also called jus soli · birthright citizenship
Automatic citizenship granted to those born on a country's soil.
Some countries hand citizenship to anyone born inside their borders, no matter where the parents are from. It comes from the ground you were born on, not from your bloodline. That is the opposite of citizenship by descent, which follows your parents rather than your birthplace.
A couple from India are living in the United States on work visas when their baby arrives in a hospital there. The baby is an American citizen from birth, even though neither parent is, purely because of where the delivery happened.
Where a child is born can grant them a citizenship, which some traveling families factor into where they give birth.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These split by what qualifies you.
Citizenship by birth is granted by being born on the soil, citizenship by descent comes through a parent or grandparent, and a grandfathered route or right of return extends that to a wider heritage a country chooses to honour.
Naturalization is the process a foreigner goes through after living there and meeting language and residence rules, and naturalization by marriage is the shortened version for the spouse of a citizen.
Citizenship by descent · Naturalization · Naturalization by marriage
A new term lands on this site every day, and the email is how you get it the day it lands. No digest, no roundup, no pitch. One term, what it means, and what it costs you to get it wrong.
Unsubscribe in one click, any time. We do not sell or share your address.