Originally posted by Annie B.:
the U.S. wouldn't allow them to be citizens in spite of their father's U.S. citizenship because he'd been out of the U.S. for too long.
I've NEVER heard of this. It's not like HE stopped being a US citizen because he wasn't in the states. There must be something else going on. Probably it had to do with him not filling out the right paperwork at the consulate office or having filled it out incorrectly, or as I stated in an earlier post before Karen edited my text
he may have waited too long to claim them. Trust me, having worked at the State Department, they LOVE and INVENTED red tape*.
However, when the family moved to the United States, my colleague was technically considered an illegal immigrant in spite of being married to a U.S. citizen, but the kids were legally permitted in the United States.
Yes, one doesn't automatically even become a legal resident by marrying a US citizen. There's a lot of paperwork involved between getting married and US Citizen. When I married my husband (who is now a US Citizen, but wasn't at the time), we had to go through a lot of paperwork to get him the correct visa and a temporary (two years) residency papers, just for him to enter our country. After two years of marriage, the government double checked our marriage to see if it was still stable and real, that he hadn't become a burden to the state or a criminal, and only then gave him permanent residency. It wasn't until after our son was born over 10 years later that he finally applied for citizenship, which includes an interview, a background check, lots more paperwork, and a test... a WRITTEN test... and an oath ceremony.
*For those who don't know, "Red Tape" is a slang term for paperwork. (i.e. filling out forms)
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Some of what I wrote above before it was edited out by Karen's mistake:
Naturalization is the switching of one's citizenship from one country to another. Those who have become naturalized in the US cannot become president, one has to be a
Natural Born Citizen , which Wikipedia describes as:
A 2011 Congressional Research Service report stated that:
The weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term "natural born" citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship "by birth" or "at birth", either by being born "in" the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents; or by being born in other situations meeting legal requirements for U.S. citizenship "at birth". Such term, however, would not include a person who was not a U.S. citizen by birth or at birth, and who was thus born an "alien" required to go through the legal process of "naturalization" to become a U.S. citizen.
I believe Clark would fit under the loosely defined "born to alien parents", had a pregnant Lara had arrived to Earth prior to Kal-El's birth, or as Lynn said happened in comics-canon his ship was considered a "birthing matrix" and he was "born" when it was opened.
Also, Karen's quote, which she attributed to EL, was written by me:
I could easily see Sam being in the military and having Lois born on a military base abroad. Then after leaving the service, deciding to stay abroad (maybe to help out with a charity like Doctors Without Boarders) and, therefore, Lois could easily be raised abroad and still be a US citizen who had never lived in the US by the time she was a teenager. She would be fluent in other languages from living abroad and not having "English" spoken around the home, especially if Ellen died shortly after Lois was born. I could see Lois wanting to explore that part of her life and doing an "abroad" program in the country she technically is a citizen.
Again, let me state, I believe both Lois and Clark would make an awful President, whether or not they are qualified or allowed to be so. Lois and Clark are action oriented people and the job of President deals with negotiation, diplomacy, and bureaucracy, which can drive even the most patient people insane. Lois and Clark would effect a bigger change as Superman and investigative journalists than politicians. Just my 2 cents.
