I just gave birth to my daughter last week. I was just trying to find some information on whether I need to report her birth to the embassy or not. I'm an American citizen, her dad is Dutch. I don't plan on traveling with her to the US until Christmas. Do I have to report her birth? If so, what changes? And does anyone have any experience with having children with dual citizenship? I'd love to hear any advice you have to offer! Thanks in advance!
-Jennifer
You have to have a passport for your daughter if you fly into the US (as opposed to driving across the border from say Canada or Mexico when you only need a registered birth certificate up to age 5, I think), regardless of age. She is an American citizen by birth (regardless of your marital status as you are the American partner). Thus by law, she must enter the US as a citizen (with passport). It didn't take too long to get the first passport, less than 3 weeks for #2, less than 2 weeks with #1. Generally, it seemed faster than getting one if you were within the US even.
I'd suggest getting one (and having to register her) if you ever plan on returning to the US or flying back and forth - assuming you have relatives there. Saves you a lot of aggravation at the border because if they find out that you are holding a US passport and your daughter not, there WILL be a lot questions.
Another thing to know, assuming this is your first child is that if you travel with an infant and the child has some kind of different info - like different last name (ours do since I never changed my last name for marriage), you will get asked questions by the border control to make sure you are the parent. Sometimes they may even ask for a letter if your spouse is not accompanying you giving his/her permission that you can travel with the child. This is especially true if you coming in via Canada but I've been asked when entering Holland as well (although only 1 time ever asked to produce a letter which I didn't have at the time, no problems getting in though after answering questions). This is mainly to prevent child snatching, although not really sure how they can figure this out.
If you are trying to avoid registering her to avoid her paying taxes in the future, don't bother. As the previous poster said, there is a lot of witch hunting by the IRS of late who never even knew they had a right to a US passport. Now they are getting slammed by the IRS for backtaxes even if they've weren't born, lived or worked in the US but had US birthright.
Even if you don't ever plan on returning to the US, the benefits of citizenship (IMHO) outweigh anything else, despite the freaking IRS. Your daughter won't have to file US taxes unless she starts to earn money so you have several years before you have to start dealing with that hassle and chances are by that point you can help with that since you have to as well (assuming you have some kind of income). It's an added headache but chances are, she wont'have to actually pay any taxes assuming she earns under the level to receive the expat tax credit.
Not to mention you might want to raise her as fully Euro but maybe in the future she wants to travel or live in the US and then suffers at the border because they find out she is American. Could happen.
In any case, better to register her sooner than later. After gettng that first passport it's a lot easier than later. As you said, you're facing a mountain of paperwork to get your 2nd citizenship in Italy. Save her the hassle in the future.
A tip, US passport photo sizes are different than for NL ones - the consultate generally has a list of local photog who can size appropriately.
I have 2 daughters (one with 2 passports, another with 3 - she was born in Canada, I'm American and her father is dutch).
This response is a bit late...but I only just joined Expatica. ^_^ Anyway, I wanted to correct something that poptart said.
Your daughter is only an American citizen by birth if you are -not- married to the father. If you are married to the father, then your baby automatically gets a Dutch citizenship. If you want to get dual citizenship, then you go to the Embassy in Amsterdam with a bunch of forms and prove lots of things like, that you're an American and have lived there for min 5 years, etc. etc. And of coruse, pay 90 euros (or $110) or so to get this process started to get a US passport for your baby. Getting dual-citizenship for your baby is faaaaar easier than getting dual-citizen ship for oneself.
I'm currently pregnant, and married to a Dutch man, so I was looking up this sort of thing. Here's the info: http://amsterdam.usconsulate.gov/birth_citizenship.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_nationality_law
emoima said:
I wanted to correct something that poptart said.
Your daughter is only an American citizen by birth if you are -not- married to the father. If you are married to the father, then your baby automatically gets a Dutch citizenship.
Now where in the world did you get this bit of misinformation? The daughter is an American citizen by birthright, with or without paperwork. And assuming the father admits parenthood (erkenning), she also has Dutch citizenship as well. http://tinyurl.com/63oeg
Please, please don't misinform people this way. 
Franklin said:
emoima said:
I wanted to correct something that poptart said.
Your daughter is only an American citizen by birth if you are -not- married to the father. If you are married to the father, then your baby automatically gets a Dutch citizenship.
Now where in the world did you get this bit of misinformation? The daughter is an American citizen by birthright, with or without paperwork. And assuming the father admits parenthood (erkenning), she also has Dutch citizenship as well. http://tinyurl.com/63oeg
Please, please don't misinform people this way.
Sorry, I didn't mean to misinform. I did my research, but apparently I didn't do my research fully. I looked it up some more (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_nationality_law#Through_birth_abroad_to_United_States_citizens) and found what you were saying. In my previous statements, I said those things because from the previous 2 links that I posted, I misinterpreted that the parents would have to -apply- for American citizenship for the baby, but in actuality, it's -reporting- citizenship with a list of criterias to meet and money to pay (lol).
Sorry all for the misinfo; I didn't mean to. But I'm glad there's people like Franklin that knows their stuff to correct me because now I know more too. :)
