The federal court system is very different than the state court system. This is especially true if your immigration status is in question.
In some instances, a person may or may not know if he/she is a U.S. citizen. For example, birth abroad does not automatically exclude U.S. citizenship because a person may acquire or derive U.S. citizenship from one or both parents.
The immigration code sections setting forth the rules on acquisition and derivation of citizenship are among the most difficult to decipher, and Congress frequently amends the relevant statutes, sometimes making the new provisions retroactive and sometimes prospective.
Whether an individual born abroad has acquired or derived U.S. citizenship turns on the confluence of several factors, including:
• Year of the person’s birth
• Whether both parents are U.S. citizens?
• If not, which parent?
• When the parent(s) became citizen(s)?
• The marital status of the parents
• If born out of wedlock, whether the person was legitimated?
• The length of time the citizen parent(s) resided in the U.S. prior to the person’s birth abroad
• Whether the person was legally admitted to or resided in the U.S.
• Whether the non-citizen’s parents, grandparents or great-grandparents were born in the U.S. or ever became naturalized U.S. citizens
