Hello, and thank you in advance. I am Ryan, a natural born US citizen and my wife to be is Rosie. We live in southern California. We want to move to the Philippines and buy a house there soon. She was born in the Philippines prior to 1973 if that is relevant. Her mother is a naturally born Filipino and she has recently been successful in acquiring her dual citizenship. Now, Rosie's father was born in the Philippines and is Filipino but his father used to work at Clark and acquired US citizenship which he passed to Rosie's dad when he was born and as such, is stated on his birth certificate. When Rosie was born, they stated on her birth certificate that she was given American nationality in hopes that it would help her move to the US more easily. Rosie and her family moved to the US in 1991 and they have been living here since. Rosie also had to go through the naturalization process once they immigrated here for some reason.
Recently, Rosie and her dad went to the PI embassy in Los Angeles to file for their dual citizenship. They were both denied based on the fact that they were born US citizens according to their birth certificates. I am having such a difficult time finding information about this certain circumstance and a thread search revealed similar situations but not what action was taken or the results produced. They were told by the official at the immigration office to take the matter up in the Philippines where it would be easier for them to address this problem. Can the decisions be contested? There seems to be so many grey areas involved with Philippines citizenship issues that it is so difficult to know where to start. The facts are, that Rosie was born in the Philippines, was raised in the Philippines, is Filipno, is fluent in two dialects, has family there, was born to a natural Filipino mother, has extensive friends and family still living there and has an interest to live and retire there. With these insignificant complications and through Jus Sanguinis, why can she not be qualified for dual citizenship? I know I am forgetting some details, but I would love to receive any help from anyone knowledgeable to discuss this. We are convinced that we want to live there. What should we do?
Dual Citizenship complications
@Rose&Ryan
I don't work for the Philippine Embassy. So, I can't say what will happen if you contest their decision. My son was in the same situation as Rosie, but he got approved for dual citizenship. I would like to share our experience at the Philippine Consulate in SF.
I'm Filipino, born and raised in the Philippines. My family are green card holders. I became eligible for US citizenship, and renounced my Philippine citizenship in 2001. Then I met my American (California-born and raised) husband. A few years later, I gave birth in San Francisco, CA to our son.
We decided to move to the Philippines in 2008. Before moving, I applied for dual citizenship for me. My husband applied for a non-quota immigrant visa. The consulate suggested that I apply for dual citizenship for my son, who was less than a year old, which I did. We all got approved for what we applied in less than a month's time.
If you think about it, my son was "less Filipino" than Rosie when I applied for his dual citizenship. He was born in the US, whereas Rosie was born here. (Now, I'm starting to think that there might have been some oversight in SF with our son's approval.) The difference in their applications: their age (<1 year vs adult), where they applied (SF vs LA), with whom they applied / brought along (dual citizenship mom vs US citizen dad), and when they applied (back in 2008, when RA 9225 was fairly new, vs recently).
Anyways, thank you for this post. You gave me the idea of looking into whether I should formally apply for dual citizenship for our daughter. She was born here in the Philippines. We reported her birth at the US Embassy here. My husband is American, I'm already dual citizen. So, I'm assuming my daughter is automatically a dual citizen. But maybe I'm mistaken.
Good luck and hoping for the best for you and your wife-to-be Rosie.
Hello! I am Ester from California, now vacationing in the Philippines. Your wife has the same situation as my sister-in-law. She and her siblings were born in the Philippines. Their father was a US Guerrilla during WWII when he was single and US government awarded them US citizenship. So children fathered by him became US citizen as well though they were born in the Philippines.
So she cannot get a dual citizen from the because she was an American born outside the US (with an American father). So she can apply for Philippine Naturalization and probably get a dual citizen from the US. Does it sound right? Or if her mother was a Filipino citizen when she was born, then I guess she can apply for her mother's as Philippine Natural born citizen.
I hope I gave you a little bit of info. Go to Phillippine Embassy website, and it may give you an insight. Goodluck!
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