
Neil Young's U.S. Citizenship Was 'Messed' With by the Trump Administration, His Wife Daryl Hannah Claims: 'Ridiculous'

Daryl Hannah said her husband, Neil Young, was challenged by the first Trump administration when the musician tried to become a U.S. citizen.
April 20 2025, Published 12:55 p.m. ET
During Donald Trump’s first presidency, he allegedly tried to restrict musician Neil Young, 79, from becoming an American citizen.
According to Young’s wife, Daryl Hannah, 64, the first Trump administration “tried every trick in the book to mess him up,” adding, “And made him keep coming back to be re-interviewed and re-interviewed. It’s ridiculous [because] he’s been living in America and paying taxes here since he was in his 20s."

Neil Young is a dual Canadian-American citizen.
Though the “Heart of Gold” singer eventually became a dual Canadian-American citizen after relocating to the U.S., the Kill Bill actress remains concerned about what could happen if he left the country and tried to return.
“They’ve been detaining people who have green cards or visas — which is hideous and horrifying — but they have not, so far, been refusing to let American citizens back in the country, so I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Hannah expressed to the BBC.

Neil Young and Daryl Hannah have been married for seven years.
Before the 2020 presidential election, Young wanted to acquire his U.S. citizenship, telling the Los Angeles Times that he intended to “register my opinion” given the “climate emergency.”
“I’m still a Canadian; there’s nothing that can take that away from me,” he told the news outlet. “But I live down here; I pay taxes down here; my beautiful family is all down here — they’re all Americans.”
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Neil Young faced difficulty obtaining his U.S. citizenship because of marijuana use.
Despite his initial effort to obtain American citizenship, the musician faced difficulty due to his public consumption of marijuana. “When I recently applied for American citizenship, I passed the test. It was a conversation where I was asked many questions. I answered them truthfully and passed,” he wrote on his website in 2019. “However, I have been told that I must do another test due to my use of marijuana and how some people who smoke it have exhibited a problem.”
Though Young can legally live in the U.S., he and his wife relocated back to Canada, where they now live. As OK! previously reported, a source close to the couple of seven years revealed they “love the peace and quiet.”

Neil Young and his wife recently relocated to Canada for 'peace and quiet.'
The insider added, “They love their life out of the spotlight and the pressure cooker that is L.A. Daryl doesn’t go into a lot of detail about what exactly she went through during her time in Hollywood, but she has said that some of her experiences were gnarly enough that she gets anxiety whenever she sees trailers set up for a movie set.”