Chapter 2 Are You Already a U.s. Citizen?

• Library: U.S. Immigration Made Easy (Nolo) (2023 Ed.)

CHAPTER 2 Are You Already a U.S. Citizen?

A. Acquisition of Citizenship Through Birth to U.S. Citizen Parents

1. Birth Prior to May 24, 1934
2. Birth Between May 25, 1934, and January 12, 1941
3. Birth Between January 13, 1941, and December 23, 1952
4. Birth Between December 24, 1952, and November 13, 1986
5. Birth Between November 14, 1986, and the Present
6. Exception to Requirements for Retaining Citizenship

B. Automatic Derivation of U.S. Citizenship Through Naturalized Parents

1. Parents Naturalized Before May 24, 1934
2. Parents Naturalized Between May 24, 1934, and January 12, 1941..........25
3. Parents Naturalized Between January 13, 1941, and December 23, 1952
4. Parents Naturalized Between December 24, 1952, and October 4, 1978
5. Parents Naturalized Between October 5, 1978, and February 26, 2001
6. Parent Born in U.S. or Naturalized Between February 27, 2001, and the Present

C. Obtaining Proof of U.S. Citizenship

1. U.S. Passports
2. Certificates of Citizenship
3. Certificates of Consular Registration of Birth

D. Dual Citizenship

Most people who are U.S. citizens already know it, either because they were born in the U.S. or because they successfully applied to become naturalized citizens. However, U.S. citizenship can be obtained in two additional, less well-known ways, namely:

• birth outside the U.S. to U.S. citizen parents (acquisition), or
• citizenship or naturalization of parents after the child has obtained a green card in the U.S. (derivation).

Many people born or living outside the U.S. are already U.S. citizens but don't know it. The key to acquisition of citizenship is having U.S. citizens in your direct line of ancestry. Even if you were born elsewhere and your U.S. ancestors have perhaps not lived in the U.S. for a long time, U.S. citizenship might have still been passed down the line.

Derivation of citizenship helps people who live in the U.S., but who didn't realize that minor children with green cards can acquire citizenship automatically, without having to apply for naturalization.

TIP

You can't lose your citizenship just by living outside of the U.S. for too long. People who were born in the U.S. but have lived most of their lives in other countries sometimes believe that their long absence from the U.S. and voting or military activities elsewhere have stripped them of U.S. citizenship. That's not the case—people born with U.S. citizenship will retain it for life unless they perform some act to intentionally lose it, such as filing an oath of renunciation.

RESOURCE

This book does not describe how people with green cards can apply to become naturalized citizens. For complete information on your eligibility and the process, see Becoming a U.S. Citizen: A Guide to the Law, Exam & Interview, by Ilona Bray (Nolo).

A. Acquisition of Citizenship Through Birth to U.S. Citizen Parents

In many circumstances, even though a child is born outside the U.S., if at least one parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of the birth, the child automatically "acquires" U.S. citizenship. When this child marries and has children, those children may also acquire U.S. citizenship at birth.

The laws governing whether or not a child born outside U.S. boundaries acquires U.S. citizenship from parents have changed several times over the decades. The law that was in effect on the date of the child's birth determines whether the child acquired U.S. citizenship from a parent or grandparent. If anyone in your direct line of ancestry might be a U.S. citizen, it is worth your time to read what the U.S. laws were on the date of your birth and theirs.

What If You Were Born "Out of Wedlock" to a U.S. Citizen Father?

In many cases, your right to U.S. citizenship could depend on your relationship to a U.S. citizen father. However, if your parents weren't married at the time you were born, the laws of the time might refer to you as "illegitimate," meaning in legal terms that you have no recognized father.
As you'll see in the sections below, your right to claim citizenship could depend on your providing evidence that your father took the actions necessary to satisfy the legitimation law of your birth country. Legitimation laws require fathers to legally acknowledge their children.
Many hoped change was on the horizon when, in June of 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in a case called Sessions v. Morales-Santana that such gender-based distinctions (in Section 309(c) of the I.N.A.) violate the U.S. Constitution. The case concerned the laws in effect in 1962, the year Mr. Morales-Santana was born in the Dominican Republic. To acquire U.S citizenship through his unmarried father, he needed to show that the father had lived in the U.S. for at least ten years, with five of those years occurring after he turned 14, and the father must have either been listed on the birth certificate or taken other steps to acknowledge paternity, such as "legitimating" him prior to his 21st birthday and before he married.
Meanwhile, to acquire U.S. citizenship through an unmarried mother in and around 1962, the law required only that the mother had U.S. nationality when the child was born, and have previously been physically present in the U.S. or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of only one year. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who wrote the opinion, called this law's variation in treatment of mothers versus fathers "stunningly anachronistic," and found that it fails to achieve its supposed purposes of ensuring that children born overseas have a strong connection to the U.S. in order to be allowed U.S. citizenship.
Unfortunately for Mr. Morales-Santana (facing deportation from the U.S. for a criminal conviction), the Supreme Court did not feel it had the power to extend the shorter period of required physical presence to children of unwed citizen fathers. Such a move, it said, was up to the U.S. Congress. As of late 2020, Congress has not followed up. Perhaps it will, at some point, act to create a uniform

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