DNA Testing for Immigration General Information:

Establishing a biological and legal family relationships for Immigration, United States Citizenship and Passports for the INS, USCIS, or US Department of Homeland Security

Reasons for DNA Testing: During the immigration process when an Petitioner is sponsoring a Beneficiary, applicants are free to submit any evidence they believe pertinent to prove a biological family relationship. However, in some cases, the Government rules that the evidence that has been presented in not official enough to be deemed, satisfactory, original or true. For instance: children cannot be confirmed as the biological offspring; a birth certificate may contain errors or was created after the date of birth; perhaps it cannot be established through documentation if a spouse is the true spouse or a sibling of that individual; etc.

In order to establish a true biological relationship between a petitioner and beneficiary, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires that a blood relationship exist between those parties. Volume 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 51.40 provides that the burden of proof is upon the applicant to establish a claim to U.S. citizenship. When primary and secondary documentary evidence are deemed insufficient to establish such a claim, parentage blood testing, or DNA Testing, is an option available to applicants.

In the cases where children are born out of wedlock, the DNA test establishes the true biological parental relationship, the Department of State would expedite issuance of a consular Report of Birth of a U.S. Citizen Abroad and a U.S. passport, provided applicable requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act concerning birth out of wedlock and establishment of a legal relationship (acknowledgment of paternity and legitimization prior to the child's 18th birthday) have been met.