Fascinating history!
I’ve often hiked in a former hamlet about 1 hour north of NYC that was settled by Huguenots prior to independence(Doodletown, NY - now abandoned, but the cemeteries are still there). Part of my family is from Quebec; they’re Catholic, arriving sometime I believe in the early 1900’s. Canada is beautiful to visit, but I couldn’t take the weather there (summer is too short, winter too long, and nights are cold even in the summer). It was great 15 years ago, when US$100 got you C$150+; now they are pretty much on par.
A co-worker visited distant relatives in Ireland at the height of their economic boom; people were wary of them until they were convinced they weren’t trying to press legal claims for family lands (at which point they were quite welcoming).
Can you claim NZ citizenship? I know they’re pretty selective about getting in, and I didn’t know if you had a “golden ticket”.
Not any more...
(Obama Senior had the same nationality at birth as I did)..
I was born British in Dec 1948 but one month later in Jan 1949 when my mother registered my birth the newly legislated New Zealand citizenship had kicked in so I was registered as a New Zealander...
I had a New Zealand passport but could have qualified for a British passport due to my birthdate...
In Aug I will have been in the US for 40 years...
I became an American citizen in 1975...
Before I was sworn in as an American I had to RENOUNCE my New Zealand citizenship by raising my hand and saying so and by signing away my rights and claims and confirming the renouncement......
until one month later at the naturalization ceremony I was a citizen of no country at all...no legal passport etc..
I was legally here in accordance with my Alien Regitration Card and status but I could not have left and then come back...My NZ passport was no longer any good from the moment I renounced my NZ citizenship...
Although I had the protection and rights and privileges as a legal resident of the United States they were dependent on my appearing at the ceremony to become an American citizen...
I knew fully what was involved and I did what was necessary to become an American citizen, gladly...although it was hard to renounce the country of my birth...
But how people claim a dual citizenship is beyond both me and the American naturalization laws...