According to Donald Trump’s order, children born to immigrant parents in America after February 19 will not get birthright American citizenship. In such a situation, the question has arisen that how will such children get American citizenship and where will they be considered citizens by birth.
The world’s superpower America has always been a dream for Indians. Indians dream of going there to work and then settling there. Every year thousands of Indians go to America on work visas (H-1B and L-1 visas) and dream of settling there. But an order of the new President of America has almost shattered this dream of Indians.
Indians living in America on work visas and dreaming of getting citizenship there by giving birth to a child have got a big shock from Trump’s decision because Trump has abolished the right to birthright citizenship.
One of the executive orders signed by Trump after taking oath as President on January 20 was also to abolish birthright citizenship. Trump has taken this decision to control the number of immigrants in America, which has affected thousands of Indians. According to the order, children born to non-Americans after February 19 will not be considered US citizens.
This decision of Trump was challenged in the court, after which the judge declared it unconstitutional and put a temporary stay on the order. On this, Trump said that his administration will appeal against the judge’s decision.
Trump’s decision caused chaos among Indians
According to the US State Department, Indians get the most L-1 work visas out of all the L-1 work visas issued by the US. Indians hold 72% of the total H-1B visas issued by the US.
Both L-1 and H-1B are temporary work visas that allow foreigners to live and work temporarily in the US. Indians are the most among the foreigners living in the US on work visas and they are facing the most problems due to Trump’s decision.
In view of this, women who have reached the US on work visas and are pregnant and are in the seventh or eighth month of their pregnancy are delivering their child through C-section before time.
Pregnant couples want to give birth to their child before the deadline so that their child gets American citizenship and their path to citizenship through the child becomes easier.
According to American law, if someone is born in America, he/she gets birthright citizenship. However, this does not give citizenship to the parents, but yes, it does make it easier for them to get citizenship. Parents can apply for American citizenship through their child. But due to Trump’s decision, children born to immigrant parents after February 19 will be deprived of American citizenship.
Where will the children born after February 19 be citizens of?
After Trump’s decision, people have this question in their mind that if the children of Indians born in America do not get American citizenship, then where will they be considered citizens of?
Our partner website India Today spoke to Sultan Ahmed of Universal Advisor Migration Services in this regard.
He said, ‘Under the current US law, children born in the US are given the right to birthright citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status. However, this will not happen after the new rule. Birthright citizenship will not be given to those children whose parents are here on temporary visas like H-1B, H-4 or student visa. A lot has changed.’
He further said, ‘This means that from February 19, 2025, children of parents living on temporary visas will not get US citizenship. Instead, to get citizenship, they will have to apply for citizenship through the status of their parents or by other means.’
Process of Indian citizenship for children born in the US to Indian parents
Migration expert Ahmed says that it is easy for these children born in America to get Indian citizenship.
He says, ‘As far as Indian citizenship is concerned, Indian nationality is usually obtained on the basis of the nationality of the parents. If both parents are Indian citizens, their child will also be considered an Indian citizen, even if he is born in the US (provided that the parents have not voluntarily renounced their Indian citizenship or have not taken any steps that would result in the loss of citizenship). The child will be considered an Indian citizen by descent.’
But in some exceptional cases, the parents will have to register the child’s birth with the relevant authorities for the child’s Indian citizenship. This will have to be done for citizenship of a child born in the US before February 19.
Expert Ahmed says, ‘If the child is born before the change in the new rule and is an American citizen by birth, then he cannot be given Indian citizenship unless the parents apply for it, and the child will have to renounce US citizenship to acquire Indian citizenship (because India does not allow dual citizenship).’
