Acquiring US Citizenship Through Parents: Birthright and Derivative Paths

40 questions on acquiring US citizenship through parents, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Am I a citizen if my unmarried father was a U.S. citizen but my mother was not?
• Are people born in Puerto Rico, Guam, or American Samoa U.S. citizens?
• Can a U.S. citizen be deported if they derived citizenship as a child but never documented it?
• Can U.S. citizenship by descent “run out” after a family lives abroad for generations?
• Could someone lose U.S. citizenship acquired at birth abroad by failing to meet “retention” requirements?
• Did Morales-Santana strike down all of the special requirements for unwed U.S.-citizen fathers?
• Did the physical-presence requirement to pass U.S. citizenship to a child born abroad change over time?
• Do adopted children acquire U.S. citizenship through their parents?
• Does a parent's time abroad in the U.S. military or government count toward the physical-presence requirement?
• Does a U.S. passport prove citizenship, and what can I do if one is denied on citizenship grounds?
• Does being born in the United States automatically make someone a U.S. citizen?
• Does filing Form N-600 make someone a U.S. citizen?
• Does the Child Citizenship Act help people who were already 18 when it took effect?
• Does the immigration-law definition of “child” affect who can acquire or derive citizenship?
• Does the one-year physical-presence rule for unwed U.S.-citizen mothers still apply?
• How did the Supreme Court's treatment of INA § 309's gender distinctions evolve over time?
• How much U.S. physical presence did my citizen parent need for me to be a citizen if I was born abroad to married parents?
• How should I analyze whether someone is a U.S. citizen through a parent?
• If I am a U.S. citizen by operation of law, why do I still need documents to prove it?
• Is a child born abroad a U.S. citizen if both parents are U.S. citizens?
• Is U.S. citizenship passed down by blood guaranteed by the Constitution?
• My child was born abroad and I am a U.S. citizen. Is my child automatically a citizen?
• My parent naturalized while I was a child. Did I automatically become a U.S. citizen?
• My parents were not married when I was born abroad. Does that change whether I am a citizen?
• What are the four conditions for a child to derive U.S. citizenship under INA § 320?
• What are the most common mistakes people make when analyzing citizenship through parents?
• What did a U.S.-citizen mother need to pass citizenship to a child born abroad out of wedlock?
• What did Nguyen v. INS decide about unwed fathers transmitting citizenship?
• What did Sessions v. Morales-Santana hold?
• What facts determine whether a child born abroad acquired U.S. citizenship at birth?
• What is a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA), and when must it be obtained?
• What is INA § 322, and how does it differ from automatic derivation?
• What is “legitimation,” and why does it matter in a father's citizenship case?
• What is the Child Citizenship Act of 2000?
• What is the difference between acquiring and deriving U.S. citizenship through a parent?
• What is the difference between “residence” and “physical presence” under the citizenship statutes?
• What places count as U.S. “outlying possessions” for the physical-presence rules?
• Who can file Form N-600 for a Certificate of Citizenship, and what proof does it require?
• Why did so many children of naturalized citizens fail to become citizens under the pre-2000 law?
• Why does my exact date of birth matter so much in a citizenship-through-parents case?