U.S. immigration officials try to clarify memo on citizenship of children born to U.S. troops abroad

U.S. Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) published a policy memo on Wednesday that raised more questions than it sought to clarify about citizenship for the children of U.S. military personnel serving abroad.

USCIS spokeswoman Meredith Parker explained the new policy to Task & Purpose, a military-focused news service: "The policy change explains that we will not consider children who live abroad with their parents to be residing in the United States even if their parents are U.S. government employees or U.S. service members stationed outside of the United States, and as a result, these children will no longer be considered to have acquired citizenship automatically."

USCIS acting Director Ken Cuccinnelli then released a statement clarifying that "this policy update does not affect who is born a U.S. citizen, period," or "impact birthright citizenship," but "only affects children who were born outside the United States and were not U.S. citizens."

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Got it? No? For the most part, Military.com explains, the policy change "will make adoptions and paperwork more complicated for some families of U.S. service members" and "citizens who haven't been in the U.S. for a while." For example, if a permanent U.S. resident serving in the military abroad has a child with another non-U.S. citizen, that child won't automatically be a U.S. citizen; if the same couple has a child while stationed in the U.S. — or never enlists in the military at all — that child would automatically become a citizen. If U.S. citizen service members stationed abroad adopt a non-U.S. citizen, they will have to apply for citizenship on behalf of their adopted child.

The policy change should affect "very few people a year," an unidentified USCIS official told Task & Purpose. At the same time, "USCIS did not provide any reasons for the policy update," Military.com notes. "It remains unclear how many children will be affected by the new rules. ... From 1999 to 2010, roughly 80,000 non-citizens were members of the armed services. About 5,000 legal permanent residents join the armed services each year."