A natural born citizen is a person who became a U.S. citizen at birth and did not need to go through a naturalization proceeding later in life.
The term arises from Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution, which sets out the eligibility requirements for holding the office of President:
"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States."
Additionally, the Fourteenth Amendment provides that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
The Constitution does not expressly define “natural born citizen,” and the Supreme Court has never ruled precisely on its meaning. In contrast, 8 U.S.C. § 1401 lists eight categories of persons who are "nationals and citizens of the United States at birth." Those categories include persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction, as well as children of one or more U.S. citizens abroad under certain circumstances. However, the term "natural born" is not used in the statute, and there is some uncertainty over whether a person that is born outside the U.S. but who still becomes a citizen at birth by statute is a “natural born citizen” under the Constitution.
In some rare cases, a person born within the United States may not be a citizen if that person is not subject to U.S. jurisdiction. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 US. 649 the Supreme Court identified two specific examples of persons not subject to U.S. jurisdiction:
- Children born of alien enemies in hostile occupation
- Children of diplomatic representatives
One can still be a citizen while not being a “natural born citizen” if that person gained citizenship through the process of naturalization. As a result, naturalized citizens have all the same privileges and responsibilities as other U.S. citizens, except for U.S. Presidential eligibility. Today, 8 U.S.C. § 1101 defines naturalization as the “conferring of nationality of a state upon a person after birth, by any means whatsoever.”
For more on natural born citizens, see this Georgetown University Law Center Immigration and Nationality Law Review article, this Harvard Law Review article, and this Fordham Law Review article.
[Last updated in August of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team]