Originally Posted by
secretsea18
These kids are called "anchor babies".
Families sometimes will wait the 18 years until the kids have reached the age of majority, then the kid,now adult, moves back to the US as a citizen. The "kid" then sponsors the rest of the family to move to the US.
And once the family has waited 18 years, they will wait three more years because a US citizen must be 21 years old to petition for his/her parents. 8 USC 1151(b)(2)(A)(i).
Birth aboard a US flagged airliner outside the territorital airspace of the US (12 miles beyond the shore) does not confer US birthright citizenship. Lam Mow v. Nagle, 24 F.2d 316 (9th Cir., 1928)(holding that birth on a US flagged ship in the US Econimic Exclusion Zone [200 miles form shore] but outside the territiorial limits of the US [12 miles] does not confer citizenship under the 14th amendment as born in the US).
And according to the US Office of Personnel Management, Haiti offers citizenship by descent to children born abroad to Haitian parents, and the unlike the US, Bahamas does not offer birthright citizenship (automatic acquisition of citizenship at birth within the territory).
http://www.opm.gov/extra/investigate/IS-01.pdf
So a child born in Bahamian airspace on a US flagged aircraft to Haitian parents is Haitian.
Rick
PS I'm an immigration lawyer. I've written this note to clear up some misinformation in this thread. Because of the polarization of the US political landscape, US immigration and nationality policy is white hot. I'm not a moderator, but I would prefer it if flyertalk did not venture out into the realm of immigration policy. I get enough of it at work.