Certificate of Citizenship Application

An individual may file form N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship, if they are trying to claim U.S. Citizenship by law while in the United States or if they were born abroad to U.S. Citizen parent(s).

If an individual is the biological or adopted child of a U.S. citizen parent, they were born outside the United States and they are claiming U.S. citizenship by action of law, they automatically become a U.S. citizen if:

• At least one parent is a U.S. Citizen by birth or through the naturalization process; and
  The individual lives in the U.S. with their U.S. citizen parent; and
• The individual was legally admitted as permanent resident. (IMPORTANT NOTE: In the case that a person entered the U.S. as an adopted child, they should have been admitted as an IR-3 – a child adopted outside the U.S. If an individual is coming to the U.S. to be adopted (IR-4), the final adoption must take place in order for this section of law to apply to them); and
• The individual is still under the age of 18;
• The individual is the biological child in the legal custody of the U.S. citizen parent prior to reaching their 16th birthday or they are the biological child born out of wedlock and they have not been legitimated and their mother has become a U.S. citizen through the naturalization process.

NOTE: If the case where an individual was under 18 years of age on February 27, 2001, but did NOT meet all the required conditions mentioned above, then that person must qualify for U.S. Citizenship in their own right.

An individual may also file for a Certificate of Citizenship if the following happened before their 18th birthday and prior to February 27, 2001:

• The individual consistently lived in the U.S. after being admitted lawfully as permanent resident; and Both parents, the parent awarded legal and physical custody of that individual, or the only surviving parent is a U.S. citizen by naturalization.

If an individual is the biological child of a U.S. citizen, they were born outside the United States and are claiming citizenship by having been born to U.S. citizen parent(s), the person automatically becomes a U.S. citizen at birth if:

• If both parents are U.S. Citizens and one of them resided in the U.S. This residence must have taken place prior to the individual’s birth; or
• If one of the parents is a foreign national and other is an U.S. citizen who, before the person’s birth, had physically been in the U.S. for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, of which at least two of those were after the parent’s age of 14 years.