Rather than relying upon government websites that communicate with lay people, much better to rely upon the law and disseminated regulations for the many capable of understanding such:
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/usc...90aRCRD&CH=act [INA Title 3 Chapter 1]
http://law.justia.com/codes/us/title8/8usc1401.html
Originally Posted by
hfly
GU, you really keep changhing the goal posts here, and quite frankly speaking it is frustrating.
We are not talking about childred born out of wedlock, we are not talking about US government employees of any flavour who are assigned outside the United States, nor anyother extenuating circumstances.
The general regs are pretty black and white and taken from the DoS website linked above:
"A child born abroad to one U.S. citizen parent and one alien parent acquires U.S. citizenship at birth under Section 301(g) of the INA provided the U.S. citizen parent was physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for the time period required by the law applicable at the time of the child's birth. (For birth on or after November 14, 1986, a period of five years physical presence, two after the age of fourteen, is required. For birth between December 24, 1952 and November 13, 1986, a period of ten years, five after the age of fourteen, is required for physical presence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions to transmit U.S. citizenship to the child.) The U.S. citizen parent must be genetically related to the child to transmit U.S. citizenship."
This was the rule ealrlier this year, this was the rule last year, the year before that, the decade before that and in fact the decade before that. You keep stating "FATHER" however it applies to EITHER US CITIZEN PARENT, as I can say for sure not just by having spoken with DoS personnel, but knowing two different US citizen mothers married to foreigners who having had their children abroad were UNABLE to get their kids passports for quite some time due to the difficulty in getting any documentation stating that they had lived in the US for the required times (one was a classic, the school burnt down thinga nd both parents were deceased, the other was an army brat who had lived in so many places and attended so many schools that it took some time to gather the documentation). Not to mention the fact that I had to personally go through the process in recent years. I would conservatively say that I have further known at least 100 couples who have had to submit such documents over the last decade or so, and that while often a formality must be done and must satisfy the Vice Consul or whomever with these documents, of these 80 were US father, 20 were US mother.
I am not doubting the example that you have stated, there are a dozen loopholes to the rules that can be exploited through even non-governmental employment if the papers are done in the right way, or even the employment of the US citizen parent or even spouse in subsequent years (among other things). However the law is as I stated above and that IS what 99% of people in such situations have to submit and if they don't the kid does not get it.
The solution of course is for anyone who does not meet the requirement and who marreis a non US citizen to just make sure the kid is born in the US to avoid any such troubles/hassles in the future as this whole thing was brought in at the time of the Rodino Act to stop generations of US citizens multiplying abroad with no connection to the US (primarily from Mexico).
I am not changing the goal posts, so I don't understand the frustration.
For current births:
1. A US father married to a non-US mother is
not required to have lived in the US before the age of 18 years in order to qualify to relay US citizenship to a child born to him outside of the US.
2. US father married to a US mother situations also do
not require either US parent to have physical presence in the US before the age of 18 years in order to qualify to relay US citizenship to a child born abroad to such parents under wedlock.
Other conditions may of course apply; however, for a married couple where at least one of the parents of the child born under wedlock is a US citizen, there is no condition that the US citizen(s) must have lived in the US before the age of 18 years in order to relay US citizenship at birth to the child born abroad.
Any suggestion that a US father must have lived in the US prior to the age of 18 years in order to relay US citizenship to his child born under wedlock to a non-US mother is to be categorized as erroneous communication. Simple as that. The example I provided above is a clear-cut example -- no loophole about it -- of how a US father need not have lived even a year in the US before the age of 18 in order to relay US citizenship to a child born under wedlock of the US citizen father to a non-US mother.
When it comes to recognizing US citizenship status of a child born abroad currently to one (or more) US citizen parent, there is no US physical presence requirement of the US parent(s) that requires the US citizen parent(s) to have lived in the US prior to the age of 18 years.
I do know this topic better than probably even most attorneys currently in the employ of the State Department. I'll leave it at that, because otherwise someone may end up wanting my head -- even as the reason for my familiarity with the matter probably no longer matters given DOJ OLC and WH OLC determinations have rendered, at least in part, irrelevant the utility of attempted invalidation of US citizenship status previously recognized (whether recognized in error or not).