DE GUZMAN, KRISANTA

PERSONS AND FAMILY RELATIONS – THURSDAY 5 PM TO 9 PM

Q: If a child is born of both US Citizen parents in the Philippines, what is the child’s citizenship?

A: The United States adopts the jus soli principle, where a child’s citizenship is determined by the place of
their birth. In the Philippines, the principle of jus sanguinis is applied, where the citizenship of the parents
determines the citizenship of the child. In the case of the determination of the citizenship of a child born
from US citizen parents in the Philippines, the child can be considered stateless. A stateless person is
someone who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law. In this case, the
US citizenship cannot be passed on to a child born in the Philippines due to contradictory laws on the
same.