In the United States, there’s two ways that a person can become a United States citizen. Either by blood or by being born on US soil. If you have a parent that’s a United States citizen, you could acquire United States citizenship. If you were born in the United States, you could acquire citizenship by birth on United States soil.

For some people though, their parents might be lawful permanent residents and later complete the process for naturalization to become a citizen. If that process happens before a child turns 18, the child can actually acquire a citizenship from their parents.

If you’re going through a naturalization process and you have children that are under the age of 18, definitely consult with an immigration attorney to see if your children can become citizens automatically. That’s something that we help with as well at our firm and we’d be happy to talk with you about whether or not that’s an option for your children.