Born Abroad to A U.S. Citizen (I think)

I need some help. My mom just obtained her U.S. passport. My mom had found out that she had been a U.S. citizen since the day my grandparents became naturalized citizens in 1964. My mom was 14 years old and had a Green Card at the time. By law, according to the Calgary Consulate, of the time says any minor with a Green Card automatically becomes a citizen once the parents are naturalized. Now I'm just wondering, since she would've been a citizen since the day her parents were naturalized, is it possible that I may have derived citizenship from birth? I was born November 15, 1978 and my parents were married.

I've been trying to consult with the Department of State and USCIS but either doesn't seem to know anything about anything. My mother encountered this same frustration when she first began looking into her situation. USCIS even went so far as to tell my mom that there's no way she's a citizen. And yet, the Calgary consulate total contradicted that and treated her like one even before approving her passport application.

My parents are telling me it's probably best to deal with the Consulate directly since USCIS initially had misinformed my mother and the State Department is telling me that since my mother wasn't herself naturalized that there's no way I could claim it through her and there's no way of verifying that she was a citizen at the time of my birth. But there IS verification, my grandparent's naturalization papers and my mother's alien #, such and such. Otherwise the Consulate would never have approved my mother for a passport. The State Department also commented that if I was going through my Grandparents that I would have to contact immigration. And I believe the retention law was abolished in 1978 by Congress. My mom resided in the States for 10 years until her 19 birthday.

Anybody know anything about this? I understand this is a bit of a complex case but I just wanna know if it's possible

My mom had found out that she had been a U.S. citizen since the day my grandparents became naturalized citizens in 1964. My mom was 14 years old and had a Green Card at the time. By law, according to the Calgary Consulate, of the time says any minor with a Green Card automatically becomes a citizen once the parents are naturalized.

You (and, more importantly, your mother) do know that according to Canadian law at the time, your mother would have lost Canadian citizenship at the same time she became a naturalized US citizen? This was true (until 1977) even if someone obtained US citizenship as a minor solely via their parents' (not their own) actions.

edited to add--Actually it looks like her Canadian citizenship would have been retroactively restored by the new law that came into effect on April 17, 2009, at least if I understand it correctly. She is fortunate that her Canadian citizenship was never questioned during the intervening years--others were not so fortunate.

I'm not sure why it was never questioned. My father was Canadian citizen and my mother didn't return to Canada permanently until they were married.

I'm not sure why it was never questioned. My father was Canadian citizen and my mother didn't return to Canada permanently until they were married.

In the grand scheme of things she returned to Canada relatively quickly.

Based on the timings she probably needed to apply for only at most one Canadian passport while still in the USA after her parents naturalized--and perhaps not at all, since I think it was more common in those days to not carry a passport at all if the only border to be crossed was the Canada-USA one.

I think this issue usually arose during passport applications abroad (Canadian consulates in the USA processed passport applications up until about 1990 or so). If someone was living abroad for an extended period while clearly attempting to retain Canadian citizenship, eventually the consulate would look more carefully at whether that person had naturalized abroad and lost Canadian citizenship. But if someone moved back to Canada relatively quickly, while still a young adult, they would probably stay under the radar. Once safely back in Canada to stay it is unlikely it would ever be questioned.