Birth of a US Citizen in China

Congratulations on the birth of your child!  Depending on the citizenship of you and your spouse, your child may have acquired U.S. citizenship at birth.

If you and your spouse are both U.S. citizens and either of you has ever resided in the U.S. before your child’s birth, your child became a U.S. citizen at birth. If only one of you is a U.S. citizen, the U.S. citizen parent will have to present evidence of a total of five years physical presence (not necessarily consecutive) in the U.S., two of which must have been after the age of 14, in order to establish that the child acquired U.S. citizenship at birth. If you think you may have difficulty showing five years physical presence, you may want to consider giving birth in the United States. The alternative would be to apply for an immigrant visa for your child.

It is a good idea to take care of the formalities of applying for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) and passport as soon as possible after the child’s birth in order to avoid future difficulties or delays that could arise if your child does not have a U.S. travel document.

In order to document your child’s U.S. citizenship, you will need to present the following information to American Citizen Services. Items 1- 7 are required in all cases.

1. PARENT’S PROOF OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP: U.S. passport, naturalization certificate, or official birth certificate from a U.S. state or territory.

2. PROOF OF CHILD’S BIRTH: original or certified true copy of child’s birth certificate. It should show the child’s and parents’ names, and the date and place of the child’s birth.

3. PROOF OF PARENTS’ MARRIAGE: (if applicable) original or certified true copy of parents’ marriage certificate.

4. APPLICATION FOR CONSULAR REPORT OF BIRTH (DS-2029).

5. U.S. PASSPORT APPLICATION (DS-11).

6. TWO 2" X 2" PHOTOS WITH A WHITE BACKGROUND (HEAD SIZE 1"- 1 3/8") SHOWING THE CHILD’S FULL FACE WITH THE EYES OPEN.

7. SOCIAL SECURITY CARD APPLICATION (SS-5).

 Forms DS-2029, DS-11 and SS-5 and the Affidavit of Parentage are all available at the Consulate.

FEES: There is a US$65 fee for the Consular Report of Birth Abroad and a US$82 fee for the passport application for a total of US$147. It may be paid in cash in either U.S. or Chinese currency.

-- THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION MAY BE REQUIRED IN SOME CASES--

EVIDENCE OF U.S. CITIZEN PARENTS’ PHYSICAL PRESENCE IN THE U.S.: This is required when only one parent is a U.S. citizen even if that parent was born in the United States. Merely maintaining a residence in the US (i.e. having a home in the US, maintaining voter registration, etc.) is not sufficient—you must actually be in the U.S. for a total of five years. The following items may be used to demonstrate your presence in the U.S,: school transcripts, old passports, employment records, social security records, cancelled checks, and tax records.

AFFIDAVIT OF PARENTAGE: required for a child conceived out of wedlock.

EVIDENCE OF PARENTS’ PHYSICAL PRESENCE TOGETHER AT TIME OF CONCEPTION: required if the child was conceived out of wedlock, e.g. passports, leases, etc.

Note: in some complex or unclear cases, the Consular Officer may need to ask for further evidence.

Filing the Application

After assembling all of the relevant documents, please bring them to the Consulate anytime during our normal American Citizen Services hours. Both parents and the child will have to appear before a consular officer. The Consular officer will take the oath of the U.S. citizen parent executing the CRBA application. Both parents will then execute the child’s passport application. Please do not sign the form(s) until the consular officer asks you to do so.

Obtaining a replacement or additional copies of a Consular Report of Birth Abroad
The Consulate does not retain completed CRBA files. Rather, these are forwarded to the Department of State in Washington, D.C. Replacement or additional copies of the CRBA must therefore be requested from the Department of State. Additional information including fees and request requirements is available on the Department website: http://travel.state.gov/family/issues_birth.html.