Derivative citizenship is citizenship conveyed to children through the naturalization of parents or, under certain circumstances, to foreign-born children adopted by US Citizens. The law that currently governs derivative citizenship is the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. To become a citizen, the child must meet the following requirements:
· Have at least one American citizen parent by birth or naturalization
· Be under 18 years of age
· Live in the legal and physical custody of the American citizen parent; AND
· Be a Lawful Permanent Resident of the United States
Additionally, if you are applying for this through an adoption, the adoption MUST be full and final. This basically means that you must be a resident and under 18 years old when at least one of your parents becomes a citizen.
This law went into effect on February 27, 2001. Children who met these requirements on that day and after automatically became US Citizens. However, if you were older than 18 on this date then you have to meet different requirements in order to get derivative citizenship.
The requirements for children who were 18 prior to February 27, 2001 are as follows:
· BOTH of the child’s parents have to be American citizens by birth or naturalization
· The Child must be under 18 years old
· The child must live in the legal and physical custody of the parents, or of the one US citizen parent if they are divorced.
· The child must have been a Lawful Permanent Resident of the United States
The biggest changed in the new law is that only ONE parent has to be a citizen now. Before 2001 BOTH parents had to become citizens. The only exception to the pre-2001 law is that if the parents were legally separated, then the child would gain automatic citizenship if he/she was living in the legal and physical custody of the US citizen parent.
