[Rhodes22-list] Legal: Ben Please Help

[Herb Parsons]

Ouch....
I said '86. I meant '76. I WISH '86 was my first....


Herb Parsons wrote:
> I think that the whole "dual citizenship" thing is misunderstood by many.
>
> When I turned 18, I was sent documentation asking me to claim a country 
> for my citizenship (I can't really remember the details, they weren't 
> very important to me at the time). I was born to American parents, both 
> legal adults (at the time, 21 was the age of majority), one of whom was 
> stationed on an American Army base, but I was actually born in a 
> civilian hospital.Seeing as how I left Germany at the ripe old age of 13 
> months, when I was 18 it seemed to make sense to me to claim American as 
> my citizenship (I really wanted to vote in the next election, in '86). I 
> DID toy with the idea, for a few brief moments, of claiming German 
> citizenship, just for the notoriety (I was 18, single, and realized that 
> almost ANY "difference" could get you talking to a girl), but even at 
> that young age, I figured the pitfalls outweighed the benefits (but 
> then, who knows for sure?).
>
> I was then under the impression that one could not have dual citizenship 
> if one of the countries was the US. I've since though, have had several 
> people tell me that they had a similar experience, and others insist 
> that they hold dual citizenship. I've not seen any consistency in the 
> other countries involved, in other words, I couldn't confidently say you 
> CAN hold dual citizenship with the US and Canada, but not with the US 
> and Germany, as I've seen claims both ways.
>
> I'd say that it would be interesting to hear from an immigration lawyer 
> on it sometime.
>
>
> Bill Effros wrote:
>   
>> Ben,
>>
>> My mother was born in NYC in 1917 to Dutch parents with a business in 
>> the United States.  After WWI she went to Holland with her parents, and 
>> enjoyed the benefits of Dutch citizenship.
>>
>> In 1938, before her 21st birthday, her parents arranged for her to 
>> return to the United States to claim her American Citizenship, which she 
>> would otherwise have  lost, owing to her exercise of Dutch Citizenship.  
>> She traveled to the United States on a US Passport, and remained here as 
>> a United States citizen.
>>
>> It was my understanding that she was not eligible to run for President 
>> of the United States because she was a Dutch citizen as a child and had 
>> to reclaim her American citizenship, and thus became a "naturalized" 
>> rather than "native born" citizen.
>>
>> Do I have this wrong?  Is there still a chance for my mother to become 
>> President?
>>
>> Bill Effros
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>   
>>     
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