For investors building a Plan B for the next generation, the Americas remain the world’s most generous region for citizenship by birth. Nearly every country in the hemisphere grants automatic citizenship to any child born on its soil, regardless of the parents’ nationality or legal status.
That makes the region an outlier. No European country has applied unconditional jus soli since Ireland amended its Constitution in 2004, and Asia, Africa, and Oceania pass citizenship almost exclusively through bloodline.
This guide covers who still offers citizenship by birth in the Americas, where the rule comes with conditions, and where the parents of a child born on national soil also gain immigration benefits of their own. For the full country-by-country breakdown of paths to citizenship worldwide, IMI’s Citizenship Catalog covers 843 paths across 195 countries.
The Default Rule
Unconditional jus soli applies across Central and South America (with the three exceptions noted below), in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and in most independent Caribbean states. A child born in any of these countries becomes a citizen at birth, with the only routine exclusions being children of foreign diplomats accredited to the host country.
That translates to more than 30 jurisdictions in a single region where a baby becomes a citizen at birth regardless of what passport the parents hold. No other part of the world comes close, which is why almost every country practicing birthright citizenship sits in the Western Hemisphere.
The Three Conditional Regimes
Colombia, Chile, and the Dominican Republic are the exceptions. Each still confers citizenship at birth, but attaches conditions.
Colombia’s Constitution (Article 96) requires that at least one parent be Colombian by birth or naturalization, or that at least one parent be legally domiciled in Colombia at the moment of birth. Legal domicile generally requires a valid residence visa; tourist status alone does not qualify.
Law 2332 of 2023 went further and presumed domicile for foreigners covered by Colombia’s temporary migratory protection mechanisms, including the Estatuto Temporal de Protección para Migrantes Venezolanos that replaced the earlier PEP in 2021. The law also added a discretionary safeguard for children who would otherwise be stateless.
Chile’s Constitution excludes two narrow categories: Children of foreigners who are in the country in the service of their government, and children of “transient foreigners,” a term the 2021 immigration law defines narrowly to cover tourists and people in brief transit. A child of a resident foreigner qualifies automatically. A child born to tourists can opt in within one year of turning 18 under a separate procedure, and a statelessness safeguard covers anyone who would otherwise be left without a nationality.
The Dominican Republic is the most restrictive of the three. Article 18 of the 2010 Constitution, reinforced by Constitutional Court ruling TC 168-13 in 2013, excludes children born to foreigners “residing illegally” or “in transit.” The practical effect has been to deny citizenship to children of undocumented migrants, most of them of Haitian descent, and the policy has generated statelessness challenges that international bodies continue to criticize.
The US Caveat
The United States still grants citizenship to almost every child born on its soil under the 14th Amendment. Executive Order 14160, signed on January 20, 2025, sought to restrict that guarantee to children with at least one parent who is a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.
Federal courts blocked the order before it took effect on February 19, 2025, and the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on April 1, 2026 in Trump v. Barbara. A ruling is expected by the end of the Court’s term in late June or early July 2026.
Until the Court rules, birthright citizenship for children born in the United States applies as it has for more than a century. Any investor considering a US birth as part of a multi-jurisdictional strategy should confirm the legal status as of the birth date.
Argentina: Citizenship For The Child, Less For The Parents
Argentina still grants unconditional citizenship to anyone born on its territory under Ley 346 (Ley de Ciudadanía), which implements the nationality powers in Article 75 of the Constitution. The benefit for the parents is what changed in 2025.
Before Decree 366/2025 (May 2025), foreign parents of an Argentine-born child received permanent residency on the strength of family reunification. Under the new rules, those parents start with temporary residency and must meet additional conditions (proof of sufficient means, clean criminal record) before transitioning to permanent residency.
Temporary residency can be lost after an absence of six months, and permanent residency can be cancelled after an absence of more than one year. The standard naturalization timeline remains two years of continuous legal residence, making Argentina one of only two Latin American countries still offering that short a threshold (the other being the Dominican Republic) after Peru extended its requirement. The same decree requires uninterrupted presence during that period. Any departure resets the clock.
Argentina’s jus soli is intact. Its family reunification pathway became considerably less generous.
Where Parents Benefit Most: Brazil
Brazil pairs unconditional jus soli with the region’s fastest fast-track for the parents. Any child born in Brazil is Brazilian by birth, with only the children of foreign parents in the service of their home government excluded.
Foreign parents of a Brazilian-born child can apply directly for permanent residency under the family reunification category (commonly known as VITEM) without going through a temporary residence stage. The category remains valid indefinitely as long as the parental relationship stands, and Brazil does not impose a minimum investment, income threshold, or language requirement at the permanent residency stage.
Citizenship follows quickly. Parents of a Brazilian child qualify for naturalization after one year of permanent residency, against the standard four-year timeline.
Applicants must demonstrate Portuguese proficiency and a clean criminal record. In practice, the full process can take closer to two years once document preparation and administrative processing are factored in, but the legal minimum is one of the shortest naturalization tracks anywhere in the world.
A family that times the pregnancy and immigration steps well can hold Brazilian citizenship (a passport with visa-free access to most of Europe, Russia, the UK, Japan, and South Korea) within two to three years of the child’s birth.
Where Parents Benefit Next: Costa Rica
Costa Rica’s Constitution (Article 13) grants citizenship to any child born in the country, subject to a registration formality that can be completed by the parent during minority or by the child before age 25. Immigration Law 8487 creates a parallel residency track for the parents.
Parents of a Costa Rican-born child qualify for permanent residency under Article 73 as first-degree relatives of a Costa Rican citizen. The category is permanent from the outset, skipping the three-year temporary-residency waiting period that applies to most other routes, including the Costa Rica Investor Visa and independent means visas.
Each foreign parent applies as a principal applicant, and dependent minor children can join as dependents. Work authorization is unrestricted once the card is issued.
Costa Rica does not offer a fast-track to naturalization for parents. The standard seven-year residency and Spanish language requirement still apply.
But the residency benefit itself, with work rights, access to the public health system, and a path to staying permanently without renewal treadmills, is one of the Americas’ more valuable parent perks.
Shorter Fast-Tracks Elsewhere
Mexico reduces the naturalization period for parents of a Mexican-born child from the standard five years to two, under Article 20 of the Ley de Nacionalidad. Applicants still need to demonstrate Spanish proficiency and basic knowledge of Mexican history and culture.
Panama’s framework is narrower than it first appears. Article 10 of the Constitution reduces standard naturalization from five years to three for foreigners who have either a Panamanian spouse or children “born on the national territory of Panamanian father or mother.” Two foreign parents whose child becomes Panamanian by jus soli alone do not qualify.
They remain on the standard five-year track. The reduction applies only when at least one parent is Panamanian by birth or naturalization, or when the foreigner is married to a Panamanian citizen. Panama’s constitution formally requires renunciation of prior nationality, though dual nationality is widely held in practice.
Across the rest of South America, Latin American naturalization timelines for parents of local children typically shorten by one to two years versus the standard track, though administrative practice varies considerably. The Caribbean small states generally offer residency rights to parents of local citizens under family reunification rules, but none pair that with a Brazil-style one-year path to a passport.
Practical Takeaway
The exceptions are worth knowing before buying a ticket. A foreign couple giving birth in Colombia without a valid residence visa, in Chile while passing through on a tourist stamp, or in the Dominican Republic without documented legal status will find that the child does not automatically acquire citizenship.
For the United States, the rule holds as of April 2026. The Supreme Court’s summer 2026 ruling will determine whether it holds for future births.
