Citizenship is nothing more than a stable legal relationship between a person and a certain country. It is expressed in mutual corresponding rights and obligations, as well as in responsibility. What are the rules for establishing and what determines the citizenship of a child? The answer is provided below.
Blood law principle
Often a child’s citizenship is directly related to the citizenship of his parents. This is the meaning of the principle of the right of blood. So, if both parents of the child (or one, if he is the only one) are citizens of Russia, then a legal relationship is established between their child and the same state.
This method is the most common. What to do if one of the parents is found missing or does not belong to any state at all, is stateless, but the second is a Russian citizen? In such situations, the principle of blood law also applies. Citizenship of a child is established as Russian. The right of blood can be a guarantee that a born child will not become a stateless person. It is also valid in cases where one of the parents is a foreigner, and the second has Russian citizenship, and if the other state does not accept the child under his guardianship.
Principle of soil law
There are also cases when the citizenship of a child directly depends on the place of his birth. That is, in some situations, primacy is given to the right of the soil, not blood. For example, if the child’s parents are foreigners, but their child was born on the territory of Russia, then it can obtain citizenship of this country. The right of the soil exists even if the father and mother of the child are unknown, and six months have passed since his birth. After six months, such a child becomes a citizen of Russia. There are also some problem points. How to solve the problem if one of the parents is a foreigner and the second is a citizen of Russia? Initially, in such matters, the place of birth is taken into account. Citizenship of children is unconditionally established as Russian if they were born within this state. If the children do not have the right to soil, then the blood principle described above begins to apply.
Judging by the provisions of Article 12 of the Law on Citizenship of the Russian Federation, it can be assumed that Russia seeks to avoid cases of statelessness.
Additional aspects
It is possible to change a child’s citizenship only with the consent of his parents. Moreover, if the negligent father or mother - or both at once - are deprived of their rights to the child, then their opinion on this issue does not matter. If citizenship is acquired or terminated by a child aged 14 to 18 years, then in this case his personal consent is already required. At this age, a person can already fully understand the significance of his actions and actions, therefore he is vested with such a right. It should also be noted that it is impossible to refuse Russian citizenship if, as a result of this procedure, an individual becomes an apartheid, or a stateless person .