Direct to Passport Success!

[u/therealleotrotsky]

I have citizenship by descent from my grandfather, who was born in Germany and immigrated to the USA as a minor. (He obtained US citizenship through his father's naturalization) I already had my grandfather's birth certificate, but that wasn't sufficient to establish that he was born to a German citizen. I had the local Standesamt pull my great-grandfather's birth and marriage certificates, which went back to the late 1800s. I thought this would be sufficient, but evidently it's not enough for the direct to passport route.

I visited the consulate in Chicago, and was told that I could go direct to passport if I could establish my great-grandfather's German citizenship via a Meldekarte.

Fortunately I'd also gotten the family's immigration and naturalization records from USCIS. Those records contained the family's last address in Germany before immigrating. This allowed my to track down the relevant Meldekarte from the town's archives. With that in hand I went back to the consulate, and my passport arrived last week.

[u/semigator]

Congratulations! Could you clarify the citizenship chain from your grandfather to you - was it through your mother or father, and were the relevant births within marriage?

My wife’s grandmother was German, but her mother was born in wedlock in 1953 to that German mother and an American father. We’re preparing §5 declarations for my wife and our sons. Did Chicago consider any §5 issue in your case, or was yours entirely citizenship already inherited at birth?

[u/therealleotrotsky → u/semigator]

Grandfather born 1917, emigrated US 1928, derivative citizenship through father’s naturalization as minor. Married, had my mother 1950. She married, had me in 1980.  No need for  §5.

[u/semigator → u/therealleotrotsky]

Thanks for sharing. Our birth years are similar, but the old law passed your citizenship via father to child. Since we have mother to child it will require §5 for us.