Question pertaining to us citizenship acquistion

C

ColdLaura

New Member
Hello all. Am new here.
I have a little problem. I'm the daughter of a US citizen father and a Ghanaian mother. My father resided in the US prior to my birth for about 20 years, all of that after he turned fourteen. I heard I am a US citizen and can file for a passport.
Problem is, the whole time my father was married to my mum, he was not yet divorced from his American partner. Under US law, this is bigamy. Does this make my birth to be an out of wedlock case? Or is the marriage legal because it was in another country?
Also he is no longer around. He vanished after I turned fifteen- probably to chase another woman. Thanks for the answer I hope to receive.
 
ColdLaura said:
Hello all. Am new here.
I have a little problem. I'm the daughter of a US citizen father and a Ghanaian mother. My father resided in the US prior to my birth for about 20 years, all of that after he turned fourteen. I heard I am a US citizen and can file for a passport.
Problem is, the whole time my father was married to my mum, he was not yet divorced from his American partner. Under US law, this is bigamy. Does this make my birth to be an out of wedlock case? Or is the marriage legal because it was in another country?
Also he is no longer around. He vanished after I turned fifteen- probably to chase another woman. Thanks for the answer I hope to receive.
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Based on what you said. Without your father you wouldn't be able to prove anything. As far as deriving citizenship. Sorry
 
ColdLaura said:
Hello all. Am new here.
I have a little problem. I'm the daughter of a US citizen father and a Ghanaian mother. My father resided in the US prior to my birth for about 20 years, all of that after he turned fourteen. I heard I am a US citizen and can file for a passport.
Problem is, the whole time my father was married to my mum, he was not yet divorced from his American partner. Under US law, this is bigamy. Does this make my birth to be an out of wedlock case? Or is the marriage legal because it was in another country?
Also he is no longer around. He vanished after I turned fifteen- probably to chase another woman. Thanks for the answer I hope to receive.
Click to expand...

I don’t think the bigamy is a problem for your citizenship issue, births don’t have to be “legitimate” for this, but you will need to be able to prove that he is (1) your father and (2) that he met the residence requirements. If you have no contact with him, the second point may be impossible to do - as may the first, as you’d have to match the name on the birth certificate to someone.
 
SusieQQQ said:
I don’t think the bigamy is a problem for your citizenship issue, births don’t have to be “legitimate” for this, but you will need to be able to prove that he is (1) your father and (2) that he met the residence requirements. If you have no contact with him, the second point may be impossible to do - as may the first, as you’d have to match the name on the birth certificate to someone.
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The issue is that for a child born abroad, out of wedlock, to an American father, he not only needs to have met the physical presence requirement, but (assuming the OP was born after 1986) the following things also need to be met before the child turns 18: 1) the child is legitimated, paternity acknowledged by the father, or paternity determined by a competent court, and 2) the father voluntarily makes a written statement to support the child until the child turns 18 (unless the father dies before the child turns 18). So whether the OP is born in wedlock or out of wedlock would matter for determining whether these additional requirements need to be met or not.
 
@newacct, thanks for the correction. I had no idea the US would discriminate on children born in vs out of wedlock. Seems archaic. ( Item 1 I assumed that the father would be on the birth certificate in this case.)
 
@newacct in other words my birth is illegitimate? And the marriage certificate between he and my mother null and void? I have most of the documents to prove citizenship and our relationship like pictures. Letters written during my birth to family members. Photocopies of receipts used to pay for my elementary education. And power of attorneys given to my mother over bank accounts. I mean the marriage was pretty legitimate in this country, but it won't matter in the eyes of the embassy?
 
ColdLaura said:
@newacct in other words my birth is illegitimate? And the marriage certificate between he and my mother null and void? I have most of the documents to prove citizenship and our relationship like pictures. Letters written during my birth to family members. Photocopies of receipts used to pay for my elementary education. And power of attorneys given to my mother over bank accounts. I mean the marriage was pretty legitimate in this country, but it won't matter in the eyes of the embassy?
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I can't tell you the answer. This is a tricky legal question, and there doesn't seem to be any clear rules on how in wedlock/out of wedlock is defined for the purposes of this law in situations where the marriage might be polygamous.

(In fact, this issue comes up in some discussions of whether Obama would have been a US citizen if he had hypothetically been born abroad, and due to his mother's age at the time of his birth, it would hinge on whether he was born in wedlock or out of wedlock (in wedlock = not a citizen; out of wedlock = citizen), and some people argued that he was born out of wedlock because there was conflicting reports of whether his father was still married in Kenya at the time he married his mother, while other people pointed to various laws and argued that even if his parents' marriage was potentially voidable he would still be considered born legitimate. So you can see that this is a very complicated topic that is not simple to answer.)
 
newacct said:
I can't tell you the answer. This is a tricky legal question, and there doesn't seem to be any clear rules on how in wedlock/out of wedlock is defined for the purposes of this law in situations where the marriage might be polygamous.

(In fact, this issue comes up in some discussions of whether Obama would have been a US citizen if he had hypothetically been born abroad, and due to his mother's age at the time of his birth, it would hinge on whether he was born in wedlock or out of wedlock (in wedlock = not a citizen; out of wedlock = citizen), and some people argued that he was born out of wedlock because there was conflicting reports of whether his father was still married in Kenya at the time he married his mother, while other people pointed to various laws and argued that even if his parents' marriage was potentially voidable he would still be considered born legitimate. So you can see that this is a very complicated topic that is not simple to answer.)
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Alright, say I was born out of wedlock according to the "American system" and my father appeared in my school fees as a guardian. He mentioned me as his daughter in signed documents. We have photos stretching from when I was born to when I was about 13. His name is on a valid government birth certificate. And he used the address I live in with my mother to get social security, does this make me legitimate enough to get a US passport? Or its still going to be considered "illegitimate"
 
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