Tool · children & citizenship
Birthright Citizenship: Where to Give Birth
What matters
Situation
All countries at a glance
Unconditional jus soli
USA — Classic 14th Amendment jus soli: a child born on US soil is a citizen at birth regardless of the parents’ status.
Canada — Unconditional jus soli: birth on Canadian soil confers citizenship whatever the parents’ status.
Brazil — Unconditional jus soli: the child is Brazilian from birth. Parents: The strongest parental perk: immediate residence through the child, with naturalisation on a reduced track from 1 year of residence.
Argentina — Unconditional jus soli: birth in Argentina confers citizenship at once. Parents: The recent classic: residence for the parents through the child, with naturalisation possible after ~2 years of residence (court practice).
Mexico — Unconditional jus soli: the child is Mexican by birth. Parents: Parents get permanent residence through the child immediately; naturalisation on the reduced 2-year PR track.
Conditional / delayed (parental ties required)
Germany — Conditional jus soli: the child is a citizen at birth if a parent has 5+ years of lawful residence and a permanent right to stay.
Portugal — The EU’s softest condition: a child of foreigners gets citizenship on declaration at birth if a parent has 1+ year of lawful residence.
Spain — No citizenship at birth for foreigners’ children, but a fast track: a Spain-born child naturalises after just 1 year of lawful residence.
Ireland — The EU’s last jus soli trace: the child is a citizen if a foreign parent lawfully resided in Ireland for 3 of the 4 years before the birth.
France — Double droit du sol: a citizen at birth if the foreign parent was also born in France. Otherwise a France-born child acquires citizenship automatically at 18 (on request from 13–16) subject to residence.
Descent only
United Kingdom — Jus soli ended in 1983: a UK-born child is a citizen only if a parent is British or settled (ILR). Otherwise — registration once a parent gains ILR, or after the child’s first 10 years in the country.
Russia — Jus sanguinis: the child is a Russian citizen if both (or the sole) parents are citizens, or one parent is a citizen and the birth is in Russia. Birth in Russia to foreigners confers nothing.
FAQ
Where does a child get citizenship by the mere fact of birth?
Unconditional jus soli survives mostly in the Americas: the US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico grant citizenship at birth whatever the parents’ status. Europe has almost none of it: Germany, Portugal and Ireland require parental residence before the birth, France grants citizenship to the locally born only towards adulthood, and the UK abolished jus soli back in 1983.
Does the child’s birth give the parents any status?
In Latin America — yes, and that is the route’s real secret: Brazil and Mexico grant the parents residence through the child immediately, with accelerated naturalisation (Brazil from 1 year, Mexico after 2 years of PR); Argentina gives residence and citizenship after ~2 years of living there. The US and Canada give nothing: the child can sponsor the parents only from age 21.
What is the catch with a US passport for the child?
Two things. US citizenship means lifelong tax duties: worldwide-income returns, FATCA, friction at foreign banks; renunciation is a paid procedure with a possible exit tax. And the soil rule itself is being contested: the 2025 executive order tries to exclude children of parents without permanent status; enforcement is blocked in court and the final word rests with the Supreme Court.
Will the child automatically get the parents’ citizenships?
Usually yes — by descent (jus sanguinis): a child of Russian citizens is Russian, a child of a Briton is British (unless the parent is “by descent” only), and so on. Citizenships stack: a child born to Russian parents in Brazil holds both. Russian-citizen parents must notify the MVD of the child’s second citizenship.
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