What is "Nationality" exactly on i-130 and other forms?

[tiwerkin]

Hi,

so there is this weird question about "Do you hold or have you held any nationality other than the one you have indicated above?"

What do US immigration forms mean exactly by nationality? Is it *always* the same as citizenship (aka having passport of a country), or can it also mean "ethnicity" (like if I am ethnically Chinese but never had passport of China)?

Here is the specific situation. My mother was born in Belarus, during the times of USSR. She always lived in Belarus; initially she held USSR passport, and when USSR ceased to exist, she held Belarusian passport. Never any other passports.
However, USSR is well-known for writing person's "nationality" in all official documents, as there were hundreds of nationalities (ethnicities) in the USSR - including those that don't have their own countries right now (like Chechens, Buryats, Chuckchas etc.). It's so-called "fifth paragraph", used commonly to discriminate against Jews, who would have "Jewish" written there.

My mother's marriage certificate and divorce certificate both state that her nationality is "Russian" (mainly because both her parents were ethnically Russian). We probably need to attach those documents.
But she never held a passport of Russia. And her Belarusian passport states "Nationality: Belarusian".
Obviously in all previous visa applications she filled her nationality as "Belarusian", and "Other nationalities ever held: No".

What should we do? Does it make sense to state other nationality as Russian? or not? Confusing.

[newacct]

Nationality is almost the same as citizenship, but for some countries not exactly the same. All citizens of a country are its nationals, but not necessarily the other way around. For example, most people born in American Samoa are US nationals but not US citizens. There are 6 kinds of British nationality, only one of which is British citizen (but those other kinds are less common than British citizen).

In your mother's case, she was a national of the USSR, and then of Belarus. She was probably never a Russian national according to Russian law (though not having a passport doesn't necessarily mean you are not a national), in the legal sense of "nationality". I am not sure what sense of the word "nationality" is meant by the marriage and divorce certificates. If they mean "ethnicity", then that is not the sense of "nationality" we are talking about here. If they mean the sense of "nationality" that entitles you to a country's passport and consular protection, then the certificates may have been mistaken.