Immigration Law
Little-Known US Citizenship Option
The word is out in Israel about a little-known provision of U.S. immigration law that allows some foreign-born children to obtain citizenship via their American grandparents.
The provision offers an alternative to the usual rule that U.S. citizen parents of foreign-born children must have lived in this country for five years after age 14, in order to transmit citizenship to their offspring, explains the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). It allows foreign-born children citizenship even if their parents don’t meet this five-year residency requirement, so long as their grandparents do.
Although foreign-born children of any nationality can take advantage of the law, about 90 percent of those using it right now reportedly are from Israel.
