Citizenship for Children Born Outside of the U.S.

You are a U.S. citizen, but you’ve been living outside of the U.S. for several years now. Since moving away, you’ve started a family of your own. You love your kids, and you want to do everything in your power to make sure that they have every opportunity in life available to them. Although you no longer live in the United States, you’ve been thinking about taking the necessary steps to acquire U.S. citizenship for your children. After all, America is the land of opportunity - and you want them to have options to study, live, and work in the U.S. once they’re grown up.

U.S. laws governing acquisition of citizenship are highly technical, and you aren’t quite sure how they apply to your circumstances. You have delayed starting the process because of how complicated the rules are, but you’re ready to finally initiate the process. What’s the next step, exactly?

Under the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Children born inside of the United States, regardless of their parent’s legal status in the country, are U.S. citizens (with the exception of children born to foreign diplomats). It gets a bit trickier if the child is born outside of the U.S. to one or more U.S. citizen parents. Children born abroad to U.S. citizen parent(s) may be a U.S. citizen, depending on:

• The child’s birth date;
• Whether the child is resident in the U.S.; and
• Whether the U.S. citizen parent resided in the U.S.

For children under the age of 18 years who were born abroad to U.S. citizen parent(s), the following rules apply for acquisition of U.S. citizenship:

Child born in wedlock to two U.S. citizen parents 

• Entitled to citizenship, provided one of the parents had, prior to the birth of the child, been resident in the U.S. or one of its outlying possessions. No specific period of time is required.

Child born in wedlock to one U.S. citizen parent and one non-U.S. citizen parent (on or after Nov. 14, 1986)

• May be entitled to citizenship, provided the U.S. citizen parent was physically present in the U.S. or one of its outlying possessions for 5 years, at least 2 years of which were after s/he reached the age of 14.

Child born out of wedlock to a U.S. citizen mother on or before June 11, 2017

• May be entitled to citizenship, provided the U.S. citizen mother had been physically present in the U.S. for a continuous period of at least one year (365 days) at some time prior to the birth of the child. Note: periods spent overseas with the U.S. government / military or as a government / military dependant are NOT considered physical presence in the U.S. for transmission under this category.

Child born out of wedlock to a U.S. citizen mother on or after June 12, 2017

• May be entitled to citizenship, provided the U.S. citizen mother had been physically present in the U.S. for at least 5 years, 2 years after the age of 14, at some time prior to the birth of the child. Note: periods spent overseas with the U.S. government / military or as a government / military dependant are NOT considered physical presence in the U.S. for transmission under this category.

Child born out of wedlock to a U.S. citizen father

• May be entitled to citizenship, provided the U.S. citizen father had been physically present in the U.S. or one of its outlying possessions for 5 years, 2 years after the age of 14. In addition, the U.S. citizen father must acknowledge paternity and agree in writing to provide financial support for the child until s/he reaches the age of 18 years.

USCIS considers a child to be born in wedlock when the legal parents are married to one another at the time of the child’s birth and at least one of the legal parents has a genetic or gestational relationship to the child. A more detailed review of the USCIS wedlock rules can be located here.

Derivation of citizenship may occur in situations where a foreign national parent becomes a U.S. citizen before the child turns 18 years old. Under the Child Citizenship Act, a child is eligible to derive citizenship from a U.S. citizen parent under the following conditions:

• The child is under the age of 18 and is unmarried;
• The child has at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen;
• The child has a green card;
• The child is currently living in the United States in the legal and physical custody of their U.S. citizen parent(s); and
• If the U.S. citizen parent is the child’s father and was not married to the child’s mother at birth, the child was legitimated before the age of 16.

When you unwrap the way this service works, here’s an overview of what you can expect…

A Strategic Plan

We don’t believe in “winging it”. This service includes an initial meeting with a lawyer to discuss your goals, your concerns, and to answer any questions you have. We will go over the visa requirements and will guide you through the entire process. You will feel comfortable, knowledgeable, and confident.

An Execution Strategy

A plan is nothing without execution. You’ll get a customized checklist so that you can start gathering the best possible evidence for your application. We will make document collection as painless as possible with a customized upload link and a secured shared folder that you can add to, whenever it is most convenient for you.

Attention to Detail - Always

We’ve got checks and balances along the way to ensure that nothing gets missed. You’ll do a few simple questionnaires and we will do all the heavy lifting behind the scenes. We have systems, processes, and technology in place to help reduce the chance of errors.

Support - Reach out anytime you get stuck

Schedule a call or email us with your questions - whenever, at no extra charge. You can always expect a response within one business day. However, the goal is to anticipate as many of your questions as possible and provide you with lots of resources and information so that you always have a clear picture of what comes next.

Here's a snapshot of our process:

Step 1 

Schedule a Strategy Session

This will allow us to get to know each other and figure out if we are a good fit. If you decide to move forward within 30 days of your consultation, the consultation becomes free.

Step 2 

After you agree that we are a good fit, it is time to come up with a tailored  plan and execute. We will go over strategy and a roadmap of how to gather the best evidence, what affidavits are required, and how to put together flawless forms.

Step 3 

Amazing—now that we are almost there, we will put your entire application through an  error-proofing review system and discuss how it can be made even better. No cutting corners here.

Please note, to keep up with our high service standards, there are limited spots available each month.