[Rhodes22-list] Legal: Ben Please Help

[ben]

Yeah, I can see where that would happen.  We're in the process of getting
Louisiana to issue my son a birth certificate for just that reason.  In
fairness to the rude lady, you might have also given her a translation.
Maybe she would have gone for that, maybe not.  But of course, you were
young and didn't know to expect nothing but the laziest attempts to serve
from your civil servants.

By the way, don't confuse my response from Ben C.  He knows what he's
talking about.  I'm guided by experience and a wet finger held up in the
wind.  I'm not sure what was supposed to be settled or what the "threats to
sue" is all about, but I haven't been reading all of your political banter
either.  

Ben S.



-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Herb Parsons
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 17:18
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Legal: Ben Please Help

Wow. In my mind, this whole thing was "settled" a long time ago. Now I'm 
curious.

A funny story about this though. When I went to get my marriage license 
back in '79, I took my birth certificate to the county registrar. She 
looked at it, and the conversation with something like this:

She-Is this your birth certificate
Me-Yes ma'm (I was only 22, much more polite at the time)
She-It's in German
Me-Yes ma'am, I was born in Germany
She-But I can't read it.
Me-I'm sorry, but it's the only one I have. It was a German hospital, 
that's what they spoke
She-I can't accept this
Me-Beg pardon?
She-I can't accept this.
Me-What do you mean you can't accept this?
She-I can't accept this. I can't read it.
Me-But ma'am, you can see where it has my name, you can see the word 
Amerikanischer, you can see how the date matches this other form I have 
- Report of Live Birth Abroad. THAT's in English
She-Yes, but the birth certificate is not (I think that being 22 and 
still polite aside, had she said "alleged birth certificate" I might 
have hit her by this time)
Me-Ma'am, this is my birth certificate. It is the only one I have. If I 
ever managed to get another one, it too would be in German, because I 
was born in Germany. The notion of being "born again" is purely a 
metaphor, I can't really do it. So, if you would, please go get your 
supervisor, so I can get my marriage certificate.

She did, and the supervisor looked at her like she was crazy. But it did 
have me frustrated. I worked at a car dealership at that time, and was 
so ticked at the lady that I backed my demo into a pole. Cost me $250 
that I couldn't afford.

Anyway, probably not nearly as interesting as tossing around threats to 
sue, but it DID have something to do with not being able to read what's 
written, so I thought it remotely applicable.


ben wrote:
> I don't know the legal ins and outs, but you can definitely hold more than
> one citizenship.  A neighbor and friend of mine is a citizen of both the
> United States and Great Britain.  She's a Brit by birth, and you know that
> as soon as you talk to her, but she's also an American citizen, holding
all
> of the rights that I do, other than that I can be President of the U.S.
> (Well, there are too many naked or otherwise compromising pictures of me
out
> there for that to actually happen.  There's a better chance that there's a
> constitutional amendment and she gets elected than me ever holding any
> public office).
>
> My son too holds both Russian and U.S. citizenship.  He has passports from
> both countries.  And if it's allowed with Russians, I feel pretty certain
> that it's allowed with Germans as well.  But laws change, so the "when"
> might have something to do with it.  And maybe rules are different if you
> were born here and chose to attain citizenship of another country.  Not
sure
> on that case.
>
> Ben S.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
> [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Herb Parsons
> Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 16:48
> To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Legal: Ben Please Help
>
> 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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