If you are a US citizen, you may not be required to always keep with you an evidence of US citizenship. But while dealing with the government, while you apply for Social Security benefits and while you apply for a US passport, you will be required to submit an identification document that was issued by the government, to demonstrate that you are a native of the United States. Similarly, few America states require the applicants who apply for enhanced driver’s licenses to provide proof of US citizenship. Hence, it is mandatory to know about the documents that you can use to prove your citizenship status.
Birth certificates, US passports, naturalization certificates, and citizenship certificates are the documents that serve as primary proof of US citizenship. You may provide one of these documents when you are required to submit a document to prove your citizenship status. Individuals born in the United States may submit their certified birth certificates, issued by the American states in which they was born, as evidence of citizenship. However, this does not apply to US citizens who were born on foreign soil. If you were born abroad, you can apply for and obtain a US citizenship certificate, which can be used to prove your status, if your parents are US citizens.
People born on foreign soil to foreign nationals cannot obtain US citizenship certificates and they will have to go through the legal naturalization process to become US citizens. If you are a naturalized US citizen, you may use the naturalization certificate that was issued to you to demonstrate that you are a citizen of America. Likewise, all the US citizens can apply for and obtain US passports and you may submit a copy of your US passport, when you are required to prove your status in the United States, that is because US citizens alone will be issued US passports. People born on foreign soil to native or naturalized Americans may submit their Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certification of Birth, as evidence of US citizenship.
If you do not have the above mentioned documents, you may provide Early Public Records such as your baptismal certificate, hospital birth certificate, early school or family bible records and doctor’s record of the post-natal care and these documents can be presented as secondary evidence of US citizenship. Similarly, a delayed birth certificate, Form DS-10: birth affidavit or a foreign birth document submitted along with parent’s citizenship evidence, may also be accepted as proof, in certain cases.