Parent's country of birth : old colonies

[midnightflyer 0]

Hello, I hope I'm posting in the right section.

I'm filling the G-325A form and I'm stuck on my mom's City and country of birth question.

My mother was born in Algiers (Algeria) in 1946, while it was still a French colony hence a part of France. I don't know whether I should enter Algiers, France or Algiers, Algeria.

My whole family is from France, but my grand father was in the air force and my mom just happened to be born while he was based there. On her passport/IDs, France is the country of birth.

What to do in this situation, which I'm sure is quite common to a lot of British and French folks?

Thank you.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Try to approach this logically.

If somebody was born in the USSR, would you now write a different country as the country of birth because the country doesn't exist anymore?

Your mom was born in Algiers, France.

[MIDUVIL 34]

Hello,

I was born in Martinique (DOM-TOM), On my G-325A, I put Lamentin (city)- country of birth (Martinique).

and when it is asked: country of citizenship (France), on all of my forms (as far as I remember).

USCIS makes a difference between the country of birth and the country of citizenship, on the forms (which is normal).

I checked my French passport, and to my own surprise I didn't see anywhere "Martinique", the country code is France- for my address they remove Martinique and put France.

But on my forms when I was a student (for example) in France or in Martinique, I always write

city of birth: Lamentin, Country of birth: Martinique, Nationality: French. And everybody does the same.

Sometimes if I can't choose Martinique, I choose France, but thanks to USCIS because they make the distinction between country of birth and country of citizenship.

For your case, I would write: Algiers, Algeria. And if they ask for your mom's country of citizenship, it's France.

-Algiers=city

-Algeria=country of birth

-France=country of citizenship.

Hope that will help you.

[MIDUVIL 34]

Try to approach this logically.

If somebody was born in the USSR, would you now write a different country as the country of birth because the country doesn't exist anymore?

Your mom was born in Algiers, France.

She was born in Algiers, Algeria.

I filled all my papers by doing the distinction between country of birth and country of citizenship.

My country of birth is not technically France, it's Martinique. My country of citizenship is France.

On my French passport my place of birth is my city of birth.

on my American passport my place of birth is Martinique (not France).

Edited December 1, 2012 by MIDUVIL

[MIDUVIL 34]

But on my forms when I was a student (for example) in France or in Martinique, I always write

city of birth: Lamentin, Country of birth: Martinique, Nationality: French. And everybody does the same.

or Department of birth: Martinique

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

For naturalized citizens, there is a policy about what country/city is on their passport. The policy is that the current city name and country is used. I am not sure if this is also the policy at USCIS, but I would imagine so. If you want, you can pick one (I would pick Algeria) and then put a continuation sheet, explaining that when she was born it was France. They can make little changes like that to your application, if whatever you put is the wrong country.