Jamaican or British? Dual Citizenship Question

I was wondering how or if I could claim dual citizenship as an American. I think I can because my grandfather was a Jamaican citizen (I think) and I know that one can claim Jamaican citizenship through descent from their grandparent/parent. The main question I ask is if he was a Jamaican citizen. He moved to the US and became a Permanent Resident before Jamaica gained independence which meant he entered the US as a British Subject. He did return to Jamaica to visit from time to time but he made the US his home until his death. So my question is did he automatically become a Jamaican citizen once the country gained its independence or was he still a British subject. Below I have listed some details about my grandfather and his relationship to me.

Grandfather (My Mother's Father):
Born: 3 August 1922 in Kingston, Jamaica, WI
Unknown when he moved to US, but it occurred before 1962
Died: 17 November 2004 in USA

Mother:
Born: 1 July 1959 in USA

Me:
Born: 2 August 1994 in USA

Any help or advice would be nice. Thanks for your help in advance.

Hello,

I recommend you read the nationality section of the Jamaica Independence Act 1962, you can find this at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eli ... 0/contents.

Based on what you said it would appear that your grandfather indeed did automatically become Jamaican upon independence (and lost any claim to being British unless he had a specific exception to loss). Now I assume that your grandfather became an American at some point and as the US does not look favorably on dual nationality, where you can loose your US nationality if you apply for another, I would suspect that your grandfather never tried to apply for a Jamaican passport even though he probably had the right to do so. See http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_t ... _1753.html on US gov approach to dual nationality.

The Jamaica Independence Act of 1962 stated that nationality is passed on through the paternal line of the family. However, this appears to have changed at some point and now both the paternal and the maternal lines, up to the grandparents, can pass on Jamaican nationality, see http://www.jis.gov.jm/faq/applying-for- ... itizenship. On this basis, relative to you specifically, it does appear that you can claim Jamaican citizenship. It also appears that your mother also has a claim. However, if you do make a claim then you risk loosing your US citizenship, which won't be a wise thing to do!

All the best.