By Steve Trow
Attorney / Owner / Founder
Trow & Rahal, P.C.

Imagine that your foreign-born client has been an American citizen since birth — but does not know it. Perhaps the client tells you one of his parents was American, but he is not. Or he used to be an American citizen, but he lost that citizenship when he became a citizen of another country. Or the client’s parent or grandparent was an American citizen and lost that citizenship before the client was born.

Your client may be certain he is right, but he could be wrong. Unless the client has a Certificate of Loss of Nationality issued by the U.S. Department of State, you should consider the possibility that the client is an American citizen.

Perhaps your client lived in the United States with his parents when he was a child and held lawful permanent-resident (green card) status. He never applied for American citizenship and he left the United States many years ago. Your client may be an American citizen if one or both parents obtained American citizenship, without any further action by the client or his parents. His children and grandchildren may also be American citizens.

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By Steve Trow
Attorney / Owner / Founder
Trow & Rahal, P.C.

Getting a green card can be a long and frustrating journey for many applicants. Most will need a sponsor – a U.S. employer with a full-time job offer or a close family member who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Most job-based applicants will need labor certification – an arduous process to prove that there are no U.S. workers who can do the job. Labor certification takes one to three years, and in the current job market the outcome is highly uncertain.

There is a limited annual supply of green cards, with long backlogs for many applicants – six to eight years for skilled workers and professionals, five to eight years for adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, and nine years for brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens. Fortunately, there is a way to get a green card that does not require a sponsor or labor certification and can be completed in about a year — the EB-5 visa for immigrant investors.

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This article is the first in a series directed at high net worth clients and their professional advisors – accountants, attorneys, bankers, financial planners and trust officers. The focus of these articles is the intersection of U.S. immigration law and U.S. tax law. This can be a dangerous intersection, where clients who are looking in one direction can get run over by something coming from the other direction.

Understanding the issue: Unlike many immigration attorneys, we have decades of experience crafting creative immigration plans for high net worth clients. U.S. immigration planning for high net worth clients is challenging because immigration lawyers and tax advisors often have different perspectives. Immigration lawyers generally think that getting U.S. permanent resident (green card) status is good; tax advisors warn clients that the price of a green card is U.S. taxation of their worldwide income.

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