Perspective | A doctor tried to renew his passport. Now he’s no longer a citizen.
www.washingtonpost.com
A Northern Virginia doctor was born in D.C. and given a U.S. birth certificate. At 61, he learned his citizenship was granted by mistake.

The Northern Virginia doctor knows at least that much about his situation. He knows he is no longer considered a citizen of the United States — the place where he was born, went to school and has practiced medicine for more than 30 years — and that he also belongs to no other place.

A letter from a State Department official informed him that he should not have been granted citizenship at the time of his birth because his father was a diplomat with the Embassy of Iran. The letter directed Sobhani to a website where he could apply for lawful permanent residence.

  • AeonFelis@lemmy.world
    1·
    10 months ago

    The exception would be if both his parents defected to the US before his birth. He wouldn’t be an Iranian citizen if his parents had renounced their Iranian citizenship before he was born. But if that were the case, he would have been entitled to US citizenship for having been born within the US.

    The article says that he was born while his father had a job at the Iranian embassy. So I doubt he was a defector.