90 year old finds out she's not a citizen

[Jackolantern]

She moved to the US as a child, and thought she was a US citizen until asked for proof when she was applying for government benefits in 1999. She had a Social Security card, but never had a driver's license or passport or physical green card, and didn't know if any of her parents obtained US citizenship. After years of investigation and digging through various archives in the US and Ireland (where she was born) it was determined that she was admitted as a permanent resident in 1923, when she was 18 months old. She was issued a green card last year (with "residence since" Nov. 1923), and recently applied for citizenship.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ant-20121225_1_public-aid-blue-eyes-immigrant

It puzzles me how some people choose to live their whole lives so document-less even though they're legal.

 

[WBH]

It puzzles me how some people choose to live their whole lives so document-less even though they're legal.

Many children immigrants are just that clueless as they grow up. If their parents do not advise them, they will not have such a concept. In school teachers don't make such disticntions.