What Is The Difference Natural Born Citizen And Naturalized Citizen?

Since this issue has recently been raised again in the context of politics and eligibility to be the President of the United States of America, I thought this would be a good time to address the issue in the Platinum Immigration Services Blog.

Clients and potential clients can rest easy knowing that for the categories of Immigration for which we offer Immigration Consulting services, a US Citizen qualifies to petition for any of those benefits in behalf of their spouse, fiancée, or fiancé, regardless of how their citizenship was obtained. However, since it is a timely subject due to current events, I’m going to explain the difference in terms that are easy to understand.

I’ve heard several well meaning commentators on radio and TV, just today, use the terms Natural Born and Naturalized, as if they were the same thing. They definitely are not. Marc Levin, an attorney who should know better (and likely does) was the most disappointing of them, to me, when he stated, “Any child born to a US Citizen Parent, no matter where they are born, is a Citizen of the USA and is qualified to be President of the USA.” Neither of those assertions are correct, as spoken, due to the use of the word “any”. That word made the statement too general to be true. Some children born abroad to US Citizen mothers or fathers will qualify as Natural Born Citizens, none will be “Naturalized” Citizens and some will have a third category of Citizenship, called “Citizenship through Parents”.

There is even Citizenship through grandparents. I’m not going to go into the details of the various and sundry ways one might qualify for citizenship through parents or grandparents, except for the most common way, so you can get the gist. The wife and two step children of one of my clients immigrated in 2006 as the spouse of a my US Citizen client. In 2009, when the foreign spouse became eligible to apply for citizenship (To Naturalize) she successfully did so. Since both her children were under age 18 at the time, both her children received citizenship through their Naturalized parent, automatically. Neither the mother or her children qualify to be President. 🙂

In the context of Ted Cruz, yes, he qualifies as a Natural Born Citizen because his mother was a “Natural” born in the USA Citizen and lived in the USA long enough in total AND long enough after age 14, for any of her children to be Natural Born US Citizens (Citizens at birth) no matter where they were born.

John McCain is a Natural Born Citizen for the same reason except that BOTH parents were US Citizens, in McCain’s case. John McCain, for example would not have a US birth certificate, as evidence of his US Citizenship because US States issue birth certificates, not the Federal Government. His parents would have applied for a “Consular Report of Birth Abroad” in his behalf, followed by applying for his US Passport.

A born in the USA Barack H. Obama is a Natural Born Citizen because he was born in the USA, even IF his mother wasn’t a US Citizen. Had his 18 year old US Citizen mother given birth to him in Kenya instead of the USA, then his US citizenship (at birth) would depend on whether his mother lived in the USA for at least ten years with the applicable number of years of continuous presence after age 14. I’m not arguing the current President’s eligibility, just explaining the ramifications of various assertions to assist the reader in understanding the answers to the questions posed as the title of this Blog Post.

A Naturalized Citizen has exercised their option to apply for citizenship after meeting the requirements to “Naturalize”. No Naturalized Citizen was ever or will ever be a Natural Born Citizen. Natural born citizens are citizens due to the circumstances of their birth, not something they opt for AFTER birth.

With those short explanations of “Naturalized Citizen” and “Citizenship Through Parents” the groundwork has been set to explain the meaning of “Natural Born Citizen”.