State Department Creates Turmoil Over Acquired Citizenship

"The U.S. State Department is withholding American citizenship from the children of American parents who were born abroad and never lived in the States, according to an American-Israeli immigration lawyer currently fighting dozens of such cases.  Until 2007, the children of two U.S. citizen parents were granted citizenship even if they had never lived in America, so long as one parent visited the country. But since then, U.S. authorities in Israel have rejected the applications of dozens, if not hundreds, of such cases, saying that U.S. immigration law stipulates that at least one parent needs to have lived permanently in the States to be able to get citizenship. Earlier this year, the State Department even revoked the citizenship of two Israeli-born children because officials found after a review that the parents never permanently lived in America. After an appeal, a legal adviser to the Jerusalem consulate issued an opinion stating that the children should be eligible for citizenship, but the State Department has yet to grant it to them. A State Department spokesperson said the case was pending and they could not comment." - Haaretz, Feb. 13, 2012.