In Obama’s case, his mother was American, and he was therefore, born American.
Of course, there is actually a time limit to finalize this nationality issue.
When my son was born, the law was that the mother or father had to be American, and have lived 14 out of the first 19 years of his life in the United States, and they have to have registered the child within the first two years of his life. (Which I did.)
Now I know that the law is easier, and I have a sister-in-law who managed to somehow piggy-back her children on her own mother (the grandparent law or some such thing). She had NOT lived the first 14 years etc. but only her first 6 years... but the law changed and she was able to get her younger kids citizenship like that, but she had two already over 18, and so could not make them US citizens.
Personally I believe that Obama was born outside of the US, but that his mother had taken care of the details applicable at that time, and that he is American from birth.
It’s just that ‘Natural Born’ definition that has him offering up that ‘live birth’ certificate for those who don’t understand the circumstances under which one gets that.
I’m not going into all the details here, because it’s been discussed in great length on other threads, but Stanley Ann Dunham wasn’t old enough to confer citizenship on the child, according to laws in effect in 1961.
Regardless of that, according to his own life story, Obama was at best a dual citizen.
Does anyone really know for sure that that woman was his mother? Is there any proof?