Birth of a Child
Registering a Child as a U.S. Citizen
A child born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent or parents generally acquires U.S. citizenship at birth. While a child born in the United States receives a birth certificate from the state (such as Ohio or California) that is accepted as proof of U.S. citizenship, a child born outside the United States receives from the U.S. Embassy a document called a Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States. This document is based upon the local foreign birth certificate, which must be obtained first. For information about obtaining a Slovene birth certificate, please see the web site of the Government of Slovenia here.
The Consular Report of Birth Abroad serves as proof of acquisition of U.S. citizenship at the moment of the child's birth, and is acceptable evidence for obtaining a U.S. passport and for other purposes where one must show a birth certificate or proof of citizenship. Parents should apply for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad as soon as possible after the child's birth. It cannot be issued if the child is already 18 years of age or older.
Please note that the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana can only issue a Consular Report of Birth Abroad for a child born in Slovenia. If the child was born outside the United States but in a country other than Slovenia, then we can accept the application for the Consular Report of Birth Abroad here in Ljubljana, but then we must forward that application to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate having jurisdiction over the child's place of birth in order for the Consular Report of Birth Abroad to be issued there. For links to the web sites of all U.S. Embassies and Consulates worldwide, see the Department of State's website.
Transmitting Your U.S. Citizenship to Your Child
U.S. law states that the U.S. citizen parent or parents must meet certain requirements in order to transmit U.S. citizenship to a child born outside the United States. The requirements vary depending on whether the U.S. citizen parent is the mother or the father, whether both parents are U.S. citizens, or whether the parents are married to each other. Full details about these different situations and their various transmission requirements are detailed at this separate link, here.
Generally, the requirements concern the amount of time that the U.S. citizen parent(s) lived in the United States prior to the birth of the child. With some exceptions and variations, the U.S. citizen parent must have lived in the U.S. for a total of five (5) years nonconsecutively at any time prior to the birth of the child. Two of those five years must have been after the U.S. citizen parent's 14th birthday.
The U.S. citizen parent(s) will be required to fill out an affidavit attesting to the time spent living in the U.S., and will be required to submit proof of that physical presence in the United States. Such proof can include school or college records, U.S. income tax returns, employment records, or other proof of physical presence in the United States.
Application Procedures
In order to register the child as a U.S. citizen, the U.S. citizen parent(s) must download and complete the forms listed below. If you are unable to download and print the forms, please contact us using any of the means listed in the Key Information box above, and we will email or mail blank forms to you. In either case, please do not sign any of the forms until you are at the Embassy. They must be signed in the presence of the consular officer.
Step One
Please complete each of the forms below:
You may also download a sample completed DS-2029 Application for Consular Report of Birth Abroad here.
Step Two
Assemble all of the following supporting documents that apply to your situation:
The child's original local birth certificate;
Evidence of the U.S. citizenship of the parent(s), such as a U.S. passport, original U.S. birth certificate, or original U.S. naturalization certificate;
If one parent is not a U.S. citizen, then that parent's non-U.S. passport;
The parents' original marriage certificate, if married to each other at the time of the child's birth;
Evidence of the termination of any previous marriages of either parent, such as a divorce decree, annulment decree, or death certificate, if applicable;
Proof that the U.S. citizen parent has met the law's above-noted requirement for physical presence in the United States, such as tax returns, college transcripts, employment records, or other evidence.
Any documents in any language other than English or Slovene must be officially translated into English. The translation must be attached to the original document.
Make a photocopy of all of these supporting documents.
Step Three
Mail all of the unsigned original application forms, along with the photocopies of the supporting documents, to the Embassy at the address listed in the Key Information box above. Please do not mail your original supporting documents. Please be sure to include a cover letter providing your complete contact information.
Step Four
Use our online calendar to make an appointment. Please select a date not sooner than one week after you mail the documents to us, to give us time to review everything.
Step Five
Both parents and the child must come to the appointment at the Embassy. Because we will have already reviewed and prepared everything, you should only have to be at the Embassy for a few minutes during your scheduled appointment. Please bring with you to the appointment the following items:
The originals of all the supporting documents in Step Two above, so that we may verify the photocopies you mailed to us. We will return the original documents to you at the end of your appointment.
Two passport photographs of the child, as per the specifications
here.
The required fees: US$65 for the Consular Report of Birth Abroad, plus US$85 for the U.S. Passport. You can pay in dollars or euros cash, or with a credit card.
Step Six
Please also bring with you to the appointment an A4-sized padded envelope (podložena kuverta, recommended for document security reasons) with €1.50 in Slovene postage stamps affixed to it, and we will mail to you the Consular Report of Birth Abroad and the U.S. Passport, saving you a return trip to the Embassy. Please clearly write or type on the envelope your name and the address to which you want your passport mailed. For the location of the nearest Slovene post office, please see the web site of Pošta Slovenija.
If you do not wish to do this, you may return to the Embassy after two weeks to collect the Consular Report of Birth Abroad and the U.S. Passport in person, but we strongly encourage our customers to bring us an envelope and let us mail everything back to you.
You will receive the Social Security card for the child at a later date in a separate mailing, directly from the Social Security Administration in Baltimore, Maryland. This may take several months.
If at a future date you wish to obtain another copy of the Consular Report of Birth Abroad, or if you wish to amend or correct that issued document, please follow the instructions on the State Department's web site.
The PDF forms on this page can be downloaded using Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have the latest version, you can download it for free here.
Emergencies
Birth of a Child
