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My mother was born in England 1964 and immigrated to the US in 1970 and is a Permanent resident alien. My father was born in France in 1960 to Italian parents, immigrated to US in 1970. My father became a US naturalized citizen when he turned 18. My mother has not become a US citizen; she is still a permanent resident. I was born in 87 in the US. Can I get my UK and French citizenship and passports?

Martin Bonner supports Monica
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Julie
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    You are probably a British citizen. I'm not sure about French nationality law in 1960, but under the current law your father would not have been a French citizen. He was an Italian citizen, though. However, his naturalization may have caused him to lose his Italian citizenship. Did your father ever have a French or Italian passport? – phoog Dec 11 '18 at 05:19
  • You should be eligible for Italian citizenship through your grandfather as, when your father was born, your grandfather was an Italian citizen (and your father is entitled to Italian citizenship, as well). – Giorgio Dec 11 '18 at 15:38
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    @Giorgio: I am not 100% sure about Italian citizenship. OP mentioned that her father became a naturalized US citizen at the age of 18. So that would mean that she would have had to been born before her father turned 18 and became a US citizen by naturalization to qualify (per this link, category 1: https://ambwashingtondc.esteri.it/ambasciata_washington/en/informazioni_e_servizi/cittadinanza-jure-sanguinis.html).

    As for the French citizenship of her father, since he left 10 years after birth (and thus, before he turned 16), I don't think he would have been eligible for French citizenship.

     – ar5975 Dec 11 '18 at 16:04
  • @phoog I went through the process: my grandfather, in the US from the age of 4, was still an Italian citizen when my father was born (and my grandfather later naturalized). There are a lot of hoops: birth, marriage,death certificates of patralineal grandparents and my parents and my certificates, all translated into Italian. This is not the official site, but My Italian Family is a handy guide. – Giorgio Dec 11 '18 at 16:14
  • @Giorgio, it was me who responded to you, not phoog :) the main difference between you and the OP is that your father was born in the US to an Italian citizen (thus automatic dual citizen at birth - jus solis for the US, and jus sanguinis for the Italian). Based on what the OP said, her father was born in France to An Italian father, then naturalized as a US citize at 18. Therefore, the father renounced Italian citizenship as a result. However I do believe she would qualify to be a British citizen. – ar5975 Dec 11 '18 at 18:03
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    @Giorgio Italian nationality law formerly provided that naturalization in another country caused loss of Italian citizenship. The fact that you're father did that after your birth while OP's father did it before is probably the critical difference between your cases. – phoog Dec 12 '18 at 03:27
  • @phoog actually the sequence was that my grandfather naturalized after the birth of my US born/citiizen father (who never claimed Italian citizenship); Italy recognized me b/c my grandfather was still an Italian citizen at the time of my father's birth. Mind you, it tooks a multitude of documents. Even though OP's father was born in France, he wasn't a French citizen, was he? His parents were still Italian citizens and, as such, wouldn't her father have been recognized as Italian, as well (although he later became a US citizen)? – Giorgio Dec 12 '18 at 03:59
  • @Giorgio OP's father was probably Italian, but being naturalized in the US would have caused him to lose Italian citizenship, and because that happened before her birth she would not be Italian. Your Italian citizenship seems to depend on the fact that your grandfather naturalized after your father's birth and your father did not naturalize before your birth (since he was, I presume, born in the US). – phoog Dec 12 '18 at 04:08
  • @Giorgio: indeed, the key thing for the Italian jure sanguinis procedure is that at no point should there have been a naturalization process / renunciation of Italian citizenship which would have "broken the line" of citizenship. In your case (as phoog mentioned), the line wasn't "broken" since your faher had US citizenship by virtue of being born in the US and got Italian citizenship "by blood" from your grandfather (even if he didn't "claim" it). In OP's case, the line was broken when her father got naturalized as US citizen, which led to the automatic renunciation of Italian citizenship. – ar5975 Dec 12 '18 at 07:42

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@Julie, following the discussion in the comments, I am answering based on the information you provided:

  1. [Credit to @phoog for this] Based on what you said (that your mother remains a British citizen with a US green card), you should qualify for British citizenship by descent.

  2. Your father did not qualify for French citizenship when he left France, even though he was born in France in 1960, since he did not fulfill the conditions to be French (as a foreigner born in France to foreigners), which were (aside from being born in France):

    • be living France at the age of 16 until the age of 21
    • had been living in France for 5 years prior to the age of 16.

This is according to the now defunct French code de la nationalité (which was in force between 1945 and 1993).

If there is additional information that you did not mention in your post (e.g. your Italian grandparents had actually acquired French citizenship prior to your father being born, etc. please edit your post...as that would change my answer a bit.

  1. You do not qualify for Italian citizenship through your father by virtue of the Italian jure sanguinis procedure either since (and I'm repeating my comment): the "line of citizenship" was broken when your father got naturalized as a US citizen at the age of 18 (so 1978), which led to the automatic renunciation of his Italian citizenship. Thus, I do not think that you qualify to be an Italian citizen.

Check out this post for more info: Can I obtain Italian citizenship through my grandfather?

ar5975
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