I was born in the Philippines. And so were my parents. They were also married here in the Philippines. We migrated to the US and 2 months before I turned 18 my dad was naturalized. He took the oath and everything. I think my mom took it a month later. I am going to college here in the Philippines and I’m in my second year and they just came across a “problem” regarding my citizenship. I’m not yet 21.
My question is am I still considered a Filipino citizen?
If not, what problems will I encounter because I go to school here?
Do I have dual citizenship then?
In my limited knowledge, Usually, If your parents are citizens of a country, and you’re born in it, you’re a citizen. For example, My parents are Australian, and I was born in Australia, so I am a Australian citizen.
Your parents becoming citizens of America after you were born should not affect your citizenship, I don’t think (But then again, I’m not very knowledgeable about citizenship)
Well I guess I left this part out, being a minor at the time of my parents naturalization, that automatically made my siblings and I naturalized citizens as well. I am holding a US passport.
If you hold a US passport then you are a US citizen. It would still be a good idea for you to have a copy of your naturalization documents.
The Philippine Nationality Law is based upon citizen by blood descent, not based upon place of birth. If you were born on or after October 15, 1986 and at least one parent was a Philippine citizen on your birthdate then you too are a Philippine citizen.
The oath administered upon naturalization as a US citizen does include the phrase, “I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;” but many countries do not view taking such an oath as actually formally renouncing your citizenship.
The Philippine Commonwealth Act No. 36, dated 20 October 1936 provides that you may lose Filipino citizenship by formal renunciation (going to a Philippine Embassy and handing in your passport and completing forms) or by becoming naturalized as a citizen in another country.
Then yanking straight from Wikipedia:
So it seems you have not lost your Filipino citizenship. At the most you might have to take an oath of allegiance to the Philippines to be sure. As a practical measure, if you use a Philippines passport for immigration purposes every time you enter or leave the Philippines then they are unlikely to know you have US citizenship.
My (late) mother’s (late) husband was born in Finland and immigrated with his parents and brothers when he was a minor (around WWII). He attended a U.S. high school and served in the U.S. Air Force. When his father died in the 1990s, he and my mother decided to take his ashes back to Finland. It was only when he applied for a passport that he discovered that he was not a U.S. citizen. He had assumed that since he was a minor when he came to the U.S., and that his parents became U.S. citizens, that he was automatically a U.S. citizen.
So through technicality since I was born of natural born Filipino parents (both mom and dad) I still somewhat am a Filipino (citizenship wise).
Your answer was very helpful. My parents think that the school just want to make more money. Because if I’m considered a foreign student I have so much more paperwork to go through and extra payments to study. But if I haven’t lost my Filipino citizenship then I wouldn’t be considered foreign and would just undergo the same process as the other students.
There is no “somewhat” to it. Assuming that info from Wikipedia is correct, you are a Filipino citizen. You might have to take an oath to confirm that. Get a Philippines passport now, if you do not already have one.
Now maybe the university charges more based upon your overseas residence rather than citizenship. Not sure. As far as the university is concerned, just present yourself as a Filipino citizen. Maybe you can use a relative’s address?
There may also be the issue of which passport you used to enter the Philippines. It’s possible that if you used a US passport to enter the Philippines, for the duration of that visit, the RP will consider you to be a foreign student for university finances.
A note: Most places I know of frown on “using a relative’s address” to avoid paying out-of-area fees. That’s considered fraud.