U.S. Citizenship: How It Is Gained and Lost

Supporters of ending birthright citizenship for children of unauthorized immigrants say the Fourteenth Amendment's phrase about jurisdiction was meant to exclude them and that automatic citizenship encourages unlawful immigration, and after the 2026 ruling some proposed a constitutional amendment or a change to the 1940 statute one justice relied on. Defenders say the text and more than a century of practice settle the question and that ending it would create a class of stateless children. Other debates concern whether the denaturalization push targets real fraud or creates second-class citizens, whether to tax Americans abroad, and the status of people in the territories.

A child born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent is usually a citizen at birth if the parent lived in the United States for a period set by Congress before the birth, and the parents can document it with a Consular Report of Birth Abroad at a U.S. embassy. Under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, foreign-born children under 18 who are permanent residents living in the legal custody of a citizen parent become citizens automatically, including most children adopted from abroad. These rules, known as citizenship by descent, are set entirely by statute and have changed many times.

Permanent residents can apply for citizenship after five years, or three if married to a citizen, if they have been physically present for at least half that time, show good moral character, and pass English and civics tests. They file Form N-400 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, pay a 760 dollar fee, or 710 online, attend an interview, and become citizens when they take the Oath of Allegiance. Under the test for applications filed since October 20, 2025, applicants must answer 12 of up to 20 questions from a list of 128. More than 800,000 people naturalize in a typical recent year, and men who were required to register with Selective Service must show that they did.

Citizens cannot be stripped of citizenship against their will, as the Supreme Court held in 1967, but they can give it up voluntarily by renouncing before a U.S. consular officer abroad, a process whose fee fell from 2,350 to 450 dollars in March 2026. Naturalized citizens can also be denaturalized if the government proves in federal court that they obtained citizenship illegally or by lying about material facts. Such cases averaged about 11 a year from 1990 to 2017, but in June 2025 the Justice Department made them a priority and in 2026 set a goal of at least 250 cases for the fiscal year.

The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, says that all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, are citizens. In 1898 the Supreme Court held in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that this includes children of immigrants who could not themselves become citizens. A January 2025 executive order sought to deny citizenship to children of mothers who were unlawfully present or on temporary visas, but on June 30, 2026, in Trump v. Barbara, the Court held 6 to 3 that the order was unlawful. People born in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands are citizens by statute, while those born in American Samoa are U.S. nationals. Native Americans were made citizens by a 1924 law.

Citizens can vote in federal elections, serve on juries, hold elected office and most federal jobs, carry a U.S. passport and get help from embassies abroad, sponsor more relatives to immigrate, and cannot be deported. They also have duties: serving on juries, filing taxes on worldwide income even when living abroad, and, for men, registering with Selective Service. The United States permits dual citizenship, so Americans who acquire another nationality do not lose their own unless they intend to give it up.