Ok, this is a silly question and it is not my intent to offend anybody with this question. I know that getting the citizenship is a tough and long journey but when you are asked what nationality you are from.... What will be your answer?
I know I don't look like the typical caucasian american, when somebody looks at me the first thing they probably notice is that I may not be from here as I look more latino than anything else so I will feel weird saying that I am american and it actually just happened last night that we met knew people and they asked my nationality and I said I am "Paraguayan", then my hubby corrected and said no, she is American now...
So how will you answer this? I know that when filling out forms I will choose American, but it doesn't come naturally when I answer that question.

I am naturalized american but if somebody ask me what is my nationality I would say I am Yugoslavian, cause I have been born there.

I would say I'm born Indian but I'm US Citizen now

The term "nationality" has a specific legal meaning. Anyone who is a US Citizen is a US national, in other words, has US nationality. A few US nationals aren't US citizens.

So once you're a US Citizen, you definitely have US nationality. Having US nationality doesn't necessarily preclude having nationality from some other country. For many people, the correct answer to "what's your nationality?" after naturalization is "I'm a dual national of the United States and <insert name of other country here>".

Of course, if you're not answering in a technical legal context, feel free to answer as you wish, the same as you might answer the question, "what's your citizenship?"

Ha, America, the big melting pot where since the 70's, race and sex has become a big issue with the ERA, in work or school, qualifications and ability became secondary to your race and sex as quotas had to be meet. Ha, I wasn't an equal opportunity employer by choice, it's the law, with all the other government agencies formed at that time, not one was formed to assure we could make a profit and still stay in business. They just found a zillion ways to spend our profits on all kind of common sense things.

I certainly would not describe myself as a racist, science has already proved we all come from a central source, but climatic conditions affected the color of our skin, but to dismiss a well qualified hard working person in favor of another much less qualified worker because of race is correct either. Race is an issue because our government makes it an issue. I am dismissing those that do segregate strictly on the basis of race and this is true in all parts of our country, but much more predominate in the southern states.

Ha, on application forms with the word Sex and a blank, do you answer yes or no, or only with the right person, or if you of the a particular profession, could state your rates. I think they mean male or female, most forms specify that today.

So what do we see on the N-400? RACE. But written in such a manner this is used for identification purposes only. Regardless where my wife was from, we fell in love, but purely out of interest, we discussed our roots. We are of both European decent that doesn't matter, but was interesting that our folks lived only with a few hundred miles of each other. Ha, it just so happens her grandfather got on a boat to South America, mine got on a boat to North America.

What our ancestors shared in common, they were adventuresome and liked to move around and that had a lot to do why we met in the first place rather than living their entire life in a small community. Ha, commented, since I bred purebred dogs for awhile, neither of us is worth very much as we both are mutts.

So when you get to the Race section in the N-400, you find you have one of five choices, White, Asian, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. But you can select one or more, what if you are Jewish or Arab. And with all this ethnic cleansing going on in Africa and the Middle East, shouldn't there be a distinction as well? And have you honestly ever seen a white person? by definition, if you were to photograph a "white" person on a white background like the same form insist, your photo show be just a blank white image.

Certainly not much choice in race selection, and the word white for race is indubitably a slang term, who wrote this form? There are literally thousands of races on this earth, but all from a common ancestry.

Since my wife is from South America, debated whether we should select Are you Hispanic or Latino? box as yes or no, again a very subjective slang terminology. By true definition, a Latino is more of a cultural distinction rather than race and if Spanish speaking is in your heritage, you are considered Latino, but most refer it to as being a race.

Ha, glad I didn't have to fill out that form for myself, I am an alien from outer space, not even a box for me to check. But no doubt in my mind, whomever wrote that N-400 is racist. In America, we are not suppose to be that way.

nationality means ur race when people ask u. they dont mean if u have an american passport or not..u look mexcican u should say im mexican. if ur born in the USA u say mexican american. other then that ur not american cuz america is not a RACE its a state with diff races all together.its the land of immigrants no one is american..even if ur white or black i dont care what u say u r not american u cant change ur race to saying ur american just cus u lived here 100 years ur still from somewhere else who came as an immigrant and lived here then forgot ur background..china india africa those r the countries that actually belong to one race..u cant live in china 100 years then say HEY IM CHINESE cuz u cant change ur face to fit in china just cuz u lived there 100 years..i hope u get what im saying cuz alot of people 4get who they r,,yeah america is nice and all u must be proud ur in a super power country but if someone told me im american by race i would think they r cheezy and a wannaBe and have forgotten their background.

I asked my husband and he said if someone asked in passing, he would still say Scottish. He does have an accent after all.

I will answer "I am a dual citizen, originally from Canada".

Race and Nationality ARE NOT the same thing. One more thing I want to say is that not because people come from SouthAmerica they automatically look Mexican (Mexico is not even in the South American continent). In this case, the nationality of the person will be Mexican / Mexican-American and the race will be Hispanic/Latino. Also, Africa is not a Country but a Continent.



Cassie and everybody else how has given a similar answer, I think you are right. I just need to get used to it. Thanks for the replies.

this isnt history class. i dont need to get all technical with a person who doesnt remember their race after getting a usa passport i was keeping it REAL SIMPLE buddy thanx

I was just referring to the questions asked on the N-400, my wife is from South America of German/Spanish decent, medium brown hair, green eyes, very pale skin color and she does sunburn very easily.

