[dennmark]

I was admitted to USA as permanent resident when I was 14 years old through my mother, a US citizen. I never applied for US citizenship during that time but instead applied for it recently. I am 31 years old. I submitted all the documents needed and after few months I was called for interview, I passed and was told to wait for my oath taking. During my interview I brought with me my mother's naturalization certificate.When the consul saw it, he said.. wait a minute, maybe you are already a citizen and you can't be issued citizenship twice. He told me to provide more documentations to prove otherwise.The office is asking for my parents marriage certificate which I can't provide since my mother was not married to my father (who is now deceased by the way). I am illegitimate. As proof of custody, the office also asked for school transcript of records. This showed my aunt (my mom's sister) as the guardian because I felt comfortable to be in the same school where my cousin (my aunt's son) went being new to America. Would these complicate my situation? Am I automatically a US citizen? Please help me. Thank you. mr. confused.

[newacct]

If you are 31 now, then you must have been over 18 on February 27, 2001, the effective date of the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. So you could not have gotten U.S. citizenship through the CCA.

The only other way you could be a U.S. citizen now is if you had U.S. citizenship at birth through your parents. This must be what they are talking about. Was your mother a U.S. citizen when you were born? Your father?

Assuming your mother was a U.S. citizen when you were born, and your father wasn't, and as you say you were born out of wedlock, then the rule is that you are a U.S. citizen at birth if your mother was physically present (in any status) in the U.S. for any continuous period of 1 year before you were born.