If you’re adopted internationally into the United States, BY adoption LAWS you’re legally a citizen, but you still have to apply for documentation and if it’s not done by the age of 18 you have to pay over $500 and get a judge to reopen your adoption case. 

Even More Fun Fact: No one actually tells adoptive families, this so many find out after they’re 18 when their kid needs to get a passport, wants to apply for financial aid, get certain jobs, vote or some other shit that requires proof of citizenship and now it’s too late because they’re 18 or over. 

AND EVEN MORE FUN FACT! You can sometimes even be deported because you can be considered foreign-born, non-citizens! 

Oh and they won’t accept adoption papers or a birth certificate as proof. 

Many people are finding that even a birth certificate is not valid proof anymore. Texas birth certificates are notorious. So notorious that I have 3 friends who can’t use them to get passports! Don’t think everything is hunky dory. You must nail down your citizenship.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/filling-out-form-n-600-application-certificate-citizenship.html

Also! It takes up to 12 months to get a replacement certificate. If you urgently need your Natz Cert to visit your dying relative in another country, the word you want to use is ‘Expedite’. Not ‘ASAP’. Not ‘rush’. Expedite. Write a letter explaining why you need it expedited, if you do. Otherwise the USCIS data-entry grunts (me!) aren’t allowed to throw it into the expedite line and it gets relegated to the Backlog Crypts. 

Also! You need to get a new Naturalization Certificate if your name and/or gender legally changes, because a lot of places want your proof of citizenship for things like Social Security and student loans and Medicaid/EBT/welfare benefits and drivers’ licenses. 

ALSO ALSO both the N600 ($600) that you use to apply for your Naturalization Certificate in the first place and N565 ($345) that you use to apply for a replacement certificate are eligible for FEE WAIVERS. It’s called an I912. Learn it, love it, use it. 

Be careful who you have unprotected sex with.

Be careful who you vent to.

Be careful of how you use the word ‘love.’

Know when to let that shit go.

Be careful who you speak to about your finances. 

Calm down before making decisions in anger.

Some bridges need to be burned.

Know the difference between like, lust and love.

Trust your gut.

Write it down; you’re not gonna remember.

Find an outlet for your stress/anxiety. Run, yoga, drink/smoke in moderation, write, meditate. find something that works for you.

Once it’s on the internet, it’s nachos anymore.

Stop trying to please everyone. It is impossible. Someone will be offended. Someone will be unsatisfied. 

Drink more fucking water. 

Memorize important numbers by heart. Your phone may not always be available.

Love yourself. Learn to if you do not know how. If you put yourself first in all that you do, it will come to you soon. 

Stop caring so much about what people will think and say. Because fuck em. 

Stop lurking through his/her shit. Mind your got damn business and live.

Try to be considerate of how your actions or lack of can affect others. You never know what people may have going on. The inconvenience can cost time, energy and money.

Communication kills assumptions.

Cum often.