While many in Puerto Rico continue to debate the value of their U.S. citizenship and the government of Puerto Rico is now issuing certificates of Puerto Rican citizenship with dubious legal standing, an increasing number of Israelis are seeking and obtaining U.S. citizenship. A recent Wall Street Journal article explained how many Israelis are taking advantage of an obscure immigration law that enables grandparent to pass on their citizenship to their grandchildren.

Traditionally, citizenship could only be transmitted to a child by its parents, however, in a 1994 provision known as section 322 has provided another path to U.S. citizenship. As it works, being born in the U.S. or having U.S. citizenship doesn’t automatically qualify parents to pass on citizenship to their children. For this to happen, a parent must have lived in the U.S. for five years after the age of 14 to be able to transmit citizenship to a child. Section 322 allows grandparents who have fulfilled this requirement to pass on their citizenship to their grandchildren whose parents didn’t live in the U.S. long enough. (more…)