Statutory territorial jus soli (PR/Guam/USVI/CNMI)

Unlike the unitary constitutional jus soli of the fifty states (US-BTH-01), citizenship for persons born in U.S. territories is statutorily fragmented and keyed to each territory's collective-grant or Organic-Act pivot date. A person born in Puerto Rico on/after 13 Jan 1941 is a citizen at birth under INA sec. 302 = 8 USC sec. 1402; a person born in Guam (collective grant effective 1 Aug 1950) is a citizen under INA sec. 307 = 8 USC sec. 1407; a person born in the U.S. Virgin Islands on/after 25 Feb 1927 is a citizen under INA sec. 306 = 8 USC sec. 1406; and a person born in the CNMI on/after 4 Nov 1986 is a citizen under Covenant sec. 301 (Pub. L. 94-241). This is STATUTORY jus soli — Congress conferred it by legislation and could in principle adjust it, in contrast to the constitutionally entrenched state-soil rule. The Insular Cases supply the incorporated/unincorporated framework underlying that distinction. No application is required; citizenship attaches at birth once the territory's statutory pivot is satisfied.

Good moral character is NOT an element of territorial jus soli citizenship, exactly as for state-soil citizenship (US-BTH-01). Citizenship under sec. 1402/1406/1407 or Covenant sec. 301 attaches at birth (post-pivot) without regard to the person's later conduct, criminal history, or character. The good-moral-character requirement (INA sec. 316 = 8 USC sec. 1427), the totalitarian-organization bar (sec. 313 = 8 USC sec. 1424), and the denaturalization mechanism (sec. 340 = 8 USC sec. 1451) operate only on naturalization applicants and naturalized citizens — not on persons who are citizens by territorial birth. A PR/Guam/USVI/CNMI-born person who later commits crimes remains a citizen, subject to the criminal law but not to loss of citizenship. This unconditional, character-blind character of birth citizenship is shared with US-BTH-01 and distinguishes both from the naturalization routes.

Proof of territorial citizenship is documentary and birth-based. The primary evidence is a birth certificate issued by the relevant territorial vital-records office (Puerto Rico Department of Health, Guam, USVI, or CNMI), establishing both the place and date of birth — the date being essential because each territory has a statutory pivot. Supporting evidence includes a U.S. passport, a Certificate of Citizenship (Form N-600, governed by 8 CFR sec. 341.2's preponderance standard), and contemporaneous public records. Because Puerto Rico re-issued birth certificates under a 2010 anti-fraud law (older PR certificates were invalidated), PR-born applicants may need a current PR certificate. For Canal Zone-cohort claims (sec. 1403), the claimant must show birth in the Zone within 26 Feb 1904-1 Oct 1979 and (for the Panama-but-not-Zone branch) a qualifying U.S.-citizen parent employed by the U.S. government or the Panama Railroad. The declaratory-citizenship remedy under INA sec. 360 = 8 USC sec. 1503 is available on denial.

No procedure is required to BE a territorial citizen — status vests at birth once the territory's statutory pivot is met. To DOCUMENT it: (1) obtain the territorial birth certificate showing birth date and place within the territory; (2) for a passport, file Form DS-11 with the Department of State; (3) for a Certificate of Citizenship, file USCIS Form N-600 (declaratory). For older cohorts (e.g., pre-pivot births, Canal Zone, or the CNMI sec. 302 opt-down population), the claimant should assemble era-specific evidence establishing the applicable collective grant. If recognition is denied, the recourse is administrative review of the passport/N-600 denial and a declaratory-judgment action under INA sec. 360 = 8 USC sec. 1503. There is no oath, residency, language, or civics test for territorial jus soli citizens, exactly as for state-soil citizens — the only difference from US-BTH-01 is the statutory (vs. constitutional) basis and the pivot-date requirement.

