Immigration Corner | Can I get US citizenship from my father?

Dear Mrs Huntington,

I recently found out about the children of American citizens gaining US citizenship through birth, after my cousin’s mother took her to get a US visa. She was told that she was a citizen like her father, even though she was born in Jamaica. Like her, I was born in Jamaica, and my father is an American citizen. However, I am over the age of 21, so does that rule still apply to me?

Thank you in advance for your time and response.

Respectfully,

– MA

Dear MA,

A child born in a foreign country to an American citizen father can receive citizenship from their parent, if certain criteria are met. Among them are that the application for the Report of Foreign Birth must be made before the child’s 18th birthday and that the father must have spent at least five years in America before the child was born, and two of those five years must be after the father was 14 years old. It is also necessary that the father must be a US citizen when the child was born to even begin to consider whether this benefit is available to a family.

Bestowing US citizenship on a person is a privilege and requirements must be overcome to be granted such a right. The level of proof is high but certainly attainable if the criteria are met. At the same time the record of the birth is filed with the US embassy, an application for a US passport should also be made.

Certainly, if a father cannot pass US citizenship to a child in this manner, the father can file a petition for the child to become a US resident. If that application is approved before the child is 18 years of age, and the child moves to America to live with their father – the child can derive citizenship from their parent.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq. is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a diversity and inclusion consultant, mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com