UNDER WHICH CIRCUMSTANCES IS U.S. CITIZENSHIP AWARDED?
by Sharon Rondeau
(May 9, 2016) — In response to The Post & Email’s weekend article concerning the process by which U.S. citizenship is determined for those born in foreign countries, several questions arose from readers, and in particular, the question of whether or not a U.S. passport would be the sole identification document for an individual born overseas who has proved to diplomatic staff at a U.S. embassy or consulate that he is a U.S. citizen.
As explained by Elizabeth Finan, Press Officer, Bureau of Consular Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, a child born overseas can have his birth registered by his U.S.-citizen parent or parents to obtain a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA), commonly referred to as a “Cribba,” according to Finan, among State Department employees.
While filing for a CRBA is helpful, Finan stated that it is not an absolute requirement to establish U.S. citizenship for the child later. CRBAs are issued to children up through 18 years of age. In order to obtain the document, which Finan said is “proof of citizenship” of but not identity, the parents must show that they themselves are U.S. citizens who meet the U.S. residency requirements of the federal law applicable at the time of their child’s birth.
Using the example Finan provided of a 25-year-old without a CRBA approaching a U.S. consulate or embassy and providing proof that his parents were U.S. citizens and met the necessary residency requirements to pass on their citizenship, CDR Charles F. Kerchner, Jr. (Ret.) submitted the following question through our Comments section:
So that 25 year old born overseas who had a Citizen parent if he or she meets the statutory requirements of the applicable law would be issued a passport. And that passport would be their only proof of citizenship for the rest of their life? The don’t get a CRBA or a U.S. citizenship certificate or some other piece of paper, just the passport?
On Monday morning, The Post & Email sent an inquiry to Finan but received an auto-response that she is out of the office until May 16 along with an email address to reach a State Department colleague.
Our question directed to the alternative staffer reads:
When is a Certificate of Citizenship issued? Does that have to do with naturalization rather than the determination of U.S. citizenship at birth?
and received the following response:
| From: | Cole, Niles E (ColeNE@state.gov) |
| Sent: | Mon 5/09/16 10:15 AM |
| To: | editor@thepostemail.com; CAPRESSREQUESTS@state.gov |
Hi Sharon,
Certificates of Citizenship are issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). If you have questions about the Certificate of Citizenship, please see USCIS’ webpage. Some of the questions you might have are addressed in this document: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/A4en.pdf
Regards,
Niles Cole
USCIS is a separate agency from the State Department and answers to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), not State. It carries out federal law as it applies to the processes of immigration and naturalization as well as permanent residency.
We opened the link provided by Cole and found a citizenship resource page with not only the answer to CDR Kerchner’s query about Certificates of Citizenship, but also derivative citizenship and many other questions.
For an individual who is already present in the U.S. to obtain a Certificate of Citizenship, Form N-600 would be completed. A Certificate of Citizenship is said to be “issued to a person born outside the United States who derived or acquired U.S. citizenship through a U.S. citizen parent” and is an accepted proof-of-citizenship document.
A Naturalization Certificate would be issued to those who have completed the required period of residency, successfully taken English and civics tests, and provided an interview to USCIS qualified staff.
In regard to birth certificates, which are also accepted as proof of citizenship, USCIS reports that the document may be issued by any of the 50 states comprising the United States or by the U.S. State Department “if the person was born abroad to U.S. citizen parents who registered the child’s birth and U.S. citizenship with the U.S. Embassy or consulate.”
Two readers have provided documents to The Post & Email of their overseas birth registrations issued by the U.S. Foreign Service, a division of the U.S. State Department.
USCIS states that for a person to be considered a citizen at the time of his birth, he must:
- Have been born in the United States or certain territories or outlying possessions of the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States; OR
- had a parent or parents who were citizens at the time of your birth (if you were born abroad) and meet other requirements
The first bullet point contains the words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” which also appear in the 14th Amendment which some believe have been overlooked when awarding citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., particularly to foreign-citizen parents who reached the U.S. illegally. Also known as “birthright citizenship,” the issue of whether or not the children of illegal aliens should be granted U.S. citizenship been mentioned by Republican frontrunner Donald Trump as part of the larger issue of instituting more restrictive immigration policies.
To: HistorianDude (or historian dud?)
What do you know that every “birther” doesn’t know relative to Obama and Cruz full identities? Anything?
Have you ever witnessed the original documents listed in Item 207, A thru Q, herein: http://www.carlgallups.com/zullo-affidavit.pdf ?