Territorial citizenship is instantaneous at birth (post-pivot) and requires no processing. Documentation timelines mirror US-BTH-01. The LIVE authority for current adjudication times is the USCIS processing-times tool at egov.uscis.gov/processing-times, which should be consulted at the time of any N-600 filing rather than relying on a static figure; for passports, the Department of State posts current routine vs. expedited timeframes at travel.state.gov. As of 2026-06-01 (verify current), a U.S. passport (DS-11) typically issues within the published routine window of several weeks, and a Certificate of Citizenship (N-600) is a USCIS adjudication whose typical published range runs several months to beyond a year, varying by field office and form edition. The statutory decision framework imposes no waiting period or residency clock on the underlying status — these are documentation timelines only. The Evidence Table pins no route-specific numeric processing figure for US-BTH-02; do not assert a precise field-office number from training data. For historical-cohort claims (Canal Zone sec. 1403; pre-pivot territorial grants), adjudication can be lengthier because era-specific records must be assembled and evaluated.

Territorial jus soli citizenship is free — it arises by statute at birth with no fee. Administrative costs are the territorial birth-certificate issuance fee (set by the territory's vital-records office), the Department of State passport fee (Form DS-11), and the USCIS Certificate-of-Citizenship filing fee (Form N-600, optional). The Evidence Table pins no route-specific N-600 fee figure for US-BTH-02; any fee must be drawn from the current USCIS G-1055 schedule / DOS schedule at filing and not asserted from memory. There is no naturalization fee, no investment requirement, and no financial-means test — like US-BTH-01 and unlike the naturalization (US-NAT-01/02) and no-CBI (US-INV-01) routes.

Four statutory pillars govern, each dual-cited. Puerto Rico: INA sec. 302 = 8 USC sec. 1402, the successor to the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917 (Pub. L. 64-368, sec. 5, 39 Stat. 951, 953, 2 Mar 1917), which collectively granted citizenship to citizens of Puerto Rico; sec. 1402 makes PR-born persons citizens at birth on/after 13 Jan 1941. Guam: INA sec. 307 = 8 USC sec. 1407, originating in the Organic Act of Guam 1950 (Pub. L. 81-630, sec. 4, 64 Stat. 384), a collective grant effective 1 Aug 1950 reaching Guam-born persons from 11 Apr 1899. U.S. Virgin Islands: INA sec. 306 = 8 USC sec. 1406, whose citizenship pivot traces to the Act of 25 Feb 1927 (44 Stat. 1234-1235), NOT the Revised Organic Act of 1954 (68 Stat. 497), which was a governance revision (VC-06). CNMI: Covenant to Establish the CNMI sec. 301 (Pub. L. 94-241, 90 Stat. 263; codified at 48 USC sec. 1801 note), made effective 12:01 a.m. local 4 Nov 1986 by Presidential Proclamation 5564 (51 Fed. Reg. 40399).

Where territorial citizenship is denied or contested, the remedies parallel US-BTH-01: administrative review of a passport (DS-11) or Certificate-of-Citizenship (N-600) denial, and ultimately a declaratory-judgment action under INA sec. 360 = 8 USC sec. 1503 to establish U.S. nationality. The deeper constitutional questions about territorial status are litigated through the Insular-Cases line: Downes v. Bidwell (1901), Dorr v. United States (1904), Balzac v. Porto Rico (1922), with modern reconsideration in Financial Oversight Bd. v. Aurelius, 590 U.S. 448 (2020) ('will not extend' the Insular Cases) and the criticism in United States v. Vaello Madero, 596 U.S. 159 (2022). These cases generally concern the reach of constitutional protections in the territories rather than the existence of statutory birth citizenship itself, which is settled by the relevant section. As of 2026-06-01 the statutory grants of PR/Guam/USVI/CNMI citizenship are not in litigation doubt.

The principal limits on territorial jus soli are temporal and definitional. A birth in a territory BEFORE its statutory pivot (e.g., USVI before 25 Feb 1927; CNMI before 4 Nov 1986; Guam reached by the retroactive 1950 grant only from 11 Apr 1899) does not confer citizenship under the current section unless the era-specific collective grant covered it. American Samoa and Swains Island are EXCLUDED from this route entirely — they are 'outlying possessions' conferring only non-citizen NATIONALITY under sec. 1408(1) (US-BTH-03), not citizenship. The CNMI Covenant sec. 302 created a one-time opt-down window allowing certain persons to elect non-citizen-national status instead of citizenship; that window is closed. The Canal Zone cohort is closed to births after 1 Oct 1979. Because the basis is statutory, the diplomatic-child and hostile-occupier carve-outs of constitutional jus soli are not the operative limits here; the operative limits are the pivot dates and the territory's inclusion in the relevant section.