Bumping this story up from the comments. For those of you who have not heard about this, a 95 year old World War II veteran recently has been challenged on his long held belief that he's a US citizen. The story has caught fire on the web and now has more than 20,000 comments. 

While an elderly veteran may not be the typical subject of a story like this, the general storyline is not actually as rare as you might think. One of my first cases as an immigration lawyer involved a young dental school graduate who only discovered he was an illegally present immigrant when he applied for a dentist license and had to produce proof of US citizenship. His parents had to confess to him that he arrived as a baby and the family had overstayed a visitor visa for decades. I've heard similar stories from time to time over the years. Perhaps parents think they're protecting their kids by hiding the truth, but sooner or later - maybe when someone is approaching their 100th birthday or being denied their dream of becoming a dentist - the facts emerge.

Some readers may remember my consulting for an episode of the series Drop Dead Diva. The story involved a story along these lines.