[dragonwriter]

> The US says if X is the USA then you are NOT a citizen of the US.

That's absolutely not true if your parents are married (children born in-wedlock to parents who are both US citizens, at least one of whom has ever been present in the US, acquire citizenship at birth by operation of law; there is paperwork to get a certificate acknowledging this, but it is an acknowledgement of something that happened by virtue of birth.)

A similar rule applies but with a more stringent prior residency requirement for the US Citizen parent for in-wedlock children of a US citizen and an alien that occur outside of the US.

Out-of-wedlock overseas births to at least one US parent have permissive (under certain circumstances) acquisition of citizenship rather than automatic, with different rules for US citizen fathers vs. US citizen mothers.

See, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-lega...

[tialaramex]

I evidently had this completely wrong, I can't now correct it, so I've upvoted those pointing out that it's wrong.