Derived citizenship trough grandparents.

F

fesb

New Member
Hello: Greetings from Venezuela
Excuse me if I bother you, but I have a question about a derived citizenship that maybe you could answer me. My grandfather was born in West Indies in 1890 and fought in the WWI. He got the American citizenship on 1921. Actually I´m 48 years old (Venezuelan citizen), married and I have a 15 years old son. My father (dead) was a Venezuelan citizen too (1944 -2008) he didn´t claim the american citizanship. Is it possible for me to obtain the American citizenship on my grandparent´s behalf?

Thanks so much in advance, I wish you could please help me to solve this doubt.
 
Unless your father was in the US for a long time, the answer is definitely no. Your father may have been a US citizen from birth, but even if he was he couldn't have passed it onto you at birth.

In order to transmit US citizenship to a child born abroad, the US-citizen parent(s) must meet certain residency requirements at the time of the child's birth. For someone born in wedlock between 1952 and 1986 (as you were) to one US-citizen parent and one alien parent (you did not mention your mother so I'm assuming your mother was not a US citizen; if she was it would be different), the condition was that the US-citizen parent was physically present in the US for a cumulative total of 10 years before the child was born, including 5 years after turning 14. So unless your father was physically present in the US for a total of 10 years before your birth, you couldn't have gotten citizenship even if your dad was a citizen.

(P.S. the correct term to describe automatic citizenship at birth abroad by descent is actually "acquired citizenship"; "derived citizenship" refers to citizenship gotten after birth by a child living in the US with a US citizen parent.)
 
Thank you so much for your answer. Excuse me, but I have another question. As I wrote, my grandparent was a WWI veteran. Isn´t it an exemption to the rule of requirement time because of it? On the other hand my son is a 15 years old. Could he get the “acquired citizenship" on his great grandfather´s behalf?

This man says that it is possible.
or it is what I understood

What do you think?

Thanks again.
 
Your grandfather's history is irrelevant -- your grandfather's history matters for your father's citizenship, and we are already assuming here that your father was a citizen. But it's your father's history, nor your grandfather's, that matters for your citizenship if your father was a citizen.

When people talking about getting citizenship "through grandparents", they are talking about the special naturalization process under INA 322, which only became available in 1995, where if your parent is a US citizen, but didn't pass citizenship onto you, then while you are under 18, you could apply for this special naturalization process if your US-citizen parent now has 5 years of physical presence in the US (based on time up until now instead of up until you were born), or if your US-citizen parent's parent (your grandparent) has 5 years of physical presence in the US. This entire process must be completed before you turn 18 (you must enter the US legally and take the oath) for it to count. You didn't apply for any such thing before you were 18, so it is moot, and in fact you were never under 18 after 1995, so this process was never available to you anyway.
 
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