Dual Irish-American citizenship- am I eligible?

[littleraikoo]

Heya! I was born in the US from American parents but my paternal grandfather (still alive) had a grandmother (deceased) who was born in Ireland, was Irish by blood, and came to America. I know that my grandfather is eligible for dual Irish-American citizenship, but if he were to get it, would my father and I be able to as well or would he have had to have gotten it before my father and I were born? My grandmother is into geneaology so she has all the necessary documents so that won't matter.

Any information would be much appreciated

[RobinLondon]

Firstly, you've posted in the UK area. This should be moved to Ireland's own special place on this forum, I reckon.

Have you had a look at this already:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_nati ... By_descent

What I find curious is this statement:

Citizenship acquired through descent may be maintained in this manner indefinitely, with each generation ensuring its registration prior to the birth of the next.

If this is correct, it seems like the chain can go on and on, but that each parent must be registered before the birth of a potentially-Irish child. But I don't know if this is true or not...

[JAJ]

If this is correct, it seems like the chain can go on and on, but that each parent must be registered before the birth of a potentially-Irish child. But I don't know if this is true or not...

It is true, but it won't help the original poster. In order for original poster to be eligible, then his U.S. born parent would need to have registered as an Irish citizen before he or she was born.

[joesoap101]

Your post is somewhat ambiguous I'm assuming your grandfather was born in Ireland. If he was born in Ireland then he is an Irish citizen unless he actively renounced his citizenship. Because your grandfather is Irish, that means that your father is automatically an Irish citizen and he can apply for an Irish passport without further formalities. You would be able to apply for Irish citizenship through decent (your grandfather) but you need to first have your birth registered in the Foreign Births Register.

You would have to apply to your nearest Irish embassy and depending on the number of applications on hand the process could take up to 12 months or more.

Contact your nearest Irish embassy they will give you all the info- if you have birth certificates and marriage certificates the process is relatively straight forward.

[JAJ]

Your post is somewhat ambiguous I'm assuming your grandfather was born in Ireland. If he was born in Ireland then he is an Irish citizen unless he actively renounced his citizenship.

I read the original poster as saying: "... my paternal grandfather (still alive) had a grandmother (deceased) who was born in Ireland ..."

Which means his great-great-grandmother was born in Ireland, which is two generations too far removed for any citizenship claim.

[joesoap101]

Yes indeed that is too far removed for registration in the FBR. In this case you could apply for naturalisation as a person of Irish decent/associations but this is less clear cut. The law allows the minister to waive some or all of the requirements in such cases. Expect lengthy delays and the chance of being refused if you go down this route.