My sister is interested in genealogy and did some tracing, we are Italian, French, Spanish, German, Polish, and Russian and since the Vikings invaded Sicily, some of that too. But my grandfather whose surname I have is from Northern Italy that was all French speaking at the time so our surname is Italian with a French influence. Ha, wonder at times if my mom played around, I am about a foot taller than my male relatives, light brown hair, blue eyes, and I really tan nice, but have to do it carefully, as will also burn. I can really fake a good Italian, southern, and British accent. Military listed me as a Caucasian, but I understand that is no longer in use.

At a dog show, I would be classified as a mutt, had a world class Shepherd male that I would get $3,000.00 for in stud fees, ha, I would be lucky to get a nickel if that much.

Have dated just about every race of woman, or nationality, that was never important to me, you either hit it off or you don't, never believed in soulmates until I met my wife. Ha, thou shalt not covet they neighbors wife, but is it okay that I covet my own?

My point is that this is America and race nor nationality should not be an issue, but it is, just read the N-400 application, so who is making this subject an issue? The political scene in this so called melting pot is sure making an issue out of it and those that are, should be very ashamed of themselves. Just like to see somebody leading this country that isn't a cheat, a liar, and a crook. That should really be the major issue.

I am with you on this one NickD.
Good luck with your Journey.

I will always say I am Italian, I might add I also hold US citizenship.

My husband is from Argentina. He doesn't consider himself Latino or Hispanic, he is white and that is how he put it on the application. I'm sure he will say in the future that he is Argentine with U.S. Citizenship.

I used to go to Argentine every other summer for a month when I lived in Paraguay. My family would alternate between the Brazilian and Argentine beaches. Sometimes we would go to Punta del Este in Uruguay.

Good luck in your upcoming interview.

Thanks...we can't believe it is tomorrow morning. Argentina is a truly lovely country...such variety in the geography.

My husband is from Argentina. He doesn't consider himself Latino or Hispanic

Ha, kind of like a multiple choice question where none of the answers are precisely correct, but what they consider the correct answer is the least wrong one.

Under the race section to bad they don't show color photographs so you can choose one of the five that you most resemble. With her, Black, Asian, or South Pacific was out of the question leaving the choice between white and hispanic. By a number of definitions, the word hispanic has nothing to do with race, the physical characteristics of the person.

"Definitions in the USA

Further information: Racial demographics of the United States and Race and ethnicity in the United States Census and History of Latinos and Hispanics in the United States

During the 1970s, the United States Government defined the term "Hispanic" to identify Latin American individuals, and their descendants, living in the U.S., regardless of race.[6]

The ethnic label Hispanic was the result of efforts by a New Mexican U.S. Senator, Joseph Montoya, who wanted a label that could be used to quantify the Spanish-speaking population for the US Census. The label Hispanic was chosen in part because in New Mexico, people of Spanish descent such as Montoya referred to themselves as hispanos which was anglicized as "Hispanic".

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget currently defines "Hispanic or Latino" as "a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race".[7]

The terms Hispanic and Latino tend to be used interchangeably in the United States, due largely to a syntax inconsistency between the English language and the Spanish language.[citation needed] Some define the term "Latino" as a shortened version of the noun '"Latin American". Others define the word "Latin" as the name of the language used by the ancient Romans, while "Latino" is the name given to the people who spoke the language."

So if hispanic is not even a race, why is it one of the race choices? Slang use of the word here refers to the Mexican with strong Indian traits, but with very fair skin, green eyes, and medium to light brown hair, we choose white. But remarkable the time we spent on what should be a simple question, ha, should have been a check box, none of the above. The key definition of an hispanic is one that uses Spanish as the primary language.

My wife speaks, reads, and writes, English very well, but does have a very unique accent that no one can pinpoint, it's just that she has a very pleasant sounding voice. She did want to check the Hispanic or Latino box as Spanish is still her primary language.

I visited my wife's home country of Colombia, then she moved to Venezuela for better job opportunities, I have positively the best in-laws a guy could ever ask for, and also very beautiful country. Was very impressed with the lack of air conditioning and central heating systems, with a temperature variation of 60 to 80*F, don't need them. Ha, think about that living in northern WI with the new high energy costs and temperature ranges from -45 to 110*F. Wife doesn't like to claim Colombia because of it's drug reputation, I only met hard working good honest people there and practically of all races.

But did see a lot of bars down there and not the kind that serves drinks, on practically every window and door.

I’ve been searching on the net and this is actually a very good question. here's what I found. hope it sheds some light

"US citizenship vs. US nationality

US law makes a distinction between "citizenship" and "nationality." All US citizens are also US nationals; however, some US nationals are not US citizens.

The term "national of the United States" is defined in Section 101(a)(22) of the INA [8 USC § 1101(a)(22)] as "a person who, though not a citizen of the United States, owes permanent allegiance to the United States".

Section 308 of the INA [8 USC § 1408] says (more or less) that a person born in an "outlying possession" of the US -- or a foreign-born child of such a person -- is a US national, but not a US citizen. At the present time, the only "outlying possessions" of the US, as defined in 8 USC § 1101(a)(29), are American Samoa and Swains Island (in the South Pacific).

Note that people born in the following places are defined in Sections 302-307 of the INA [8 USC §§ 1402-1407] to be US citizens: Puerto Rico; the Canal Zone; Alaska and Hawaii (before they became states); the US Virgin Islands; and Guam. "




*Thoughts and opinions expressed are mine alone and based solely on my experience. Anything I say should not be construde as legal advice. As with all such matters please consult your attorney before taking action*