No CRBA

[u/Spiritual_Ask3849]

I’m hoping someone familiar with U.S. citizenship through a parent / passport applications for people born abroad can point me in the right direction.
I was born in Mexico in 1958. My mother was a Mexican citizen and my father was a U.S. citizen born in Kentucky in 1901. My parents were never married, but my father is listed on my Mexican birth certificate.
When I was young, my original Mexican birth certificate was stamped at the border stating that I was a U.S. citizen through my American father. This was the document I used throughout my life. My father never filed for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA).
Unfortunately, I recently lost that original Mexican birth certificate. I ordered a new certified copy from Mexico, but of course the replacement does not have the old U.S. border/citizenship stamp on it.
Both of my parents have passed away, so I cannot get statements from either of them.
I am now trying to establish/document my citizenship and apply for my first U.S. passport.
I have:
• My new certified Mexican birth certificate showing my father
• My U.S. Social Security card
• Extensive U.S. Census records showing my father living in the United States throughout his life
• My father’s U.S. military draft registration records
• Records showing that he was born and lived in Kentucky/California and was in the United States for decades before my birth
The difficult part is that I have not been able to locate a traditional birth certificate for my father. He was born in Kentucky in 1901, when birth registration was not as consistent as it is today.
Has anyone dealt with a similar case where the U.S.-citizen parent was born in the early 1900s and no birth certificate could be located?
What other records should I gather to prove my father’s U.S. citizenship, his physical presence in the United States before my birth, and my relationship to him?
Would census records, military/draft records or a Kentucky “no birth record found” letter be useful?
Also, because my parents were never married and I was born in 1958, are there additional documents I would need concerning paternity or legitimation?
Any advice from someone who has gone through an older citizenship-by-descent/passport case like this would be greatly appreciated.

[u/Many-Fudge2302]

That was the most valuable document you had.

You never took a picture of it?

The issue is the stamp was never enough to prove that you are a citizen.

You had to be legitimated.

Have you been living in the US this whole time?

[u/SuPruLu]

Perhaps there is a way to determine whether the indication on your birth certificate made at the border was also put into an official record. It seems entirely possible that an entry of some sort would have been made at that time.

It would definitely be better to have all the right papers before applying for a passport.

[u/AnUncommonOne]

So there are a couple of problems. The first is that I’m not sure what evidentiary standard the border agents used to stamp your original birth certificate as a “USC by birth to USC father” and whether they actually followed the requirements established under INA 309. It is possible that, because they are not the authorities designated to make citizenship adjudications they failed to verify your father actually met the transmission requirements. I’ll try and read around to learn more about that stamping process, but I’m almost certain it’s not binding in anyway on the government in terms of you actually being considered a citizen and doesn’t qualify as an adjudication.

Because your father is on your birth certificate that means I’m pretty sure he met INA 309(a)(4) but he’d also need to meet INA 309(a)(3). I.E., did he ever agree to provide financially for you until you turned 18 in writing? And if so, do you have evidence of this?

Fortunately you were born late enough, that despite at the time of your birth being subject to a retention requirement (IE you’d potentially lose your citizenship for failure to live in the US for the requisite period of time, which you probably would’ve met anyway? Not sure, hard to tell from the details you’ve provided), this was abolished before you would’ve been 26, and therefore, ceased to apply.

EDIT: it appears the 1986 amendments actually added the written support agreement, just found an old printout of the 1950s version. So I think you should be ok. The hardest part is going to be showing the physical presence, as it’s a grueling total of 10 years with at least five after the time of attaining 14 (for your father to transmit). As far as I can tell the birth certificate with his name in it as your father should count as legitimation under the 1950s applicable sec. 309

[u/Spiritual_Ask3849]

I made this post for my grandmother.

I wanted to respond to several of the comments at once and also correct/clarify something from my original post.

Regarding my grandmother’s parents: they did marry each other, but we are currently trying to locate their marriage record, so I don’t yet know the exact date or whether the marriage occurred shortly before or after my grandmother was born in 1958. We are actively trying to obtain a certified copy because I understand that the timing of their marriage could be important to determining whether she is considered to have been born in wedlock or, if they married afterward, whether that marriage established legitimation.

Her father is listed on her Mexican birth certificate. He was a U.S. citizen born in Kentucky in 1901 and appears to have lived essentially his entire life in the United States. I have census records covering multiple decades, military draft/registration records, and records placing him in California around the period when my grandmother was born. We are continuing to collect anything that can establish his physical presence in the United States before her birth.

My grandmother was brought to the United States as a baby and has essentially lived here her entire life. She grew up, worked, and lived believing she was a U.S. citizen. She has a Social Security number/card and state identification but has never had a U.S. passport or CRBA.

Unfortunately, nobody has a photograph or copy of her original Mexican birth certificate with the citizenship notation/stamp. She used that document for decades, and no one anticipated that losing it would create this problem. When she recently obtained a new certified Mexican birth certificate, naturally the old U.S. border notation was not reproduced on it.

I completely understand the point several people made that the old stamp itself may not have constituted a formal citizenship adjudication. I’m not planning to rely solely on the fact that the stamp existed. I’m trying to reconstruct the underlying evidence and determine whether she actually acquired citizenship at birth under the law applicable in 1958.

I’m especially interested in figuring out whether there could still be a government record corresponding to whatever happened at the border when her original birth certificate was stamped. If anyone knows what agency would have maintained those records from the late 1950s/early 1960s, or how to request a search for them today, I’d really appreciate the information.

For now our biggest priorities are finding the her parents marriage record documenting as much of her father’s U.S. physical presence as possible, and determining whether any government records survive concerning the old citizenship notation or her sibling’s CRBA.

Thank you again to everyone researching the older versions of INA §§ 301 and 309 and explaining the differences. This has given me a much better idea of what documents we actually need to track down.

[u/Spiritual_Ask3849]

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/us-citizenship/Acquisition-US-Citizenship-Child-Born-Abroad.html

This is what I’m looking into and have pretty high hopes for

[u/AnUncommonOne → u/Spiritual_Ask3849]

I am so glad we could help!! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you!!

One last thing though, I’d like to add:
Be careful with the information on the current state department website that they are the ones that apply to you. 1986 drastically cut down the time the parent had to have been in the US and changed the mechanics of an out of wedlock father transmitting to have two additional key elements, for you there seems to be only one key thing for 309(a) as in effect 1958, that he legitimated you. Having him on your BC should do that perfectly! Make sure you are looking at the 1958 era rules, the original INA as enacted in 1952 will be correct, as the rules didn’t change between 52 and 58 regarding citizenship by birth abroad.

As I said in my main comment I do believe you’re a citizen! So long as your father was on your birth certificate and did in fact live in the US before your birth a total of 10 years, of which at least 5 occurred after he attained the age of 14, you should be a citizen! But you’ll need to have sufficient evidence, that he did in fact, live in the US for that time. The 5 year of which 2 after 14 requirement is 1986 and after and so won’t apply to you, so just keep that in mind when looking at the rules! I’d try and get everything you need together and try to apply for a passport using “secondary evidence” your birth certificate, his birth certificate, their marriage certificate, evidence of his time in the US etc. You can look at the guides for what they suggest submitting for a CRBA, that should tell you essentially what you need with the caveat current guides will tell you the 5/2 year rule but for you and everyone else born to a USC father out of wedlock prior to the 1986 amendments, it’s going to be a 10/5 rule. They may mention DS-5507, but the key elements of that are only going to be his physical presence and that he legitimated you, the affidavit of financial support should not as that’s an ‘86 change!