Children born outside to US citizen parents can claim American citizenship through their parents’ status. This depends on the laws at the time the child was born. Children born in the United States automatically are US citizens.
Children born in the United States can just apply for a US passport as a proof of his/her American citizenship status. They can file Form N 600, Application for certificate of citizenship should they need to document their American citizenship status based on citizen parentage. To be eligible to file Form N 600, it generally requires a combination of at least one parent being a U.S. citizen when the child was born and having lived in the U.S. or its possessions for a period of time. Children born outside the US may qualify for American citizenship after birth based on their parents’ citizenship or through Naturalization.
As we now know, you can become a U.S. citizen automatically if you meet certain conditions. You should be below 18 years of age and at least one of your parents should be a U.S. Citizen, either by birth or naturalization. You should have resided in the US in the legal and physical custody of your parent (U.S. Citizen ) subject to lawful admission for permanent residence.
Do all qualify as a “child”? To qualify as a “child” to get a certificate of citizenship through parents’ status, the first requirement is that you should not be married. Additionally, if you were born out of wedlock, you should have been “legitimated” while you were under the age of 16 and during the legal custody of the legitimating parent. But, stepchildren who were not adopted will not qualify as a ‘child’ under this section. If you meet these requirements before reaching 18, you automatically obtain American Citizenship without having to file an application. However, you should file Form N 600 to get a certificate of citizenship from USCIS,.
Per the Child Citizenship Act (CCA), persons aged 18 or older as on February 27, 2001 do not qualify for citizenship through their parents status. If you were above 18 years of age as on February 27, 2001, you may qualify to apply for a citizenship certificate under the law in effect before the enactment of the CCA.
So does the same rule apply if you lived outside the United States? Biological or adopted children who regularly reside outside the US may qualify for Naturalization. But, you should meet certain requirements to get a citizenship certificate from the USCIS. At least one of your parents should be a U.S. citizen or, if deceased, the parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of death. Additionally, your US citizen parent should have been physically present in the US or its outlying possessions for at least five years, two of which were after reaching the age of 14. And certainly, you should be under 18 years of age. In addition to these, you should be residing outside of the US in the legal and in the physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent and you are temporarily present in the US after having entered lawfully and are maintaining lawful status in the United States.
I would like to add about the filing fee for Certificate of Citizenship ( N-600)
(i) Filing fee is $600. If the parents are filing for an adopted child, then the filing fee is $550
(ii) Military personnel and veterans with a record service need not pay the filing fee. They need to provide proof of their service, otherwise they will be required to pay the fee
(iii)Children of the military personnel should pay the filing fee