Guardian in another country?

[hanflan]

I'm not even sure if this is the right place to ask this, so sorry if it's not!
Our first baby is due in February and so we need to think about who we would ask to be the guardian should anything happen to us. I would ideally choose my sister, who lives in the USA (she is now a citizen rather than just a resident). If she became guardian of my child, would the child automatically get residency/citizenship? Or is it a lot more complicated than this?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

No, I don't think they would get residency/citizenship immediately. No doubt some obscure visa category though, and residency after a certain amount of time. Our kids' guardians are in the US as well. They looked into the immigration issues when we first asked them. It wasn't problematic but looked as if it might be quite time consuming!

[hanflan]

Thanks for your reply. So it's complicated, but it can be done? I'm not going to risk having my child not allowed to stay in the US or anything like that?!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

It can almost certainly be done, but if you're worried, ask your sister to contact an American lawyer.