Timeline for Can someone who does not consider himself a US citizen be extradited and punished for a US felony crime due to a US citizenship?
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| 8 hours ago | answer | added | jmoreno | timeline score: 0 | |
| May 24, 2025 at 1:30 | answer | added | david | timeline score: 2 | |
| May 15, 2023 at 11:07 | comment | added | phoog | @gnasher729 On the other hand, the question is almost 8 years old and has generated a lot of responses, so changing it may be a bad idea. | |
| May 15, 2023 at 11:06 | comment | added | phoog | @gnasher729 this has been bothering me too. If the question is about someone who isn't aware of her US citizenship, as suggested by the example, the title should say that instead. If the question is truly about someone who doesn't "consider" herself a US citizen then the answer is simply "what anyone considers her US citizenship status to be is irrelevant." In other words, the question as it stands now is unclear as to whether it concerns citizenship law or extradition and extraterritoriality of criminal law. | |
| May 15, 2023 at 8:24 | comment | added | gnasher729 | Can we at some point change the title, since whether you consider yourself a US citizen or not is quite irrelevant to anything. Whether the USA considers you a US citizen, or maybe some other country, that is what counts. | |
| May 15, 2023 at 0:23 | answer | added | Brian | timeline score: 3 | |
| Oct 2, 2022 at 14:14 | comment | added | phoog | @ohwilleke "U.S. situ" including "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction"? Also, 18 USC 2423 has a couple of sections that apply to US citizens and LPRs. Would you count that as "having US citizenship as an element" or "without regard to citizenship"? (And would a noncitizen national be likely to prevail with an argument that it doesn't apply to noncitizen nationals?) | |
| Jan 14, 2022 at 0:38 | comment | added | ohwilleke | Important to note that very, very few U.S. law criminal offenses have U.S. citizenship as an element of the office and extend to the extraterritorial conduct, and that this is similarly true in most other countries. I doubt that there are twenty such offenses in U.S. law, and there are probably fewer. Most laws either apply to U.S. situ conduct only, or apply extraterritorially without regard to citizenship. | |
| S Jan 13, 2022 at 23:51 | history | suggested | Nike Dattani | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
fixed typo in title
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| Jan 13, 2022 at 23:01 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Jan 13, 2022 at 23:51 | |||||
| Oct 11, 2019 at 17:47 | comment | added | phoog | @corsiKa One person's corner case is another's common case. You may have a friend who apparently could have fallen under INA §322 and failed to act before turning 18, but I know several people who were born abroad to US citizen parents and acquired US citizenship under INA §301, for which there is no deadline. I have also read about several cases of adults who acquired citizenship under INA §320 without knowing it and learned of that acquisition in removal proceedings from their lawyers who saved them from removal even though they never had any citizenship documentation before turning 18. | |
| Oct 11, 2019 at 17:33 | comment | added | phoog | @DavidSiegel only certain people born outside the US must claim US citizenship before turning 18. There's no deadline for those falling under §301 (subsection c, d, or g, or certainly h, which affects only people who were over 60 years old when it was enacted). The 18-year deadline applies to §320 and $322, and §320 requires moving to the US, not submitting an application. | |
| Oct 30, 2018 at 3:26 | comment | added | David Siegel | @corsiKa: The people who must claim citizenship by 18 are those born OUTSIDE the US, claiming citizenship because one or both parents were citizens. People born INSIDE the US are citizens forever, absent one of the very few acts that cause forfeiture of US citizenship. | |
| Oct 15, 2018 at 20:15 | answer | added | David Siegel | timeline score: 5 | |
| Aug 18, 2017 at 16:02 | comment | added | jez | Props to Alice's mother for whatever "lean in"-style thinking led her to go on a cruise with a baby about to pop. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 13:00 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://law.stackexchange.com/ with https://law.stackexchange.com/
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| Jun 20, 2016 at 15:04 | comment | added | corsiKa | @phoog There may be some corner cases that allow someone to get citizenship after their 18th birthday, Much like your comment to dsollen above, coming up with like edge cases for the sake of proving someone wrong doesn't help. Bottom line is if you want your citizenship without question, get it done while you're still under 18. Even if you technically have a right to it after that, it will be much easier to do so before. | |
| Jun 20, 2016 at 10:58 | comment | added | phoog | @corsiKa not quite. It depends on whether the child meets the criteria in the first table. For example, if you're born outside the US and both your parents are US citizens at the time if your birth and one of them previously resided in the US, then you are a US citizen from birth even if you don't claim the citizenship until after you're 18. | |
