Citizen Matthew!

We have received a lot of questions from people who are wondering if Matthew is a US citizen. Furthermore, many people also commented before we left that since he will be born outside the US, then he won't be able to be president.

I won't go into all the gory details, but I would like to clarify a couple of things. Most people realize that if you are born on US soil, then you are a natural born US citizen - irrespective of the status of your parents. However, what some people might not know is that you are also a natural born citizen if both of your parents are US citizens - no matter the location of your birth. These two scenarios result in the exact same thing. (You are also a natural born citizen if one of your parents is a US citizen - but there's more paperwork and some other residency requirements of your US parent.)

In order to become president, you must be a natural born citizen. The constitution doesn't care which of the above scenarios you followed, so long as you followed one of them. Therefore, Matthew is not only a US citizen, he is a natural born citizen and is eligible to become president once he hits 35 years of age.

What's a bit different is that Matthew has a Belgian birth certificate. I must now take this to the consulate offices here and start the process. First, we will apply for a CRIBA or Consulate Record of Birth Abroad. This will end up being the document that will prove his citizenship. While at the consulates office we will also apply for his social security number/card, his tourist passport and his official passport. Lots of paperwork.

I bring all this up now because we will be going in to apply for all of this something this week. I'll try to post up his passport photo when we get it!