Embassy of the United States

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. 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. Full details about these different situations and their various transmission requirements are detailed here. 

If you did not spend sufficient time in the United States to pass your U.S. citizenship to your child born abroad, but if your U.S. citizen parent (the grandparent of the new child) did meet the requirements outlined above, then the child may be eligible for expeditious naturalization to become a U.S. citizen. 

Expeditious naturalization through a grandparent

Under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, a child under age 18 who has a U.S. citizen grandparent who meets the physical presence requirements may qualify for expeditious naturalization under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Although not entitled to U.S. citizenship at birth, the child can, through this procedure, become a U.S. citizen by naturalization without first having to take up residence in the United States, as is normally required by law. It is, however, necessary for the child to travel to the United States for the naturalization as a U.S. citizen to take effect, and all applications and documentation must be submitted and approved beforehand. The process can take from six months to a year or more. For more information, please see the web site of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

Automatic acquisition of citizenship

Under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, biological and adopted children of U.S. Citizens who are born overseas can automatically acquire U.S. citizenship provided the following requirements are met:

• One parent is a U.S. Citizen by birth or through naturalization; and
  
• The child is under the age of 18; and
  
• The child is residing in the United States as a lawful permanent resident alien (that is to say, has entered the U.S. on an immigrant visa and has an alien resident card) and is in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent; and
  
• If the child is adopted, then the adoption must be final. If the adoption is to be finalized in the United States, then the child becomes eligible for citizenship once the adoption process is completed.

Children under age 18 who had already fulfilled the above four conditions automatically acquired U.S. citizenship on February 27, 2001. Children who have not yet fulfilled these conditions will acquire U.S. citizenship on the day the last of these criteria has been met, provided the child is still under 18 at the time.

For more information, please see the web site of the Department of State.