Have you ever witnessed the original US passport reportedly issued to Rafael Cruz, or witnessed any original documentation whatsoever that reveals Cruz to be anything other than a natural born Canadian citizen alien-US-Senator?
The tone of your epistle herein suggests to me that you are scolding “birthers” for searching for an elusive hangman’s noose for Obama et al.
I see you and your declared thinking herein as one who has taken on the cause of a “partialist” = someone who actively ridicules and condemns dutiful fact-finding citizen-birthers and, instead, loudly promotes a group ignorance of accepting, without question, the partial list of identifiers parceled out by Pelosi and others since 08-28-08 so as to promote a Constitutionally null and void governance of Barry Soetoro-Barack Obama.
The mouth is a mirror to the mind.
What will you think if is revealed FACTUALLY that Barry Soetoro and Rafael Cruz never were a “natural born Citizen”? Will you be apologetic to dutiful law-abiding citizen-birthers or angry for their duty-bound discoveries?
Will you join us as a dutiful American citizen-birther FACT-FINDER, or, instead, aloofly parade around as a foolish peacock in proudly defending group ignorance, while guilty-knowledged criminals Pelosi and Obama look on approvingly?
WILL YOU NOW ENLIGHTEN WE MIS-GUIDED CITIZEN-BIRTHERS AND SOME 320,000,000 AMERICAN ID-KNOWLEDGE-ROBBED CITIZENS WITH YOUR FULL VERIFIABLE IRREFUTABLE FACTUAL LIFE-LONG IDENTITIES OF BARRY AND RAFAEL?
The impression that this is all “complex” or “too convoluted” is simply an artifact of eight years of birther efforts to find some excuse, any excuse, to declare Barack Obama constitutionally ineligible for the position he has held since 2009. It is the failed search for imaginary loopholes in otherwise simple law that creates the impression of complexity.
There are always far more ways to be wrong than there are to be right, and the birther movement has assembled a vast collection of wrong ways that inexplicably never seem to die… even when explicitly rejected by US courts. Real scholarship it not simply the collection of new ideas, it is the shedding of the discredited ones. Imagine how “complex” it would be to buy an incandescent light bulb if Edison had kept all his hundreds of failed experiments and tried to sell those too, along with the one that actually worked?
No. Natural born citizenship is not complex. It has two and only two components… and they have remained essentially unchanged for 300 years. The first is the original common law component: birth on national soil (minus the 2 ancient exceptions). The second is the later statutory component: birth abroad to a citizen parent. That’s it. All else is hand waving.
One can only imagine what might have happened differently over the last eight years if all the effort to come up with some obscure technicality to disqualify Obama had actually been spent in active opposition to his policies and programs. All the millions of written words could have been directed instead to defeating Obamacare, or same sex marriage, or defeating ISIS. Even The Fogbow has moved on; birthism has become last week’s fish there, and it has instead become a forum devoted mostly to the SovCit and “Patriot” movements.
Sort of has a T.S. Elliot feel, don’t you think? This is the way the birther movement ends?
Since Ted Cruz has allegedly said to a person at political rally at some point in the primary process before he suspended his campaign that he did not have “one of those” when he was shown a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA)form, it seems rather obvious to me that at this point in time the only thing that Ted Cruz could have to prove to anyone asking for documents to prove he is a U.S Citizen at all is likely a U.S. passport. Probably the one that is asserted that he obtained when he was about age 16 and went on a class trip to Italy. Since getting a passport was easier and cheaper than getting a CRBA, that is likely the route that mom took to get his statutory law U.S. citizenship recognized via some official U.S. government issued document, i.e., the passport. And Ted Cruz deceivingly tells us that that makes him a “natural born Citizen”. Ted Cruz, the “Great Deceiver”. No wonder John Boehner (not someone I trust at all but with Ted he’s likely right) called him Lucifer in the flesh. Lucifer of the Bible was known as the Great Deceiver too. Lyin’ Ted holds the Bible high and deceives us all. Isn’t that what Lucifer in the flesh would really do … just saying? Just passing along some thoughts. CDR Kerchner (Ret)
