DNA testing has become a useful tool and the gold standard for immigration cases based on genetic family relationships. While performing a DNA test, applicants often assume that this test will help them obtain citizenship. However, there are legal and regulatory bases that prevent the result of a DNA test from being decisive for obtain US citizenship.

Here at AABB Immigration DNA testing NYC, we will help you to clarify the uncertainty and all of your doubts about DNA tests for US citizenships.

DNA testing, immigration and citizenship

Over the past thirty years, Immigration officials have used DNA tests as a means of testing migrants’ claims for family reunification. Countries like Canada, USA, Australia and China support this method.

DNA tests are usually considered a last resort. It is used when the family has been unable to provide any other credible documentation to support their relationship. The analyses typically involve comparing DNA samples from the claimant and family members in question. The procedure is basically test the biological relationship between them. The reports tend to be processed by scientists at private or university laboratories, and the results can often be decisive for the claimant’s case.

DNA relative-matching features are therefore at least one tool used by the CBSA to establish migrants’ nationality. Although it is uncertain whether the Agency may also be using the genetic ancestry or “ethnicity” estimates to inform their conclusions.

Citizenship by descent

Your ability to obtain a second passport and citizenship is an important benefit. This thanks to your family tree and recent ancestors. So-called “citizenship by descent” laws in your ancestors’ country of origin may qualify you for a second citizenship and a passport as a matter of right. A second passport also grants the right to live, work, and do business in the country. It might be the ideal place for a second or retirement home.

The easiest and quickest way to acquire second citizenship is through your bloodline. A citizenship resulting from the nationality of your father, mother, or grandparents. Most of the countries go back only one generation. This means that at least one of your parents must be from the country in question, to be eligible for citizenship. Nevertheless, in a few countries, grandchildren can qualify.

Your own family records can open the door.

Genealogical research and a search of your own family records can open the door to a past, that can influence your future. Information about ancestry citizenship laws can be found on the internet at the official websites of one of the country’s embassies. (Beware of the frauds rampant in this area.)

What a DNA test won’t tell you

Nationality is a legal and political mechanism. Whereas DNA tests work by assessing individuals’ genetic relatedness to various human populations around the world. Including other customers within the company database. Modern nation states tend to be multiethnic, comprising people of various origins. DNA testing companies base their “ethnicity” estimates specifically on groups whose ancestors have not left their home region or country for several generations.

In fact, if immigration authorities to estimate migrants’ national origins were using commercial genetic “ethnicity” tests, the results would probably not even point clearly to a single country.

Most companies provide DNA reports that show a mix of ancestral components, in turn reflecting the processes of mixture and migrations that have been a constant throughout the entirety of human history. These reports, however, have important technical limitations – such as which populations are included in companies’ reference databases or featured in their results.

Second Citizenship: A Valuable Asset

The important advantages of having a second citizenship and passport can be summed up in one essential word: freedom.

A second passport is solid insurance against a tyrannical government. A second passport can give you access to residence options, business opportunities, and investment channels not available to U.S. or other citizens. In an emergency, it can save your life.

a second passport can assure your liberty. If internal events disrupt life in your home country, or your government imposes travel and other restrictions.

Dual Citizenship

Citizenship is the legal status that describes being a citizen. It gives you the right to live there, work, vote, and pay taxes.

A person who enjoys “dual citizenship”, legally is a citizen of two countries at the same time. It is qualified as such under each nation’s law.

This dual status may result automatically. It is like when a child born in a foreign country to a U.S. citizen. He may become both a U.S. citizen by parentage, and a citizen of the country where he or she is born (by virtue of birthplace).

Dual citizenship may result from operation of law. This as when a U.S. citizen acquires foreign citizenship by marriage to a spouse from another nation. Also, a foreign person naturalized as a U.S. citizen retains the citizenship of their original country of birth. It also results from successfully acquiring a second passport based on ancestry.

U.S. citizens have a right to hold dual citizenship. Under U.S. law, a second passport does not jeopardize U.S. citizenship.

A second passport can expand your legal rights.

That second passport can expand your legal rights and enhance your retirement. For a U.S. citizen, it can mean freer world travel with fewer problems from unfriendly border police, customs, and immigration officials. That second passport can open doors that otherwise would be closed.

Best of all, a second citizenship and a new second passport could be the key to a larger life plan. That, might include lower taxes and stronger protection to your assets. It might even save your life and the lives of your loved ones.

Given current realities, it makes sense to obtain a second nationality and passport, “just in case.”

Final thoughts

No country will grant you citizenship based on the results of a DNA test alone.

To be granted nationality rights in any country, you need legal proof that a parent or grandparent was a citizen. However, a DNA test does not prove anything about how many generations back your ancestry in any given country may have been.

In fact, it does not really prove anything at all about the precise nationalities of any of your ancestors. But is only reliable at broad international levels like “Western European”, “Scandinavian” or “Polynesian”.

If you want to claim citizenship in a country where you are not already a citizen, you have to show genealogical and legal documentation. Birth certificates or other evidence of your parents’ or grandparents’ citizenship — not DNA tests at all.