World War II Vet Learns He's Not a U.S. Citizen

[MacBean]

I had my Consular Report of Birth Abroad questioned by Immigration so that I had to apply for a Citizenship certificate. That meant my parents had to appear before a justice with evidence of every time that had left or entered the country over their lifetime. Fortunately my father kept records! And this was 20 years ago! All this because I left my passport expire unintentionally.

[Duncanofcolorado]

I too am in a peculiar situation. My father was born in Philadelphia but he and his parents returned to Scotland where he grew up. At 16 he joined the US Army in Scotland,WW II, married a German woman and they had me in Japan while stationed there during the occupation. As was stated, the key is neither of my parents had established residency in the US so when I was born I was born Stateless, born without a country. For some reason the US Gov. decided to give me a Green card and allow my parents to come to the States with me when he got transferred to Maryland. While living in N. Virginia, my wife spent a year working with the US Gov. to try to straighten out this mess. Eventually they gave up, issued me a passport and said don't ever let it expire or else. I lay low but because I do Gov. contract work, there are times I have to do a lot of explaining and so far nothing has come of it. I still have the Green Card with a picture of me at about 2 months old.

[chrisupyonder]

This kind of thing makes me mad. He laid his life on the line for us all, so they should cut out all this crap and give him his licence and his benefits. Or would these pen pushers prefer a different kind of salute.

[O'Callaghan]

I'm not a benefits expert, but I believe the money we pay into Social Security goes to pay for those people who are currently receiving retirement benefits. It's not a savings account that is in our name to be accessed for OUR retirement at a later date. Similar to the taxes we pay now that go to people on welfare, or for roads, or parks or....,. They go to fund operating costs now, not to ensure that WE get to use those things in the future.

I may not have that completely right, but I think that's the deal.

You are 100% right, but it is not equitable to pay in and get nothing out.

Non-resident aliens, that is, people who only have visas, already have to pay in and get nothing out, which is a good reason in itself to 'adjust' status, i.e. get a green card, as I am pretty sure the SSA still count contributions paid before doing so. Those illegals who pay taxes also pay in and get nothing back, although they get less sympathy.

The bill would have targetted only those who spend their working lives here on a green card without becoming US citizens, pay into social security, and wish to go home to their own country to collect it. It would have left a loophole, in that it could have been circumvented by becoming naturalised, although a US citizen may end up paying US taxes even if not in the US (it's complicated). It would have enabled the IRS to collect a few more bucks, and the SSA to pay out fewer bucks, but would have led some people to become US citizens only so they could afford to say farewell to the US, which is frankly bizarre.

[Inchessi]

He's a veteran, that should automatically qualify him for citizenship!

I also believe this. Three Marines in my unit were with us in combat. One elected not to go for US Citizenship. He had land in Mexico, and would lose it if he became a US citizen. He was working on "Naturalization." I put it in quotations, because I am not certain of two items. First, I am not sure I remember the correct term. Second, I have never had to know the difference. The other two wanted to become Citizens. I do not understand how a person can serve Honorably in the US Service, and not automatically receive citizenship. For some of the stuff we had to work with, they had to have in-depth background checks. So questions of dedication, loyalty, or nefarious dealings would have shown.

[CDNSushi]

Foreigners who serve three years in the French Foreign Legion and receive an honourable discharge qualify automatically for French citizenship. This should be treated in a similar manner.

Reference:
http://www.legion-recrute.com/en/faq.php?SM=0#f4

[McClef]

Cannot a President grant citizenship in such cases as an executive act?

I seem to recall reading that Congress may also pass an act granting someone citizenship.

It's only fair and right that anomalies such as this deserve to be quickly rectified.

[davedove]

The sad fact is that someone in an office somewhere can't just use common sense and stamp a couple freakin forms! Come on, is it that hard!!! Really? C'mon people!!!

Actually, from my experience working in the government for 25 years, the people he talked to were probably following all the rules, BLINDLY following all the rules. So, when this unusual situation came about, they weren't sure what to do, so they fell back on those same rules.

What someone should have done is bump it up the chain until it got to someone who could figure it out.

[Father Bill]

I am pretty sure the enhanced license is for travel across the border if you don't have a passport. But driving at 95, yikes is right.

I went to the 100th birthday party of a friend, retired colonel of the Hussars. I asked him if I could get him a Scotch from the bar. "Thanks, Bill," he replied, "But I've already had three and I have to sober up so I can drive home."

He didn't make it to 101, but that sounded like a good way to end the first 100.

[Mike_Oettle]

These anomalies do crop up from country to country, because of variations in the law and the way people move around.
I knew a family from England whose daughter had been born while they were on holiday in the Irish Republic. The parents had British passports, but the daughter was told (quite rudely, too) that she had to apply for an Irish passport.
I knew a family from Jersey, long resident in South Africa, in which a (relatively) newly married couple established residence in Jersey to ensure that their child would be acknowledged as a Channel Islander.
When Prince Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, prior to marrying Princess Elizabeth, and became a British subject, he was not required to take an oath of loyalty to the Crown because his service in the Royal Navy exempted him from it.
But if a foreign-born British army officer becomes a British subject (or nowadays, citizen), he is obliged to take an oath of loyalty.
(This is all based on precedent that goes back to the Civil War and before.)
In the days of apartheid, a Roman Catholic priest who was a thorn in the side of the government was deported because he was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). His parents were South African, and he had lived in South Africa for most of his life, but technically he was not a South African.
I believe he was later allowed to return.
My wife is entitled to take out a British passport on an ancestral visa, because her father was born in England.
But because my father had no British blood in him, I may not, regardless of my mother’s English and Scottish antecedents.
What makes this ironic is a story my dad used to tell about the early part of the Second World War, when he was serving in Somalia (South Africa was fighting against Italian East Africa).
He and a mate (an Afrikaner) walked across from their unit’s camp to a British unit nearby and spent a while chatting with the officer in charge. After a while the Britisher asked my dad: “Tell me, old chap, what part of England are you from?”
He was quite taken aback to be told that my dad was not English at all.
As they were walking back to their own camp, the Afrikaner said to my dad (in Afrikaans, in which my dad was fluent): “Eric, that Englishman is crazy. Can’t he hear that you’re Afrikaans?”
Regards,
Mike