> My mother was born an American (Iowa) and moved to Canada when she > married my father in 1927.. She was told that as long as she did > not vote in Canada that she could maintain her American Citizenship. > She never voted and she travelled all of her life on a US passport, > which I have. She applied for and received her last passport just > before she died at age 91+. It's interesting to note that the prohibition that the US had on US citizens voting in foreign elections was taken to the US Supreme Court in 1967 and was overturned. Since then, voting in a foreign election would not cause loss of US citizenship AND a person who had lost his citizenship by voting in an foreign election prior to that date was (and still is) able to request that it be restored. > She always told people that she maintained her citizenship in case > my father ever wanted to move to the US as it would then have been > comparatively easy for them to do so. > > When I was b. in 1928 I was considered a Canadian by the US > government. > > When my brother was born in 1931 he was considered to be partly > American and would have to decide before a certain age. I think he > had to live 5 years between the ages of 16-21 years. My brother > attended US colleges (Antioch and MIT) but did not become an US > citizen at that time. > > Recently he applied to be a dual citizen. Now he and all of his 4 > children and 10 grandchildren hold this distinction. This was > possible because Mother was an American. > > When my sister was born in 1942 she was considered an American but > would have to live in the US for a certain amount of time before she > was a certain age.. She became a full US citizen after attending > college in the US. She travelled with Mother when she was little, > and her picture with mother was on Mother's passport. FYI. The requirement that a person born outside the US, and who received his US citizenship through a US citizen parent, to return to the US to live if he wishes to keep his US citizenship no longer exists. Nowadays, a person who is born with both US and another citizenship may keep both citizenships for life, as far as the US is concerned. The nationality laws of both Canada and the US have changed many times over the years, with some changes being retrospective and others not. In a lot of cases two people with the same relationship to a country may find that one is a citizen while the other is not. Stephen Gallagher sgallagher@rogers.com (Stephen Gallagher)