Child Citizenship

By Debbie McGoldrick

“MY wife and I are both naturalized U.S. citizens. We have two children who were born in the U.S. We are planning on returning to Ireland to live next year. We will have another child who will be born in Ireland. Is it difficult to obtain U.S. citizenship for a child born to U.S. parents living outside the U.S.? How do we go about making the child a citizen?”

YOU won’t have any problems at all, as U.S. immigration law will automatically confer American citizenship on your child born in Ireland.

There are several instances when children born outside the U.S. can acquire citizenship at birth. The simplest is when the child is born abroad to parents who are married, and each having U.S. citizenship. 

This applies in your case. According to Section 301 (c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the child acquires U.S. citizenship provided that one parent resided in the U.S. prior to the child’s birth. There is no specific residency time required.

After your newest arrival makes his or her debut, you should report the birth to the American Embassy in Dublin. This will be the first step towards formally confirming the child’s citizenship.

The form you’ll be given to complete is FS-240, which will officially register the birth. You’ll need to provide a number of documents to prove the child’s claim to citizenship, including evidence of your citizenship and marriage, and proof that you resided in the U.S.

Once the FS-240 and its accompanying paperwork accepted, it will serve as proof of your child’s citizenship. You will also be able to apply for a U.S. passport for the child. And you can continue to live in Ireland for as long as you like, as your foreign residency will have no adverse bearing on the child’s citizenship claim.

As we’re on the subject, it’s a good time to look at the other ways in which a child born abroad to a citizen parent(s) can claim citizenship. If only one parent is a citizen, the parent must have resided in the U.S. for a certain period of time in order to pass the citizenship to the child. This residency requirement depends on the date of the child’s birth.

For children born on or after November 14, 1986, citizenship is acquired at birth if the citizen parent spent five years in the U.S., with at least two of these years coming after the parent turned 14 years old.

The law is tougher for children born between December 24, 1952 and November 13, 1986. Citizenship can be transferred to the child at birth provided the parent resided in the U.S. for 10 years, five of which must have come after the parent turned 14.

And what of a child born out of wedlock to a U.S. citizen parent? The claim to citizenship is easier to document if the parent is the mother. The child is a citizen at birth provided that the mother resided in the U.S. for a continuous period of one year prior to the birth.

The child born out of wedlock to a U.S. citizen father also has a claim to citizenship, but there are several steps that must be taken. Conclusive proof must be presented of paternity, which could be satisfied via blood/DNA testing. The father must also agree in writing to provide financial support for the child until he or she reaches the age of 18, and must also formally acknowledge paternity under oath. 

Given the complexities of establishing the citizenship in the case of an out of wedlock birth to a U.S. citizen father, it would be best to seek legal advice on the matter.

There is also lots of information available on the Internet. Start with www.travel.state.gov , and look under certificates of birth, death and marriage.