| Jun 20, 2016 at 8:24 | comment | added | corsiKa | @phoog Straight from their website: uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-parents it reads in the opening sentence "There are two general ways to obtain citizenship through U.S. citizen parents, one at birth and one after birth but before the age of 18." So one of them is as soon as you're born, you can claim the citizenship. If you wait, you have until you're 18. | |
| Jun 20, 2016 at 4:38 | comment | added | phoog | @corsiKa Is Alice required to claim her citizenship by 18 because she was "born on a cruise while the cruise ship was sailing through US territorial waters"? If not, what is her claim to citizenship? I am unfamiliar with any law that requires citizenship to be claimed by age 18. Who told your friend that "once you're 18 there's nothing they can do"? | |
| Mar 10, 2016 at 18:39 | comment | added | corsiKa | Side note: if Alice turns 18 and has not claimed her US Citizenship, it's forfeited. I have a friend who is going through this because his parents, despite getting it for all his brothers and sisters, neglected to get his. They told him once you're 18 there's nothing they can do. He has to apply for a Green Card now. | |
| Mar 10, 2016 at 10:40 | answer | added | Steve Jessop | timeline score: 6 | |
| Jan 26, 2016 at 19:24 | comment | added | phoog | @dsollen yes. The overwhelming majority of those born in the US (probably more like 99.9% or more) are automatically US citizens, regardless of their parents' legal status. That's why there is controversy about "anchor babies," "birth tourism," and other issues related to birthright citizenship. I don't think a US ship in foreign territorial waters would count, but I don't really know. | |
| Jan 26, 2016 at 17:38 | comment | added | dsollen | @phoog I was vaguely aware of the above criteria, but this is an edge-case right? Your saying that 95% or more of cases just happening to be burn in any situation that qualifies one US territory, like being in their territorial waters or on a boat registered within the US even if it's off your home country coast, would make one a defacto US citizen without any other action taken right? barring any other edge case situations for diplomatic issues, like being in an embassy etc. | |
| Jan 25, 2016 at 22:59 | comment | added | phoog | @derTruth Correct. For being born in a US territory to make someone a US citizen, the person's parents have to be in the US without enjoying diplomatic immunity. For everyone else, being born in US territory makes them a US citizen. | |
| Nov 3, 2015 at 16:21 | comment | added | user3316 | Contrary to popular opinion, being born in US territory does not automatically make you a U.S. citizen. | |
| Oct 30, 2015 at 23:09 | comment | added | gnasher729 | @cpast: Most countries will not extradite anyone for something that isn't a crime in the country that is supposed to do the extraditing. | |
| Oct 26, 2015 at 16:01 | vote | accept | dsollen | ||
| Oct 24, 2015 at 7:45 | comment | added | user102008 | @YviDe: No. Citizenship and nationality are purely matters of law. Who is a citizen and national of each country are solely determined by the laws of that country. It's not up to anyone to "claim" or "not claim" except as provided by the country's law. | |
| Oct 22, 2015 at 16:26 | comment | added | YviDe | Doesn't citizenship need to be claimed? So Alice in situation 1 wouldn't even be a US citizen,right? | |
| Oct 22, 2015 at 2:59 | comment | added | cpast | Note 2: Your reading of "illicit sex act" is not correct. 18 USC 2423(f)(1) says it includes acts with someone under 18 which would be illegal under chapter 109A if they were committed in special maritime and territorial jurisdiction. Per 18 USC 2241(c), this includes sex with anyone under 16 who is at least 4 years younger than you, and anyone under 12 period. | |
| Oct 22, 2015 at 2:41 | comment | added | cpast | Note: A lot of states will not extradite their citizens. If you have dual citizenship and are living in the country of your other citizenship, you may well be safe from extradition as long as you're in said country. | |
| Oct 22, 2015 at 0:12 | answer | added | Dale M♦ | timeline score: 12 | |
| Oct 21, 2015 at 21:54 | comment | added | feetwet♦ | Ugh. I usually love editing posts, but this one just needs to be rewritten, starting with the title! | |
| S Oct 21, 2015 at 19:54 | history | edited | jimsug | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
removed distinction between citizens and "technical" citizens; legal and "technically" legal. these are the same thing under the law.
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| S Oct 21, 2015 at 19:54 | history | suggested | user248 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
removed distinction between citizens and "technical" citizens; legal and "technically" legal. these are the same thing under the law.
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| Oct 21, 2015 at 19:30 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Oct 21, 2015 at 19:54 | |||||
| Oct 21, 2015 at 19:22 | history | edited | dsollen | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1487 characters in body
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| Oct 21, 2015 at 19:12 | history | asked | dsollen | CC BY-SA 3.0 |