U.S citizen pregnant with non U.S citizen baby both living in Germany. If baby does not carry my last name but her fathers last name can she still be entitled to become a U.S citizen?
1 Answer
Under US law, names do not matter, what matters is the citizenship of the parents. As a US citizen, your children are automatically also US citizens. Whether or not the child also gains citizenship in the father's country depends on the laws of that country. Under Kosovan citizenship law art. 6, if one parent is born outside of R. of Kosova and both parents agree in writing that the child shall acquire Kosovan citizenship (which does not preclude US citizenship). The child does not gain German citizenship (unless the other parent is a German citizen).
answered Jun 29, 2021 at 19:45
-
3It isn't completely automatic; there are some requirements, like that the parent has to have lived in the US for some portion of their life. See uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-h-chapter-3 Jun 29, 2021 at 21:17
-
2There is also a requirement to prove up paternity in the case of a U.S. citizen father, but not a U.S. citizen mother. But, this doesn't require an identical last name. A birth certificate or court declaration of who a child's father is, for example, could establish paternity even if the last name is different. Jun 30, 2021 at 0:47
-
To give a real life example, my 32 year old boyfriend was Born in New Zealand to a Kiwi Father and an American Mother. Because of this, he carried dual NZ-US citizenship his entire life, even though he only resided in the US in 2012 and only voted in his first Presidential Election in 2016 (Fun fact, he is no longer eligible to vote in New Zealand, since NZ law does not allow for citizens abroad to vote in elections, unlike the U.S. Upon return, he can resume voting in NZ elections.).– hszmvJun 30, 2021 at 16:50