Am I a "natural born citizen"... figured I'd ask some lawyer Forum

[A. Nony Mouse]

Well, as noted above, people also think Obama was born in Kenya...I would think if anyone really questioned whether McCain could have become president, he wouldn't have been the GOP nominee.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... us/275469/

SAY IT AINT SO!!!!!!!

(Ha, I'd never heard of Cruz before this so have no idea whether I should be upset or pleased he can run... I might be acting against my interests here.)

[sublime]

..

[stillwater]

Well, as noted above, people also think Obama was born in Kenya...I would think if anyone really questioned whether McCain could have become president, he wouldn't have been the GOP nominee.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... us/275469/

SAY IT AINT SO!!!!!!!

(Ha, I'd never heard of Cruz before this so have no idea whether I should be upset or pleased he can run... I might be acting against my interests here.)

i admire your ability to ignore American politics

[A. Nony Mouse]

i admire your ability to ignore American politics

I do my best. It keeps my blood pressure down.

I was under the impression that natural born was born on US soil, including on Military bases.

John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, and obviously he's considered a natural born citizen.

yea, although the only difference there is technically he was born on a military base, which i think is considered U.S. territory

it's actually not. Hence why the "natural born" controversy should have pissed off every single military member.

[rinkrat19]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-bo ... pretations

[GertrudePerkins]

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42097.pdf

From the summary:

The weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term “natural born” citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship “by birth” or “at birth,” either by being born “in” the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents; or by being born in other situations meeting legal requirements for U.S. citizenship “at birth.”

[boblawlob]

jus sanguinis

[rad lulz]

Gonna report y'all to the bar for practicing law w out a license

[guano]

Military bases are not US soil, and neither are consulates or embassies - that is a common misunderstanding. The embassy is technically under the jurisdiction of the host country, but is afforded special privileges, such as immunity from most local laws.

Regardless of where your parents are from, if you are born in the US, you are a natural born citizen (don't ask me about US territories).
If not born in the US, it becomes more complicated. If one of your parents is a US citizen and the other is not, the US parent must have been physically in the US for at least 5 years, two of which after reaching the age of 14.
This does not need to be consecutive, nor did the parent need to reside or be domiciled here.

There are several exceptions to the above, based on certian locations. I also do not know the requirement if both parents are US citizens, nor do I fully understand the rules for a parent who is a US national but not a US citizen.
In that case, either look up the law or consult an immigration attorney.

[MKC]

natural born means in a bathtub HTH

I had a weird ass neighbor growing up that gave birth to all 5 of her kids in the living room. I think her and her husband did a lot of drugs when they were younger, so they turned all hyper-religious all natural when they found Jesus. Shit was crazy. Their kids used to come over to our house and eat giant bags of M&Ms and shit since their parents wouldn't let them have anything with sugar in it.