 exactly 2 years from the day that I filled out the first adoption application 5/1/97

I filed the papers for Meaghan's US citizenship on May 1, 1999.  Prior to doing this we had to accomplish the following steps:

• At the US Embassy in Guangzhou, PRC, Yang Fu Ling was granted a US visa which allowed us to cross into the US with her.

• Upon entry in Detroit, MI Yang Fu Ling began the process for receiving her Green Card.

• While waiting for the Green Card, Yang Fu Ling's name was official changed to Meaghan Elizabeth FuLing Gietzen by filing with the Kent County Juvenile Court for a Delayed Registration of Foreign Birth.  She now has a birth certificate from Kent County, Michigan, USA

• After which we took all that paperwork to the Social Security Administration and she was issued a Social Security Number in the Name: Meaghan Elizabeth FuLing Gietzen...by the way, in that process is where she lost the space between Fu and Ling...it did not fit in the computer.

• The Green Card arrived in the name of Yang Fu Ling!

OK...now we could file for US Citizenship with her new name!