If you happened to be born in the U.S., but never claimed U.S. citizenship in any way, left while an infant, grew up outside the U.S., and are now an adult, do you have U.S. citizenship?  If not, can you still somehow claim it now?

Does it make a difference if your mother was in the U.S. at the time because your father was in a foreign military, and was sent to the U.S. (along with his family/dependents) for a training program?

If you were born here in modern times, there is a birth certificate somewhere.

Claiming US citizenship, and practicing it, are two wholely different ideas; where lie your loyalties?  Citizenship for convenience is wrong, but there's not a thing anyone can do about that.  [/lecture mode off]

He's actually not trying to claim it, although if China nukes Taiwan it might become an issue.  He's just wondering, and I'm curious as well.

Quoted: If you were born here in modern times, there is a birth certificate somewhere.

+1

Where is the birth certificate?  I would imagine that claiming citizenship without it is impossible, unless at least one parent is American.

Quoted: Where is the birth certificate?  I would imagine that claiming citizenship without it is impossible, unless at least one parent is American.

Dunno.  I'll ask next time I talk to him.  Nice guy, BTW, and a very hardworking and productive person.  If he does end up coming over, he'll be an asset to the U.S., not a drain.

Call the US Consulate in Taiwan and ask!

www.foreignborn.com/visas_imm/immigrant_visas/2dual_nationality.htm

Quoted: Does it make a difference if your mother was in the U.S. at the time because your father was in a foreign military, and was sent to the U.S. (along with his family/dependents) for a training program?

Was one of the parents a US citizen?


What about all the foreign diplomats that happen to have children while posted in the children? I'm pretty sure their kids don't automatically become US citizens.


However, if you're from south of the border and you can manage to crawl across the border before your kid flops out, well then you're golden.

Quoted: What about all the foreign diplomats that happen to have children while posted in the children? I'm pretty sure their kids don't automatically become US citizens.

Correct, diplomat's kids do not count, but everyone else's (including vacationer's) are citizens.

Kharn

Quoted: Quoted: Does it make a difference if your mother was in the U.S. at the time because your father was in a foreign military, and was sent to the U.S. (along with his family/dependents) for a training program? Was one of the parents a US citizen?

Nope!

Quoted: However, if you're from south of the border and you can manage to crawl across the border before your kid flops out, well then you're golden.

Or at least brown.

There is no U.S. embassy or consulate in Taiwan, since Taiwan is not recognized as a nation by the U.S. (with thanks to Nixon and Carter for their best efforts to sink this fair isle).  There is, however, "AIT", which is generally recognized as the most wretched hive of incompetence and cluelessness in this hemisphere.

Quoted: Quoted: What about all the foreign diplomats that happen to have children while posted in the children? I'm pretty sure their kids don't automatically become US citizens. Correct, diplomat's kids do not count, but everyone else's (including vacationer's) are citizens. Kharn

Hmm.. If the father was accredited to the foreign embassy at the time, the diplomatic rule would likely apply.* If not, then it depends on the definition.

*The diplomatic rule had a cut-off. I was born in the US of a foreign diplomat in 1975 and hold a US passport as a resul. I don't know if the cut-off is a date by which people are born, or by which people choose to obtain a US passport: If citizenship was defined in, say 1980, as "Anyone born in the US is a citizen", then would a, say, 1990 rule against diplomatic kids have the authority to retro-actively revoke the citizenship of people born between 1980 and 1990. My immediate thought is 'no' as citizenship was automatically granted by birthright, not by the application for a passport.

NTM