Honorary citizenship of the United States Honorary citizenship of the United States A person of exceptional merit, generally a non-United States citizen, may be declared an honorary citizen of the United States by an Act of Congress or by a proclamation issued by the President of the United States, pursuant to authorization granted by Congress. Eight people have been so honored, six posthumously, and two, Sir Winston Churchill and Mother Teresa, during their lifetimes. For Lafayette and Mother Teresa, the honor was proclaimed directly by an Act of Congress. In the other cases, an Act of Congress was passed authorizing the President to grant honorary citizenship
Citizenship of the United States person born in the former Panama Canal Zone whose father or mother (or both) are or were a citizen is a United States citizen by birth. Regardless of where they are born, children of U.S. citizens are U.S. citizens in most cases. Children born outside the United States with at least one U.S. citizen parent usually have birthright citizenship by parentage. A child of unknown parentage found in the US while under the age of 5 is considered a US citizen until proven, before reaching the age of 22, to have not been born in the US. While persons born