Cite as: 582 U. S. ____ (2017)
3
Opinion of the Court
establishing a range of residency and physical-presence
requirements calibrated primarily to the parents’ nation
ality and the child’s place of birth. §1401(a) (1958 ed.);
§1401 (2012 ed.). The primacy of §1401 in the statutory
scheme is evident. Comprehensive in coverage, §1401
provides the general framework for the acquisition of
citizenship at birth. In particular, at the time relevant
here,2 §1401(a)(7) provided for the U. S. citizenship of
“a person born outside the geographical limits of the
United States and its outlying possessions of parents
one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the
United States who, prior to the birth of such person,
was physically present in the United States or its out
lying possessions for a period or periods totaling not
less than ten years, at least five of which were after
attaining the age of fourteen years: Provided, That
any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces
of the United States by such citizen parent may be in
cluded in computing the physical presence require
ments of this paragraph.”
Congress has since reduced the duration requirement to
five years, two after age 14. §1401(g) (2012 ed.).3
Section 1409 pertains specifically to children with un
married parents. Its first subsection, §1409(a), incorpo
rates by reference the physical-presence requirements of
§1401, thereby allowing an acknowledged unwed citizen
parent to transmit U. S. citizenship to a foreign-born child
——————
2 Unless
otherwise noted, references to 8 U. S. C. §§1401 and 1409 are
to the 1958 edition of the U. S. Code, the version in effect when re
spondent Morales-Santana was born. Section 1409(a) and (c) have
retained their numbering; §1401(a)(7) has become §1401(g).
3 The reduction affects only children born on or after November 14,
1986. §8(r), 102 Stat. 2619; see §§12–13, 100 Stat. 3657. Because
Morales-Santana was born in 1962, his challenge is to the ten-years,
five-after-age-14 requirement applicable at the time of his birth.