Do babies born abroad get U.S. citizenship?

How to apply for a CRBA and a U.S. passport

A number of people have asked: “so, since Stella was born in Italy, is she Italian?” Nope. The U.S. is one of the few places that grants citizenship automatically at birth. To get Italian citizenship, Stella would have to live here in Italy until she’s 18, then apply for citizenship before she turns 19. 

She is a U.S. citizen, because Nathan and I are. That means that in order to leave Italy, she needs a U.S. passport. 

Most people who plan to have a baby abroad likely already know and plan for this. At least I hope they do! We briefly considered having Stella in London due to some issues (more on that another time), but in the end didn’t because it meant we would be stuck there waiting for her passport before we could return home to Italy.

The process can take anywhere from 3-12 weeks. You should take that into consideration if you have any plans to travel to the U.S. For example, if you live abroad and your baby is due in the fall, but you want to travel home for Christmas, you’ll want to start the process as soon as possible after the birth. 

Before you can apply for a baby passport, you need a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA). This is basically your baby’s American birth certificate, showing that the child was a U.S. citizen at birth. 

How to Apply for a CRBA

The application process is simple. We were told it changed just a few days before Stella was born, and it seems like it was made easier. 

Visit mytravel.state.gov and from there click ‘Apply for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad.’ You’ll have to create an account first. Then, you fill out the application, which is just a Google form. It includes things like your date of birth and passport number, marriage certificate information, and the baby’s foreign birth certificate. 

Proving ‘physical presence’ in the U.S.

The most challenging part of the application is the ‘physical presence’ section. This is where you have to account for every time you’ve been physically present in the U.S. Every. Single. Time. You’re supposed to exclude times you’ve been outside of the U.S., including vacations, for your entire life. This is easy for periods you were living abroad (I didn’t include all of 2020 because we were in Dubai, for example), but much harder for vacations. Here’s an example:

Say you went on vacation to Costa Rica for two weeks in February of 2022. Then to Greece in September, and Canada in October. Your application for that year would look something like this:

01/01/2022 - 02/10/2022––Chicago

(Leave two weeks unaccounted for for Costa Rica)

02/24/2022 – 09/08/2022 – Chicago 

(Leave time unaccounted for for Greece)

09/20/2022—10/15/2022 – Chicago 

(Leave time unaccounted for for Canada)

10/21/2022 - 12/31/2022 – Chicago 

Obviously, this only gets more complicated the more you travel. And who can remember their exact vacation dates going back their entire life? 

In the end, we left gaps for the years we lived abroad, and for any very long trips (over a month). Otherwise, we didn’t include vacations. We have also moved around the U.S. a lot, making it more complicated. You’re supposed to upload documentation for each time you’ve been in the U.S.., like a lease, school transcript, utility bill, or something else showing you were there at that time. 

I was pretty stressed about this section. Also pretty annoyed. I mean, the U.S. government knows when I’ve been in and out of the country! That’s why they scan passports. This seemed like one of those irritating, pointless exercises, like taxes. (They know how much we owe. Just send us a bill!) I was worried that they would notice the discrepancies and we would have to redo the whole thing, delaying the process. 

After you submit the application, you wait for it to be reviewed and then are called into the nearest embassy or consulate for an interview. The interview turned out to be just gathering copies of all of our documents (birth certificate, marriage license, passports–make sure you have all of that with you. The application will give you a list). No one asked anything about our physical presence in the U.S. 

Maybe we got lucky, but I have a feeling if you put in a good faith effort that section isn’t all that important. After all, you don’t have to have spent a certain amount of time in the U.S. for your kid to be an American citizen. I still don’t really understand the point of this section. Anyone here work in consular services? Please enlighten me.

As part of the online application you pay $100, non-refundable. You can pay by credit card or bank account.

Applying for a baby’s first U.S. Passport 

You can apply for your child’s passport at the same time as you apply for the CRBA. Fill out form DS-11, but don’t sign until you’re at the embassy or consulate for your CRBA interview. 

Bring an original copy of your child’s birth certificate. Not the CRBA (which you won’t have in your possession yet), but the birth certificate from the country where they were born. You need a document that lists your relationship to the child, which in most cases will be the birth certificate. 

You’ll also need passport photos. It’s ok if the baby's eyes aren’t open in the photo. You can either lay them on a white sheet, or hold them up against a wall. (My thumbs are visible in Stella’s photo and it was fine). 

The passport fee is $165. Unfortunately, first-time baby passports cannot be expedited except in cases of life or death emergencies. (I tried to say we had a wedding to attend in three weeks. No dice.)

Then you wait. The passport agent told us the CRBA and passport would take eight weeks minimum. But, we received them in about four weeks. Most people I’ve spoken with in Europe received theirs within 3-5 weeks. 

Now your baby is legal and you can travel! Next step is getting their social security number. 

What questions do you have about this process, or about having a baby abroad in general? Any questions about traveling with a baby so far? Please let me know for future posts!

–Rebecca 💛