Joni Mitchell is now a U.S. citizen, more than six decades after she first arrived in the country. The 82-year-old singer-songwriter shared a photo of herself holding an American flag along with video from her naturalization ceremony at a Department of Homeland Security office.
“A journey that began 62 years ago,” Mitchell wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
The announcement brought a wave of congratulations from fellow musicians, including her ex-boyfriend Graham Nash, who commented, “Congrats, Joan! Just in time to vote!”
Mitchell was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, and moved to the United States in 1965 at age 21 with her first husband, folk singer Chuck Mitchell. The couple settled in Detroit before she relocated to New York City in 1967 following their divorce.
In New York, Mitchell lived at 41 W. 16th St. in Chelsea, where she wrote songs including “Chelsea Morning.” She spent about a year there before moving to Los Angeles in 1968, where the Laurel Canyon music scene helped shape her career in the years that followed.
California has been Mitchell’s primary home for much of her adult life. She later lived in Bel Air before eventually settling in Santa Barbara. She married musician Larry Klein in 1982 and divorced in 1994. She has one daughter, Kelly Dale Anderson, whom she placed for adoption as an infant in 1965 and reunited with in 1997.
Mitchell has spoken in the past about splitting her life between the two countries. “LA is my workplace, BC is my heartbeat,” she told the Ottawa Citizen in 2006, referring to British Columbia.
The citizenship milestone comes after a rare trip back to Canada in March, when Mitchell accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Juno Awards. The honor was presented by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Mitchell used the moment to comment on politics south of the border, praising Carney while alluding to President Trump. “I’m living in the States and you know what’s happening there,” she said, calling Canadians “so fortunate” to have Carney leading the country.
During that same acceptance speech, Mitchell reflected on a 2015 brain aneurysm that put her in a coma.
“I had a [brain] aneurysm, which changed my life — oddly, for the better. I went into a coma, which helped me to quit smoking. And my house filled up with the most wonderful nurses. I was on the road with men for years and years; now I live with a house full of women.”
Separately, director Cameron Crowe is developing a biopic about Mitchell, with Meryl Streep set to play an older version of the singer.
