Ægteskabudengrænser.dk

Hi all! Does anyone have experience with either of these two situations? Both have occurred in the same family.

About 30 years ago a Danish sailor took residence in Puerto Rico on an American green card. There he met a pretty "Rican" seniorita, they got married and lived in PR for a couple of years. While still in PR, they have their first child together, a girl.

Before the girl is old enough to go to school, they move to Denmark. In Denmark they have their youngest son. (There is another son in between but this question does not involve him.)

The girl has always had an American passport and has never attempted to get a Danish passport.

The boy has both Danish and American passports.

Fast forward to today. The girl is living with her Danish boyfriend here in Denmark, and the boy is living with his Danish girlfriend here in Denmark. Both couples have recently become proud parents. Since this is, after all, Denmark, they have taken on the Danish model of living together first, having children, and then maybe after awhile they think about getting married, which for these couples is still in the future.

Now the first question is, does the girl's baby have Danish citizenship?

The second question is, will the boy's baby have a problem getting American citizenship, since the baby is born outside of wedlock and outside of the USA?

The third question is, would anything change for the babies if their parents tie the knot?

And the last question is, where do the babies have to be registered in order to get their passports?

The Danish Citizenship Law from 1978, which was amended in 1986, and therefore applies to the girl, states that a child born in wedlock, who has either a mother or a father who is Danish, will become a Danish citizen.

The same rule applies today. The girl therefore has dual citizenship, just like her brother.

The girl's children will therefore get their Danish citizenship from her, regardless of where they will be born.

When a couple is not married, the children will not get Danish citizenship if only the father is Danish and the child is not born in DK. The girl's child has Danish citizenship from both of her parents, because both are Danish and the child was born in DK.

As far as I understand the rules here, neither the girls nor the boy's child will automatically get US-citizenship, even if their parents marry:
http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship ... _5199.html

http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease ... 022701.pdf

"Under the Child Citizenship Act, the U.S. citizen parent of a child living abroad must have five years of physical presence in the United States or its outlying possessions with at least two years occurring after age 14, in order to apply for citizenship on behalf of the child. If you cannot meet this requirement, the law allows you to rely on the physical presence of your citizen parent to apply for citizenship. If you are relying on the physical presence of your U.S. citizen parent, you must file the Form N-600/N-643, Supplement A."

The status of citizenship will not change for any of the babies if their parents get married.

The babies are, I presume, already registered as Danish citizens, and will not have any problems getting a Danish passport. The difficulty seems to be to get them an American citizenship.

Thank you very much, mh, this is a really big help for my colleague. She has had so much else to deal with the last couple of years and any help she can get is very much appreciated.

Thought I would respond since I have some information.
My husband is American and our child has dual citizenship. She automatically got Danish since she was born in Denmark and I am Danish and she was able to obtain American citizenship because my husband could prove he had lived in the us for at least 3 years before he was 14 years old and at least 2 years after he was 14 years old - that is the only way to obtain us citizenship without being born there.

I hope that makes sense

Thank you, bodilmorgan, that makes sense. I think they will have to go the grandma route, since neither the boy nor the girl can confer U.S. citizenship to their babies without her. It sounds like the good ol' USA has enacted an attachment requirement at least as far as citizenship is concerned.