Trump administration policy change on children's citizenship causes widespread confusion

The Trump administration appears to be making it tougher for some foreign-born children of members of the military and U.S. government employees to get U.S. citizenship.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service quietly issued changes Wednesday to the way a group of these children born abroad to these parents acquire citizenship. The new rules apply to children who were not born as citizens — such as those who were born to non-citizens and later adopted by U.S. citizens serving abroad, or in cases where parents who were not citizens at the time of the child’s birth but were later naturalized.

In such cases, the agency will not automatically grant the residency status needed for citizenship to those children. Instead, those parents will have to apply for their children’s citizenship and prove that they meet the legal requirements. Children of U.S. citizens who do not meet technical residency requirements would also be affected.

The changes do not apply to the majority of children born to two citizens serving abroad.

Nonetheless, because the wording of the changes were not easy to grasp, the new guidance, which came in different stages through the day and had to be clarified by the agency Wednesday afternoon, caused widespread confusion and criticism as word of the change spread through social media.

source: nbcnews.com