Can I Get U.S. Citizenship Through a Grandparent?

Let's say you were born outside the United States, and lived with your parents in the foreign country, but are told that you have a grandparent who was a U.S. citizen. Is there any chance that the grandparent's citizenship could pass to you?

U.S. citizenship does not pass directly from a grandparent to a grandchild. But don't stop there when looking into this matter. If your parent acquired U.S. citizenship automatically (but perhaps unknowingly) from a U.S. citizen parent (your grandparent), it is possible that you then acquired U.S. citizenship from your parent, in a two-step chain.

How Acquiring U.S. Citizenship Works

"Acquisition" of citizenship is a legal concept by which some people who were born abroad to a U.S. citizen parents automatically become U.S. citizens themselves, if certain conditions are met.

(A related legal concept called "derivation" of citizenship applies mostly to people who are already green card holders, and whose parents who were green card holders become naturalized U.S. citizens.)

Changes in Laws on Acquisition of U.S. Citizenship Over the Years

The difficult part about the laws on acquisition of citizenship is that they have changed many times over the decades. Which law applies to your parent and then to you depends on the relevant parent's date of birth as well as your own date of birth.

Let's say, for example, that your grandmother was a U.S. citizen, and gave birth to your mother in 1975. Under the laws that were in effect then, your grandmother would need to have lived in the United States for a minimum of ten years, with five of those years occurring after the age of 14, in order for her to pass citizenship to your mother. (This example assumes that your grandfather was not also a U.S. citizen—if he was, a different law applies.) Your mother would not need to have lived in the United States at all to gain citizenship from her mother—but she probably would have had to in order to pass citizenship to you, as described next.

Or let's take a situation where you were born in 1996 and your mother is indeed a U.S. citizen, but your father is not. For you to acquire citizenship from your mother, she would need to have been a U.S. resident for at least five years, with two of those years being after the age of 14.

Getting Legal Help

As you can see, gaining U.S. citizenship by grandparents is a long shot, and might depend on researching some old laws and proving more than just one person's long-term residence in the United States. You will probably want to see an experienced immigration attorney for a full personal analysis and for help in claiming a U.S. certificate of citizenship as well as a U.S. passport as proof of your acquired U.S. citizenship. (Also see Obtaining Proof of U.S. Citizenship.)