Citizenship for diplomat(?) child

J

jediandrew

New Member
Hello.
My case is kind of confusing. I was born in 1997 to a Pole working at the consulate in Chicago. I got a birth certificate and social security number, which I still have. Then things get tricky. In Chicago my father had a starting level job in the trade representative office which is a part of the Polish Ministry of Economics, not part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which made him by Polish standards not a diplomat, but technical staff, although he says he and my mother both had diplomatic IDs. I can get his Service Passport if there will be the need. Furthermore, he and my mother aren't in the diplomatic list for 1997 on the state. gov website .
When he tried to get me a passport in the Chicago Passport Agency in 1997 he presented his ID which stated he was a diplomat and was not allowed to get my passport. I'm assuming they wrote about it in their archives or something.
As I understand it, almost all US government agencies will say I'm a citizen since I have a Birth Certificate and a Social Security Number.
Is it in any way possible for me now, as an adult, to obtain a US passport? Will I be recognized as a citizen by the Passport Agency and will they have a record that my father tried to get a passport using his diplomatic ID? If that fails, do I have a chance to prove that my father wasn't a diplomat and get a proof of citizenship from a US court?
My aim is to legally live in the US and travel abroad as a US citizen.
Thank you.
 
Not all diplomats' children don't have US citizenship. Only children of diplomats with full diplomatic immunity don't have US citizenship. That is usually only high-level embassy staff. Other "diplomats", like consular officials, don't have full diplomatic immunity (they only have immunity for official actions, but can be prosecuted for personal actions), and their children do have US citizenship. From your description, it sounds like your father had an even lower level position and you should therefore have US citizenship.

If you are a US citizen, of course you can obtain a US passport. The State Department, which adjudicates passport applications, is also precisely the ones who know which diplomats have what kind of diplomatic immunity, so they should be able to figure it out.
 
why dont go and apply like you said as an adult and what s next...are you currently in usa?
50/50
 
newacct said:
Not all diplomats' children don't have US citizenship. Only children of diplomats with full diplomatic immunity don't have US citizenship. That is usually only high-level embassy staff. Other "diplomats", like consular officials, don't have full diplomatic immunity (they only have immunity for official actions, but can be prosecuted for personal actions), and their children do have US citizenship. From your description, it sounds like your father had an even lower level position and you should therefore have US citizenship.

If you are a US citizen, of course you can obtain a US passport. The State Department, which adjudicates passport applications, is also precisely the ones who know which diplomats have what kind of diplomatic immunity, so they should be able to figure it out.
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Thank you. It's just that I'm afraid they'll say "Look, your father gave us a diplomatic ID in 1997, therefore you're not a citizen" and I don't know how to make them understand that he, technically, wasn't. As far as I understand there is only 1 type of diplomatic ID in the US, the same for both the Ambassador and a minor secretary.
 
USC2013 said:
why dont go and apply like you said as an adult and what s next...are you currently in usa?
50/50
Click to expand...
I'm afraid they'll say I'm not a citizen because by their standards since my father had a diplomatic ID he was a diplomat, and I don't know how to prove otherwise. I was hoping to find some document with clarification online, but on the state . gov website there on the document called "7 FAM 1100 ACQUISITION AND RETENTION OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONALITY 7 FAM 1110 ACQUISITION OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP BY BIRTH IN THE UNITED STATES" which should deal with diplomat children as well, there is nothing. They should have added "7 FAM 1100 Appendix J" into it as well, which deals with diplomats, but it's been "under work" since like 2011.
So I can't find anything to help me, I guess I need to get a good US immigration lawyer.
I'm in Beijing right now because my father is on assignment here. Should return to Warsaw in September 2016, but I will still have a Chinese diplomatic visa until 2018.
 
jediandrew said:
Thank you. It's just that I'm afraid they'll say "Look, your father gave us a diplomatic ID in 1997, therefore you're not a citizen" and I don't know how to make them understand that he, technically, wasn't. As far as I understand there is only 1 type of diplomatic ID in the US, the same for both the Ambassador and a minor secretary.
Click to expand...
Look. They are not that clueless. The State Department is the people who specialize in dealing with diplomats. They deal with diplomatic legal issues involving diplomatic immunity all the time. They don't need to look at some ID (which is issued by them anyway); they know exactly who was what kind of diplomat when. They keep track of that stuff. If a passport adjudicator runs into an unusual case, they will contact someone in the department who knows this stuff. And at the end of the day if they deny it in error there are ways to appeal it because citizenship is a matter of law.
 
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