[justlittleoleme]

While the field of candidates for the next presidential election is still taking shape, at least one potential candidate, Senator Ted Cruz, was born in a Canadian hospital to a U.S. citizen mother. Despite the happenstance of a birth across the border, there is no question that Senator Cruz has been a citizen from birth and is thus a “natural born Citizen” within the meaning of the Constitution.

-snip-

There are plenty of serious issues to debate in the upcoming presidential election cycle. The less time spent dealing with specious objections to candidate eligibility, the better. Fortunately, the Constitution is refreshingly clear on these eligibility issues. To serve, an individual must be at least thirty-five years old and a “natural born Citizen.” Thirty-four and a half is not enough and, for better or worse, a naturalized citizen cannot serve. But as Congress has recognized since the Founding, a person born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent is generally a U.S. citizen from birth with no need for naturalization. And the phrase “natural born Citizen” in the Constitution encompasses all such citizens from birth. Thus, an individual born to a U.S. citizen parent — whether in California or Canada or the Canal Zone — is a U.S. citizen from birth and is fully eligible to serve as President if the people so choose.

On the Meaning of “Natural Born Citizen”
Harvard Law Review
Commentary by Neal Katyal & Paul Clement

http://harvardlawreview.org/2015/03/on-the-meaning-of-natural-born-citizen/

[Mariner]

The Congressional Research Service said in 2011 that there is a legitimate legal question as to whether a Citizen born abroad is NBC.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42097.pdf

[GraceG]

[ But as Congress has recognized since the Founding, a person born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent is generally a U.S. citizen from birth with no need for naturalization. And the phrase “natural born Citizen” in the Constitution encompasses all such citizens from birth. Thus, an individual born to a U.S. citizen parent — whether in California or Canada or the Canal Zone — is a U.S. citizen from birth and is fully eligible to serve as President if the people so choose. ]

Anyone who is a citizen who didn’t have to go through the naturalization process but was born into it via a parent is a “Natural Born Citizen”

Anyone who had to go though the Naturalization process via immigration may be a citizen but there are some offices they can never hold.