PA-2023-21: Statelessness Page: 5 Background Information on Causes of Statelessness and Resulting Vulnerabilities While there is no form of immigration benefit or relief where eligibility is based solely on a requestor’s statelessness, USCIS may consider this particular circumstance as a relevant factor in the adjudication of certain immigration benefits or other requests. The determination of whether a person is a citizen or national of a particular country sometimes involves interpreting complex issues in foreign law. However, USCIS recognizes that stateless persons—those who lack a nationality by virtue of the laws or policies of a country—may face obstacles in applying for and obtaining immigration benefits or other relief or actions. There are a number of common causes of statelessness, including but not limited to: • Lack of birth registration and birth certificates; • Birth to stateless parents; • Political change and transfer of territory, which may alter the nationality status of citizens of the former state or states; • Administrative oversights, procedural problems, conflicts of law between two countries, or destruction of official records; • Alteration of nationality during marriage or the dissolution of marriage between couples from different countries; • Targeted discrimination against minorities; • Laws restricting acquisition of citizenship; • Laws restricting the rights of women to pass on their nationality to their children; • Laws relating to children born out of wedlock or during transit; and • Loss, revocation, or relinquishment of nationality without first acquiring another. 5 Without an officially recognized nationality, stateless individuals often have no right to vote, and they often lack a variety of legal protections; lack access to education, employment, health care; lack the ability to register birth, marriage, or death; and lack property rights. Stateless individuals may also encounter travel restrictions, social exclusion, and heightened vulnerability to sexual and physical violence, exploitation, trafficking in persons, forcible displacement, and other abuses. 6 See INA 349. Officers should contact the Office of the Chief Counsel in the event of potential loss of U.S. nationality through domestic renunciation or other loss of citizenship. 6 See the U.S. Department of State’s Statelessness webpage. 5