It's often assumed that being born in a particular country automatically confers citizenship to a child. That isn't entirely true. For the children of expats born abroad, their nationality often depends on one or both parents' citizenship status as well as the number of years the parents have been expats.
Germany, the US and Canada accept ‘jus soli' – birthright citizenship
“Jus soli”, or “birthright citizenship” in Latin, means that children legally acquire the citizenship of the country whose territory they are born in, regardless of the citizenship or even immigrant status of their parents. The opposite, ‘jus sanguinis', which literally means “laws of blood,” makes children inherit the citizenship of their parents, regardless of where they're physically born. In most countries, ‘jus sanguinis' governs the law for citizenship, but a few countries do abide by ‘jus soli.'
Germany, the United States and Canada are some major destinations for immigration that do accept birthright citizenship. Quite many Latin American countries, including Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, also accept it.
There still exist some restrictions as to when ‘jus soli' applies, just to prevent abuses in citizenship applications. In Germany, at least one of the child's parents must be a permanent resident of the country and have lived there for at least 8 years. Germany doesn't accept dual citizenship in most cases, so children born to expat parents under the ‘jus soli' rule must choose between German citizenship or the citizenship of their parents' home country by their 23rd birthday. This rule has been relaxed since 2014 for those who have the citizenship of another EU/EEA country where their parents are from – they can now keep both passports.
How about children born in Germany whose parents were not permanent residents yet or had been there for less than 8 years? They can also become German citizens by their 21st birthday if they've grown up in the country for at least 8 years and attended school in the country for at least 6 years. Of course, even if ‘jus soli' is accepted in Germany, the children of German expats living elsewhere can also become German citizens through ‘jus sanguinis'.
In the US, ‘jus solis' isn't a new law. It dates back to the US Constitution. As the US is an overwhelmingly immigrant country, the 14th Amendment of this constitution guarantees that anyone born on US soil automatically becomes a citizen. The only exception concerns the children of foreign diplomats and heads of state born in the US. The same exception applies in Canada – the children of diplomats posted in Canada aren't entitled to Canadian citizenship, but everyone else simply born in Canada is, according to their 1946 Citizenship Act. This even includes anyone born in Canadian waters and airspace.
Most countries only recognize ‘jus sanguinis'
Unfortunately, the norm in most other countries, apart from the ones described above, is the rule of ‘jus sanguinis.' This means that one of the expat parents needs to be a citizen or at least a permanent resident of the country they're residing in for their child to gain its citizenship. This is the case for nearly all the rest of the EU countries (except Germany) and for the United Kingdom.
In the UK, at least one of the expat parents must have Indefinite Leave to Remain or EEA Permanent Residence. As for children who don't meet these requirements, they will have to apply for British citizenship later. This can happen when one of the parents becomes a permanent resident. Or it can happen after 10 years of continuous residence in the UK after being born there, provided that the child didn't travel abroad for more than 90 days per year during that decade. Children older than 10 must show proof of good character (i.e., have no recent or serious record of criminal offenses) as part of the naturalization process. The third option is applying for naturalization when they turn 18.
In the Netherlands, slightly different rules apply if the expat parent is a mother or father. Children born to a Dutch mother and expat father automatically acquire Dutch citizenship. But if the mother is an expat and the father is Dutch, the father needs to be the legal spouse or registered partner of the mother and formally acknowledge the paternity of that child. A DNA test must even be submitted to the state if the child is older than 8. As for children who can't automatically become naturalized, their parents can apply for their naturalization after they've been raised in the Netherlands for at least 3 consecutive years.
