Or rather, can my son...

My father's parents were Ukrainian speakers (not sure if that matters), but near the border (Przemyśl which is definitely in Poland since 1918, according to everything I read). My grandfather came over to the US in 1913, so he was not a Polish citizen.

My grandmother on the other hand came over to the US in 1920. She was unmarried, and came through Ellis Island (we have records of it). She met and married my grandfather (both from the same area) in the US. She also had siblings who came over, so we have a set of names.

As far as my father knows, both of his parents had Social Security cards in the US, but they were NOT naturalized nor did they become citizens. I read about the 1920 act, as well as the "no other citizenship before 1951" rule. My grandfather died after 1951 (only a few years after ) and there would have been no reason for my grandmother to get citizenship before then. They were in a heavily immigrant community near NYC where most people spoke Ukrainian, Polish, or Hungarian. I therefore have no reason to think she could have taken

The reason this has come up is my son plays football, and the US is not a great place for his future. It is very common for US citizens with parents from another country to seek citizenship in order to open up football opportunities for them, but Poland has citizenship by descent so my son should be able to claim Polish citizenship based on his great-grandmother, as far as I can understand.

My questions:
1) Is he eligible to claim Polish citizenship, assuming we gather the right paperwork?
2) Would it matter if documents were in Ukrainian and not Polish?
3) Do all documents have to be from Poland?
4) If my grandmother was from a small village, is it possible that she would not have become a Polish citizen? Or if it was proven she was born there, and emigrated from there, would that be enough without some kind of passport or government document indicating citizenship?
5) Can a minor get citizenship without the parent getting it, or should I assume that when I go to Poland with him, I will need to claim my citizenship too? Would my other children (all three are minors) have to get citizenship too?

And finally, if there is a decent chance of it, would we start by trying to find relatives in Poland, or would a lawyer be wise this early? We do have information on their church in Przemyśl that could be start to a document search, as well as the names of her parents.

Thank you, and thank you for this very informative site!

 

Thank you for the quick replies, I really appreciate it. I understand that Poland has "by blood" but not "by land" citizenship. For the Ellis Island ship record, it says: "Ethnicity: Poland, Polish; Last Place of Residence: Krajna/Poland; Date of Arrival: Mar 20, 1921". Could that be sufficient to prove she was a Polish citizen, or is this just a clue to get information from Poland?

And I'm thinking that since she was listed as an Alien in the 1940 census, she was not naturalized by then.

 

Thank you, I will look the lawyer up. Her name was relatively uncommon, and I have her parents' names. She never lived anywhere else (had to save up to come over, and was joining her sister), but the ship left Rotterdam. My ace in the hole is the name of the church in Poland, I am hoping their records would be helpful.

 

I asked a few related questions elsewhere, but this was my original thread.

My sole question now is whether a Polish citizen grandmother would pass her citizenship to her son (who was born in the US) or not. Re-reading about the 1920 Act makes me worried that she doesn't even matter, and the situation was different for her husband because he left what would become Poland in 1913.

To that point, if he left southeast Poland in 1913, what country *was* he a citizen of? Russia? (I think that is why he "forgot" to go back, because of the Russian Revolution).

Neither grandparent (my son's great-grandparents) were naturalized in the US.