> The Philippines was a U.S. territory in 1939. Shouldn't dad have had birthright citizenship? No. Filipinos as a group were never US citizens. They were non-

> The Philippines was a U.S. territory in 1939. Shouldn't dad have had birthright citizenship? No. Filipinos as a group were never US citizens. They were non-citizen US nationals during the American colonial period. When the Philippines became independent in 1946 the status of Filipinos as non-citizen nationals was terminated and they became citizens of the Philippines only. https://fam.state.gov/fam/08fam/08fam030806.html https://fam.state.gov/fam/08fam/08fam030806.html tl;dr your dad really did have to go through all that trouble.