How difficult is it to register a child as a U.S. Citizen born abroad?

September 18, 2015 2:26 PM

How difficult is the process of registering the birth of a child to a U.S. Citizen mother (born and raised) but living abroad for 10 years? What kind of documentation is needed, or is this simpler than I am expecting? I'm afraid I'll need documents about my residence that I can't find, etc.
posted by catspajammies to Law & Government (9 answers total)

The term you are looking for is "Consular Report of a Birth Abroad." The website for your local U.S. Embassy or Consulate should have information on how to apply for one under the "American Citizen Services" part of its web page. This is a pretty routine consular service, so the website should have the info you need. If not, I'd follow the contact info in the website and ask your questions there directly. The documents you need will depend on a number of factors (e.g. if the child was born in wedlock, where you were born, local conditions, etc.) so it's not possible to give a generic answer about what you'll need. But, again, U.S. Department of State does hundreds of these a day, so there is a well-worn path, and the local Embassy/Consulate's website is the best place to start.
posted by whitewall at 2:37 PM on September 18, 2015 [3 favorites]

We just did this for our kids a couple of months ago, and it was a pretty straightforward process. We had to make an appointment at the nearest US consulate (which meant travel and an overnight stay in our case). The hardest part is proving that the US citizen parent lived in the US for at least five continuous years. We got my wife's college and high school transcripts plus various scrapbook things from her childhood that showed her being in the US, and they were more than happy with those (and the picture of her as a little girl with the 4H grand champion lamb elicited smiles). The rest was basic stuff we had anyway -- birth certificates, marriage certificate, parents' passport, etc.

Your profile doesn't indicate your location, but here in Canada we followed these instructions and it all went smoothly.
posted by Emanuel at 4:27 PM on September 18, 2015

Aside: you can likely get $1000/year from the IRS per child in your tax return (even if you pay no US taxes). That sure made the hassle worth it, and is what prompted us to get this taken care of (not to mention it makes it much less annoying to have to do US tax returns every year).
posted by Emanuel at 4:31 PM on September 18, 2015

Here's the State Department's info on the FS-240 (the CRBA whitewall describes). I have one of these (and I think also a DS-1350, Certification of Report of Birth, which they don't issue anymore) as well as a birth certificate from the country where I was born. I think the important parts for my parents were the local birth certificate and their proofs of US citizenship, but they were just deployed with the Army, not living abroad as long-term as you.

Also, aside from the tax situation Emanuel describes, it might be pretty important later for your child to have an FS-240 for any situation where they might otherwise need a birth certificate (I've used mine as an I-9 document, for instance).
posted by dorque at 4:32 PM on September 18, 2015

To clarify what dorque says: FS-240 is the Consular Report of Birth Abroad itself (what you receive from the US gov't as proof of citizenship). The form you fill out is DS-2029. I forgot to mention earlier: you can also apply for a passport and social security number at the same time. Since US citizens are required to use a US passport to enter the USA (even if their other citizenship/passport would normally allow them to enter, although this is rarely enforced at least on the US/Canada border), and the child tax credit requires an SSN, it's a good idea to take care of those.
posted by Emanuel at 5:38 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

My Consular Report of Birth Abroad has come in handy a few times. My last two jobs have required a copy of my birth certificate for retirement/pension paperwork. Mine is not in English, so I sent them a copy of my CRBA and no one complained either time.
posted by bentley at 10:03 PM on September 18, 2015

What everyone else has said - it's pretty straightforward. I will add that you should get on your embassy's website and make your appointment ASAP - both times I've done this the available slots were at least a month out or more. That said, they called us when an earlier slot opened up.

Also if you do the passport at the same time, be aware they are pretty scrupulous about the photo dimensions & requirements. The ones we brought weren't good enough, but luckily the embassy here has a photo booth where we could do new ones on the spot.
posted by romakimmy at 10:50 PM on September 18, 2015

Here is some more detailed information about what requirements the U.S. citizen parent(s) must meet in order for the child to be eligible for citizenship. Since it sounds like only the mother is a U.S. citizen, be prepared to provide documentation of the mother's past residency in the U.S. My case, e.g., fell under the category of child born to a U.S. citizen parent married to a foreign national, and I had to document that I had resided in the U.S. for at least 5 years, included 2 years after the age of 14.
posted by drlith at 8:41 AM on September 19, 2015

Also, there's a pretty wide range of documentation they'll accept as proof of having resided in the U.S., but you can ask to find out whether what you've got ready access to will work, or whether you need to request anything additional from the states, such as school enrollment records.
posted by drlith at 8:48 AM on September 19, 2015