As I have learned over the last 8 years and reinforced with more specifics in these articles and research by Sharon Rondeau becoming a basic “Citizen” of the United States has many, many liberally interpreted ways and laws to get same. A “natural born Citizen” term was selected because it was to provide a “strong check” against foreign influence at or by birth for the person who would be eligible to be Commander in Chief of our military. With the gazillion ways one can get basic Citizenship it is certainly obvious that anyone who gains Citizenship through those gazillion liberalized statutory law ways over the years cannot and never can be a “natural born Citizen” to constitutional standards, understanding, meaning, and intent as the founders and framers intended. A person born in Yemen, to a U.S. Citizen mother, and an Iranian Citizen father who is subsequently brought to the USA by the mother say at age 20 and gets his Citizenship recognized by simply getting a U.S. passport, is hardly the person that the founders and framers intended to be eligible to be Commander in Chief of our military. And yet that is what Ted Cruz, Obama, political party connected attorneys, the Congress, and the major media have been selling to the American electorate for at least the last 8 years. The “natural born Citizen” term is a restrictive term but probably 75%+ of U.S. Citizens can meet it. It is thus the three leaf clover type of U.S. Citizenship, not the less common four leaf clover types who got their Citizenship with one of the myriad of liberal laws, derivative and other ways, enacted by Congress over the years making it easier and easier and easier to gain coveted U.S. Citizenship. The way things have been going any Citizen of the world will soon be able to be recognized as a basic U.S. Citizen and be a dual-national or tri-national and they will be allowed even encouraged to run for President and CINC of our military. Not what was intended by our Constitution and its framers. Shaking my head in disbelief about how much Obama and his gang including Valerie Jarrett, an Iranian Citizen and Marxist who is the right half of Obama’s brain and is the real power behind the throne in the White House, have truly fundamentally changed America, for the worse, as I write this. All we can do is keep resisting. Keep up the good work, Sharon. Bravo Zulu for all you do. CDR Kerchner (Ret) – http://www.ProtectOurLiberty.org
Thank you, sir. I have learned a great deal from this research and asking questions. I recall thinking that at some point, a person could claim U.S. citizenship through a grandparent, and, lo and behold, it is actually already a factor in so determining. Over the years, Congress has made it “progressively” easier for a person born anywhere in the world to obtain U.S. citizenship as well as those born in the U.S. to alien parents who broke our laws to enter the country and bear no allegiance to it.
The 2016 elections are not just about the president; 435 members of the House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate will face re-election. There are also the primaries in late summer and early fall. The Congress makes law, not the president. We should choose our representatives very carefully.
Thank you, Sharon and staff for hanging onto the “NO CITIZENSHIP BORDERS” issue so doggedly.
As I read your attached article, it just pops into my mind that there is no uniform, same-exact-interpretation of all of America’s citizenship laws. It’s like the voluminous tax code= TOO CONVOLUTED!
ANCHOR BABY MOMS AND ILLEGAL HUMAN TRAFFICERS AND ILLEGAL ALIEN-SENATOR CRUZ AND ILLEGAL ID THIEF-IN-CHIEF BARRY SOETORO AND OPEN BORDERS ANARCHIST LUIS GUTTIEREZ AND SO MANY OTHER FOREIGN INVADERS WANT TO INTERPRET ANY OF THOSE CITIZENSHIP LAWS IN ANY NUMBER OF OTHER CONVENIENT WAYS.
Could it be that Lyin’ Ted the Undocumented Fed and ID Thief-in-Chief Barry Soetoro-Obama and mayors of some 340 illegal Sanctuary Cites in USA ARE JUST THE TIP OF THE “NO CITIZENSHIP BORDERS” IDENTITY CRISIS THAT NOW PLAGUES THE USA?
I believe at age 67 that our nation’s entire governmental structure has collapsed onto every legal American citizen relative to uniform application of immigration and citizenship interpretation/enforcement, THEREFORE, ONLY PRIVATE LEARNED NON-GOVERNMENTAL PERSONS LIKE SHARON RONDEAU, JUDICIAL WATCH’S TOM FITTON, ATTY. ORLY TAITZ, CDR KERCHNER, VICTOR WILLIAMS AND OTHERS SHOULD HAVE THE FINAL SAY ON BARRY AND RAFAEL CRUZ’S EXACT CITIZENSHIP PEDIGREE!
I DO NOT TRUST OUR NATION’S ENTIRE GOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURE 08-28-08-TODAY BECAUSE THEY CONTINUE TO BETRAY AND ROB SOME 320,000,000 AMERICAN CITIZENS OF THE FULL CITIZENSHIP-IDs OF BARRY AND RAFAEL! US Governmental structure herein = LIES BY OMISSION!
Thanks Sharon,
And others who contribute info and knowledge. Speaking
for myself, I want info and truth. My personal saying is, “The truth
is much more effective” in reaching people.
With written articles, I have received info to explain things to others. And these articles give me more facts and insights to reach
those who are unaware of events and things.
Again, thanks to Sharon and those who contribute info and articles.
We are at war with words and thoughts. Having truthful ammo aids us
all to reveal the truth to others. And hopefully, we can change things for the better and aid others to consider the truth…