Replies

"Also, if a child is born to parents who are both US citizens and say traveling, working, or studying abroad, then that child is considered a natural born citizen."

Not according to the US State Department Foreign Affairs Manual:

7 FAM 1131.6 Nature of Citizenship Acquired by Birth Abroad to U.S. Citizen Parents

7 FAM 1131.6-1 Status Generally (TL:CON-68; 04-01-1998)

Persons born abroad who acquire U.S. citizenship at birth by statute generally have the same rights and are subject to the same obligations as citizens born in the United States who acquire citizenship pursuant to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. One exception is that they may be subject to citizenship retention requirements.

7 FAM 1131.6-2 Eligibility for Presidency (TL:CON-68; 04-01-1998).

It has never been determined definitively by a court whether a person who acquired U.S. citizenship by birth abroad to U.S. citizens is a naturalborn citizen within the meaning of Article II of the Constitution and, therefore, eligible for the Presidency.

b. Section 1, Article II, of the Constitution states, in relevant part that “No Person except a natural born Citizen...shall be eligible for the Office of President;”

c. The Constitution does not define "natural born". The “Act to establish an Uniform Rule of Naturalization”, enacted March 26, 1790, (1 Stat. 103,104) provided that, “...the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born ... out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States.”

7 FAM 1130 Page 8 of 103

U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7 - Consular Affairs

7 FAM 1130 Page 9 of 103

d. This statute is no longer operative, however, and its formula is not included in modern nationality statutes. In any event, the fact that someone is a natural born citizen pursuant to a statute does not necessarily imply that he or she is such a citizen for Constitutional purposes.

7 FAM 1131.6-3 Not Citizens by “Naturalization” (TL:CON-68; 04-01-1998) Section 201(g) NA and section 301(g) INA (formerly section 301(a)(7) INA) both specify that naturalization is "the conferring of nationality of a state upon a person after birth." Clearly, then, Americans who acquired their citizenship by birth abroad to U.S. citizens are not considered naturalized citizens under either act.

7 FAM 1130 Page 9 of 103

You cannot be a natural born citizen, if you were not born on US soil. Children born on overseas military bases are not natural born citizens. Current State Department policy reads: “Despite widespread popular belief, U.S. military installations abroad and U.S. deplomatic or consular facilites are not part of the United States within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of birth.”
The US Constitution Article ll section 1. It says “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constituion, shall be eligible to the Office of President; niether shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fouteen Years a Resident within the United States.” Many people get this all wrong too. It says “No Person except a natural born Citizen” - “or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution,”. Many people misread this line and think that any citizen can be President, but what it was saying is either a natural born Citizen OR any citizen who was alive at the time the Constitution was adopted. Unless you know of any candidates that are 256 years old, the President must be a Natural Born Citizen.