A Grandparent Buys Nothing - the Line Stops at the Parent, and Only for Citizenship
There is no ancestry route into American residence. The immigrant preferences reach a citizen's unmarried adult children, married children and siblings, and a permanent resident's spouse and unmarried children - and that is the whole of what descent does. Nobody is admitted because a grandparent was American. Citizenship itself can pass to a child born abroad to an American parent, on conditions in a different part of the statute, but that is a question about whether a person already is a citizen rather than a route for someone who is not.
At a glance
- An ancestry residence route
- None
Established by reading section 1153(a) of title 8 of the United States Code, quoted below: the paragraphs reach children and siblings, and stop there.
- What relationship does reach
- Children and siblings of citizens, spouses and children of permanent residents
8 U.S.C. 1153(a), quoted below.
- Grandparents
- Not a qualifying relationship anywhere in the preferences
- A child born abroad to an American parent
- A question of citizenship by descent, under provisions not read here
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«(a) Preference allocation for family-sponsored immigrants Aliens subject to the worldwide level specified in section 1151(c) of this title for family-sponsored immigrants shall be allotted visas as follows: (1) Unmarried sons and daughters of citizens Qualified immigrants who are the unmarried sons or daughters of citizens of the United States shall be allocated visas in a number not to exceed 23,400, plus any visas not required for the class specified in paragraph (4). (2) Spouses and unmarried sons and unmarried daughters of permanent resident aliens Qualified immigrants— (A) who are the spouses or children of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, or (B) who are the unmarried sons or unmarried daughters (but are not the children) of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, shall be allocated visas in a number not to exceed 114,200, plus the number (if any»The family classes. Reading the list is how the absence is established: grandparents and grandchildren are not in it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government Publishing Office's authenticated repository. The United States Code is published here edition by edition, one HTML file per section, at an address that names the edition year - and a link service resolves a title and section number to the current edition's file.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: An edition is a snapshot: the 2024 edition states the law as of a date in 2024 and says nothing about amendments made since. The Code is itself a compilation of acts, and for titles not enacted into positive law the Statutes at Large govern where the two differ. Nothing here carries the regulations, which are in the Code of Federal Regulations, or the annual notices that fill in the numbers these sections leave open.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The contrast with Italy and Portugal is the point of recording this at all: both let a grandchild claim nationality, and the United States does not let one claim anything.
Citizenship transmitted at birth to a child born abroad is governed by 8 U.S.C. 1401 and its conditions on the parent's own residence, which are not read here.
- consolidates8 U.S.C. 1153(a), family-sponsored preferences
GovInfo, U.S. Government Publishing Office · consolidated to 2024
About this source
The Government Publishing Office's authenticated repository. The United States Code is published here edition by edition, one HTML file per section, at an address that names the edition year - and a link service resolves a title and section number to the current edition's file.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: An edition is a snapshot: the 2024 edition states the law as of a date in 2024 and says nothing about amendments made since. The Code is itself a compilation of acts, and for titles not enacted into positive law the Statutes at Large govern where the two differ. Nothing here carries the regulations, which are in the Code of Federal Regulations, or the annual notices that fill in the numbers these sections leave open.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source