Derivative Citizenship - Great Granny was born in the US....Grandparent and Parent

C

corrieann

New Member
Hi everyone, just wanted to find out whether it is possible to apply for a US passport for anyone of us in the family. A bit of a sticky one, I think.

Thank you in advance!!

Great Great Granny Y was a US citizen by birth, born in 1865 in San Francisco, and lived in the US for at least half her life... So was her daughter Great Grandma A was a US citizen by birth, born 1894 in San Francisco.
Great Granny A married my Great Grandad B, a Filipino and by law Grandma A may have (unintentionally) lost her US Citizenship because she married a foreigner or could she have passed on her US citizenship to her son (my grandad C)????
Grandma A lived in the US until she was at least about 20 years old, prior to getting married and settling in the Philippines in 1915. She gave birth to my Grandad C in the Philippines in 1919. The Philippines was a US possession until about 1946.

Grandad C was born in 1920, in the Philippines- a US possession until about 1946. He already passed away.
Could he have been a US citizen by birth?
Does he meet the residence requirement, with the Philippines being part of the US during his younger years?
Could he have passed on his US Citizenship to my dad?

Dad was born in 1950, in the Philippines.
He worked/visited the US for about 2 years in total over his entire lifetime.
Could he have been a US citizen by birth?
Would he need to pass the residence requirement?

I was born in 1983. I have 2 kids under the age of 18, born out of wedlock.
Could I apply for US citizenship?
Can I pass on US citizenship to my kids?

**Evidence of both my grannies birth in the US:
- No birth cert can be retrieved because it was destroyed in the great San Fran earthquake of 1905
- Two official US Passport Application forms (available on Ancestry.com) with photos, lots of info and all have her info there. As well as photos of her - Granny A and Grandad C-- back then kids were included in the application
These docs are even witnessed by the consul himself (as shown on the application) that he knew Great Granny A and her family for 10 years
- Great Great Granny Y's US passport application with all her details. (Ancestry.com) as well as US Census showing she lived in the US half of her life.

Looking forward to reading everyone's inputs. Thanks again!!!
 
Have you read the actual official details on this? You should be able to figure it out from there to see if any of you qualify, but my brief reading (you have too many ancestors in there for me to try sift through everything, sorry) is that the chain got broken somewhere between your grandad and your dad. (You would need to find out what the actual law was at that time to be sure about what may or may not have happened in this regard.)
Note that the US doesn’t really have “hereditary” citizenship, but allows CRBA/naturalization paths for purposes of family reunification in the US, hence the requirements for people to actually live in the US for the required amounts of time to be able to pass on citizenship to their children.

Official links, the second link has all the details
https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-parents
https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume12-PartH.html
 
Thanks for taking time to reply back. I have read a few information on the situation - but it is not as straightforward (or I think it isn't).. Do you think INA 322 would apply to my Grandpa and Dad?
 
corrieann said:
Thanks for taking time to reply back. I have read a few information on the situation - but it is not as straightforward (or I think it isn't).. Do you think INA 322 would apply to my Grandpa and Dad?
Click to expand...

Like I said, you’d need to find out what the law at the time was, on what you’ve posted and on current law your grandfather did not meet the residence requirement to pass on citizenship to your father, who certainly did not meet it to pass it to you. I must be honest I don’t fully know how the law would interpret the status of the Philippines as a US territory back then wrt to your grandfather, however, I have to assume that if it was sufficient then there would be many Filipinos claiming US nationality on this basis and you’d be able to find that info quite easily. Even if that’s the case though (and I don’t think it is but that’s not a properly informed opinion), with your father being born after 1946 and only spending 2 years in the US, the chain has been broken for passing on to you.
 
C R S said:
Check out https://www.quora.com/Can-a-person-...re-1946-claim-American-or-Spanish-citizenship
Click to expand...

Interesting, if that’s accurate then the grandfather - IF he was a national to start with which he may not have been - would presumably have renounced any US nationality before the father was born, given that he stayed in the Philippines. Either way, the father either was not a US citizen to begin with, or if he somehow still derived it from the grandfather he was not able to pass it on to the OP because he did not spend the requisite amount of time in the US.
 
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