Money quote(s):
"Ellie Lavi, an American citizen living in Israel, wanted her children to be American as well, despite the fact that they were born in Israel. But her twin daughters, Maya and Shira, now 2 ½ years old, are unable to gain status as U.S. citizens. Lavi, a single mother in her 40s, used a donor sperm and egg from a clinic in Israel to conceive her children through in-vitro fertilization. Now, the U.S. State Department is refusing to grant citizenship to her children because she is unable to prove that any of the donors are American citizens."
Lots of American live overseas, in lots of places, including Israel. And in U.S consular sections, American consular officers work diligently to provide U.S. citizens abroad the citizenship, passport, and other consular services they require, to the fullest extent allowed by law.
But as CAA has remarked before, we have to implement the law as it's written, not as we might have written it ourselves.
Not to get my quill pen too deeply into the Tel Aviv consular section's inkwell, but they're doing exactly what they're supposed to do, what you and I pay them to do.
"When Lavi went to the U.S. Embassy in Israel to register her children, she said she was asked over a loudspeaker in a crowded room by an embassy official how she conceived the children.
“It’s an outrageous question,’’ she said, recalling the experience. She later left the embassy in tears after more questioning."
CAA is calling "bullshit" on the play right now.
Consular officers, due to (justified) security concerns, are no longer able to conduct consular business across their office desktops, sharing coffee or tea with their customers and clients.
(Not to say it can't or doesn't sometimes happen, but the sheer volume of work in most places makes it highly unlikely.)
So consular officers conduct interviews at what are called transaction (or "teller") windows, rated to resist forced entry and "ballistic" (i.e., bullets) resistant attack.
As you might imagine, trying to conduct any sort of meaningful conversation through ballistic glass requires a little help, so a microphone and speaker arrangement is used, much like that used by bank tellers (or fast-food workers) at drive-up windows.
In a "crowded room" in Tel Aviv, I bet the background noise from all the customer's conversations gets kind of loud. So perhaps the volume on the speakers gets dialed up a bit, just so consuls and citizens can converse over the ambient noise of the waiting room.
Two other thoughts:
First, in many places, consular officers have a "privacy room" available in which more delicate conversations can be held. Citizens whose situations require that sort of handling should request a more private setting, if available. Since consular officers aren't mind readers, you have to ask for it.
Second, it is possible that the consular officer may have, presumably accidently, had their transaction window's speakers set to the public address (PA) option.
(It happens sometimes.)
"Children adopted by U.S. citizens or born to foreign citizens in the U.S. are granted status as Americans. However, as Lavi was informed, children born to Americans overseas through in-vitro fertilization are denied American citizenship unless a donor can be proved to be a U.S. citizen. The laws were created to prevent people from fraudulently attaining status as Americans."
U.S. nationality laws require a "blood relationship" to a U.S. parent in order for citizenship to be transmitted to a child born overseas. Period. Full stop.
"Lavi does have one option to get citizenship for her daughters – by living in America for six months and completing the paperwork there. But Lavi and her children still live in Israel, and what she believes is an automatic right – that children born to an American should be considered American – is just more complicated for in-vitro babies."
If I understand this account correctly, the writer is talking about the parent, Ms. Lavi, having to reside in the U.S. for six months in order to be able to file an immigrant visa petition. I think. Maybe. It's hard to tell what it meant here.
Ms. Lavi is correct that things are more complicated for in-vitro babies, but mostly because it has to be shown that they have a blood relationship to an American citizen.
(Had Ms. Lavi done a little research beforehand, rather than blithely assuming her personal conveniences were actually supported in law, she might have arranged to give birth in the U.S. itself.)
"There are 200,000 U.S. citizens living in Israel, many of whom have dual citizenship. Fertility treatments also are free in Israel, so they are used more frequently, according to a report by USA Today. Many pregnant Americans living overseas come back to the United States to give birth in order to ensure their children are Americans, or they lie to officials at overseas embassies, the founder of Parents Via Egg Donation told USA Today.
In a statement released to NBC News, U.S. State Department officials say they are sympathetic to the Lavi family’s situation but are following the law." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)
4/17
