Wow! Dr. Sobhani — he’s my primary care doctor. I’ve been going to his clinic for the last 8 years, and to him personally for about a couple of years now. Well, I haven’t needed to see him for quite some time.
And then comes the news — they revoked the American citizenship of him, born in the US to an Iranian family.
Sobhani has been living in the US for over 50 years, and received his citizenship “when he still couldn’t read”. Since then, he has been educated in the US, and has had his own practice and clinic, which essentially bears his name, for 30 years. During a recent — clearly not the first — passport issuance, the immigration service denied the issuance and revoked his citizenship.
Generally, under the Constitution, it’s impossible to strip someone of citizenship, but there’s one reason — citizenship can be annulled without the person’s consent only in cases of fraud in the naturalization process or if the initial naturalization was illegal.
The immigration service informed him of the reason: “Those born in the United States to parents with diplomatic immunity do not receive US citizenship at birth.” At that time, more than 50 years ago, citizenship was granted to him, but now some bell rang. Consequently, Sobhani is currently stateless. This is where there should probably be an emoji, but really, if you think about it, the situation is pretty awful.
Everything will probably be sorted out and his citizenship will be returned. Well, one would hope so, of course. Especially if he doesn’t have citizenship of another country.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 