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South Africa's one million invisible children without birth certificates

(www.france24.com)
116 points mooreds | 1 comments | 14 Oct 25 01:13 UTC | HN request time: 0.304s | source
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bombcar ◴[21 Oct 25 13:52 UTC] No.45655813[source]▶
For reference, the US has procedures for this: https://www.usa.gov/citizenship-no-birth-certificate because people without birth certificates are still somewhat common, even children.

Vermont didn't require it until 1955!

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nostrademons ◴[21 Oct 25 14:24 UTC] No.45656231[source]▶
My dad was born in the Philippines in 1939. He came over to the U.S. on a Taiwanese passport in 1959, part of a group of students that MIT imported from the Philippines based on letters of recommendation from their Atomic Energy Commission, and then bounced around on various visas for a decade. Finally got citizenship upon marrying my mom in 1971.

When McCain was running for president, there was a big court case about whether being born in the Canal Zone (a U.S. territory) qualified as being a "natural born citizen". And I made the connection - "Wait. The Philippines was a U.S. territory in 1939. Shouldn't dad have had birthright citizenship?"

Moot point by then, he'd already been a citizen for ~40 years, and died the next year. But it was wild to think that the 10+ years of immigration hassles were basically due to an administrative fuck-up, and that legally, he should have had citizenship all along. The process you link wouldn't work for him, either, because the Philippines is not a U.S. territory now.

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1. cafard ◴[22 Oct 25 15:39 UTC] No.45670778[source]▶
McCain's parents were both American citizens. I suppose that he would have been a natural born citizen even if born in (say) France. Supposedly Henry Luce was worried that he might not be a natural born citizen, since he was born in China to American missionaries. Apparently he counted as a natural born citizen, though I don't think anyone outside his household ever imagined him as president.