what is required to be a dual citizen? my parents are from the philippines and now they are us citizens, i was born here in us and want to be a philippine citizen. do i qualify? what do i need? how long does it take? fees? is it true i can stay in philippines as long as i want and come back to the us whenever i want ? what are the requirements? the reason is because my grandma owns land in philippines and her time here is limited so i want to put it under my name before she leaves, also i want to go back and live in dumaguete by the end of the year. thanks everyone sry cge ko pangotana .
If either parent was still Filipino at the time of your birth, you may qualify under RA 9225, the dual citizenship act of 2003. However, it may hinge on whether or not a report of birth abroad was filed on your behalf. Start here; RA 9225 Dual citizenship act of 2003 Then google "RA 9225". There is a wealth of info out there. Larry
According to Section 4 of RA 9225 (Derivative Citizenship), the unmarried child, whether legitimate, illegitimate or adopted, below eighten (18) years of age, of those who re-acquire Philippine citizenship under this Act shall be deemed citizens of the Philippines. A married child, although a minor, cannot therefore be included in the petition of his/her parent. Children 18 years old and over do not qualify to acquire Philippine citizenship under RA 9225. They have the same options that are open to the foreign spouse. So the question is have your parents re-acquired their citizenship and are you under 18?
One other possibility... There is one other possibility that might apply to you. I had to do some research on it for my son, and for the same reason as as you, his possibly eventually inheriting land or wanting to live in the Philippines. It gets overlooked sometimes because RA 9225 gets all the attention. If at least one of your parents was a Filipino citizen when you were born AND you were born in the US, then you are a natural dual-citizen by birth. I don't believe that anything your parents subsequently did to change THEIR citizenship affected yours (but you need to double check this), as long as they can prove at least one was still a Filipino citizen when you were born. Assuming this scenario fits you, you don't have to reacquire Filipino citizenship, since you never lost it (acquiring US citizenship at birth did not have the same "negative" effect on your Filipino citizenship as naturalization would have had, so no need fo the RA 9225 process). However, there is a process called "recognition" whereby the Phil govt. will issue you a document that acknowledges your status so that you can get a Filipino passport, etc. This link has some good info on both topics. Scroll past the RA 9225 stuff to "What is Recognition?" for the stuff I'm talking about: Dual Citizenship | Philippine Consulate General Honolulu The one thing a little unclear about is whether the recognition process can be done in the US at a Phil consulate (the RA 9225 stuff definitely can be, I saw lots of people lined up to take the oath the last time my wife renewed her Phil passport). When I spoke to people at the NY consulate even they were a bit unsure. It sounded like you might be able to do some of the paperwork in the states but possibly need to finalize in Manila.
