Asturian-American Migration Forum

My name is Daniel Carlos Traviesa. My 4 grandparents were born in Asturias: Ponga, Villamajor, Nava and Pesoth. They all immigrated for economic reasons as teenagers directly to Tampa Florida except my paternal grandfather who spent one year in Cuba before coming to Tampa between 1900 and 1910. They all married in Tampa. My parents [deceased] were born in Tampa and married in 1943. I presently live in Lakeland, near Tampa, with extended family in the Tampa Bay area and cousins in Asturias, Bilboa, Madrid and Sevilla.

I am presently trying to acquire dual citizenship via the Opcion LEY52/2007 rule [grandparent rule] and I believe I have everything necessary except I have had difficulty determining the date of US citizenship of my grandmother.

Hola, Daniel

Welcome, Daniel,

As you probably know, the important detail is whether one of your male grandparents were still Spanish citizens when one of your parents were born.

To prove this, you need to show the date of naturalization of your grandparents, or perhaps find a document that enrolled one of your parents as a Spaniard (I think that would work).

Naturalization documents are fairly easy to get, but the process is very slow. You don't have much time, so you'll have to jump on this immediately. Even now, the process may be too slow to help you in time.

You can speed up the process if you can find the naturalization document number. You might have their documents at home already, which would be very good. You might also check out this page for ideas:
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/naturalization/

If you can find the documents at the regional federal courthouse, that might be your quickest route. I've not tried that, so I can't offer any advice.

This page describes the process of requesting copies of records from USCIS.

If you don't know the numbers of your grandparents naturalization documents, you'll need to first do a search to see what records the USCIS has. You'll make a Genealogy Request by postal mail. (I was unable to get the internet submission form to work.) You'll submit a Genealogy Index Search Request filling out form G-1041. It costs $20 and takes 4-6 months, as I recall. That's $20 per person.

The second step is to request copies of documents. You have to fill out a Genealogy Records Request, filling out a form G-1041A. The fee for a copy from microfilm is $20 per request. The fee for a copy of a hard copy file is $35 per request. I think you pay per document. That step took a few months, too, but not as long as the first step.

Good luck! And let us know how it goes.

Thanks so much Art.
I strongly suspect that my Abuela Luz never became a naturalized citizen because she was listed as a widow and an alien in the U.S. 1930 census, 20 years after immigrating to Tampa, FL, U.S. and 14 years ater the birth of her daughter, my mother. The Naturalization Archives in Atlanta has no record of her being naturalized. I have a email request to USCIS to search as well.

Alas, It is hard to prove a negative.

By the way, this is a wonderful website.

Daniel

If the USCIS doesn't find any records, they will give a letter saying they didn't find any records. I don't know if the document will help with Spanish consulate, but it might. I have heard that people are asking for documentation of negative results, but I don't remember whether these were for naturalization or birth records.

It's very important that you send a request for a search by mail. I have never gotten a reply to an email from USCIS, and I've tried at least twice. Besides, you have to pay by check upfront!

As I understand it, to get citizenship through a grandparent, you have to do it through a grandfather, not a grandmother. So I think it's irrelevant whether you find naturalization records for your grandmother.

If I were you, though, I'd submit 4 requests to USCIS: one for each grandparent, if all of them were Spanish. I wasn't sure, but the instructions made it sound as though they each had to be in separate envelopes with separate checks. It's important to follow the page of instructions carefully.

Also, do you have birth certificates for your grandparents, your mother, and yourself? And a marriage certificate for your parents? It'd be a good idea to start looking for them now.

Daniel, did you get naturalization records for either of your Spanish grandfathers? I don't think you need anything at all for your grandmothers, just your grandfathers. You may want to take a look at the messages beginning here:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtop ... 8958#18958

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Daniel, has encontrado documentos de nacionalización de uno de tus abuelos españoles? No creo que necesites nada sobre tus abuelas, solamente sobre tus abuelos. Sería una buena idea echar un vistazo a los mensajes que comienzan aquí:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtop ... 8958#18958