Derivative Philippine Citizenship for Children Under RA 9225

A child acquires derivative Philippine citizenship for children under RA 9225 automatically when the parent completes re-acquisition, provided the child is unmarried and under 18 at the moment the parent takes the oath of allegiance. The child files no separate application and takes no oath of their own. What you do have to handle is the paperwork that proves the parent-child relationship and, for children born abroad, a Report of Birth that many families overlook until it holds everything up.¹

Which Children Qualify

Section 4 of RA 9225 covers the unmarried child — legitimate, illegitimate, or adopted — below 18 years of age of a parent who re-acquires Philippine citizenship under the law.¹ The child’s citizenship follows automatically from the parent’s completed oath.²

A few conditions catch families off guard. “Adopted” means adopted through a court decree or recognized administrative proceeding; informal guardianship does not qualify. Marital status is absolute — a legally married 16-year-old falls outside the derivative provision. And the child does not need to attend the parent’s oath-taking in person unless you plan to file for the child’s Philippine passport the same day.³

The Under-18 Clock

The age cutoff is the single most important thing to understand. The child must be under 18 when the parent’s oath of allegiance is administered — not when the application is filed, not when the appointment is booked. If the child turns 18 before the parent takes that oath, derivative citizenship is off the table.²

A child who ages out has one remaining path: applying individually under RA 9225 on their own footing, which requires that they were themselves a natural-born Filipino. A child born abroad after the parent had already lost Philippine citizenship may not qualify at all through that route. If you have a teenager, treat the parent’s application as time-sensitive and build in weeks of slack for document gaps.

Report of Birth for Children Born Abroad

Before a child born outside the Philippines can be included in a derivative petition, the birth needs to be registered with the Philippine Statistics Authority through the nearest embassy or consulate. This Report of Birth is a separate filing, and it is where many families stall.

The application by mail requires four original ROB forms, each notarized by a local notary public — handwritten forms are not accepted. You also submit the child’s original foreign birth certificate with four photocopies, photocopies of both parents’ passport data pages, and proof of the Filipino parent’s citizenship. The processing fee is $25, payable by money order to the embassy.⁴

Supporting documents depend on the parents’ circumstances. Married parents need a PSA-issued Philippine marriage certificate. Parents who married after the child was born need a notarized Joint Affidavit of Legitimation and a Certificate of No Marriage from the PSA. Unmarried parents where the father acknowledges paternity need an Affidavit of Admission of Paternity and an Affidavit to Use the Surname of the Father, both notarized and apostilled.⁴

If the birth is being reported more than a year after it happened, you also need a notarized Affidavit of Delayed Registration explaining the delay, plus photocopies of the child’s ID. There is no monetary penalty for late registration, but the extra paperwork adds time.

Documents for the Child’s Petition

Once the Report of Birth (or a PSA birth certificate for a Philippine-born child) is in hand, you can assemble the derivative petition. The Commission on Filipinos Overseas asks for:²

Two recent 2×2-inch color photos of the child with a white background.
A photocopy of the child’s birth certificate (PSA-issued if born in the Philippines, or the registered Report of Birth if born abroad).
A photocopy of the child’s foreign passport data page.
Proof of payment of the application fee.

If the parent has already completed their own re-acquisition and is now filing a separate petition to include the child, consulates also require the parent’s dual citizenship papers — the Oath of Allegiance, Identification Certificate, and Approval Order.⁵ The cleaner approach is to include the child as a dependent in the parent’s initial application so those documents don’t have to be reassembled.

Check that the child’s name is spelled identically across every document. Middle-name formats and surname order often diverge between a foreign birth certificate and Philippine records, and discrepancies usually require an explanatory affidavit that adds processing time.

Apostille Requirements

Private documents used in the petition — affidavits, special powers of attorney — must be notarized locally and then apostilled by the competent authority in the state where they were notarized. The Philippine Embassy does not issue apostilles. Because the Philippines is a party to the Apostille Convention, documents bearing a valid apostille from a member country are recognized without further authentication.⁶ In the United States, the apostille normally comes from the Secretary of State’s office in the state where notarization occurred. Turnaround varies by state, so allow at least a few weeks if you’re mailing.

Filing, Fees, and Effective Date

Petitions are submitted to the Bureau of Immigration in the Philippines or to the nearest Philippine Embassy or Consulate abroad. When the parent is filing their own re-acquisition at the same time, the child is simply included as a dependent. When the parent already holds dual citizenship, the child’s petition goes in separately.

The fee for a derivative dependent is $25 per child.⁷ That’s on top of the parent’s $50 principal-applicant fee when filing concurrently.⁸ Fees are non-refundable. Some posts accept only money orders or cashier’s checks, so confirm the payment method before your appointment.

The reviewing officer verifies the parent’s eligibility under RA 9225, confirms the parent-child relationship, and checks the supporting documents. The parent attends the oath-taking ceremony; the child does not. Once the parent completes that oath, the child’s citizenship takes effect by operation of law.¹

Identification Certificate and Philippine Passport

After approval, the Bureau of Immigration issues an Identification Certificate for the child. That certificate is the primary evidence that the child is a recognized Philippine citizen. It carries the child’s personal details and references the parent’s re-acquisition under RA 9225. Keep the original safe. You’ll need it for the passport application, and it may come up later for property transactions or other legal matters in the Philippines.

The Identification Certificate is not a travel document. To enter and leave the Philippines as a citizen, the child needs a Philippine passport. That application, filed at any consular office or embassy, requires the original Identification Certificate along with the PSA-issued birth certificate or Report of Birth.

One boundary worth flagging: U.S. nationals, including dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. A Philippine passport cannot be used at a U.S. port of entry.⁹ In practice, families carry both and present the appropriate one at each border.

What the Child Gains, and What to Keep in Mind

A derivative citizen holds the same civil and political rights as any Filipino. The practical benefit families ask about most often is land ownership: dual citizens under RA 9225 can own land and real property in the Philippines without the restrictions that apply to foreign nationals, which is significant because Philippine law generally prohibits foreigners from owning land. Certain rights the child will grow into — voting, running for office, practicing a licensed profession — carry their own conditions under Section 5 of RA 9225 when the time comes.¹

On the U.S. side, acquiring Philippine citizenship carries no risk to the child’s U.S. citizenship. The State Department’s position is that a U.S. citizen may naturalize in a foreign state without any risk to their U.S. citizenship.⁹ Dual nationals owe allegiance to both countries and must follow the laws of both. U.S. citizens are taxed on worldwide income regardless of any second citizenship, and Philippine financial accounts the child eventually opens may trigger FBAR and FATCA reporting once balances cross the applicable thresholds.

One longer-horizon consideration worth naming: dual citizenship can complicate future U.S. government security clearances. Under the federal adjudicative guidelines, foreign citizenship is evaluated case by case under “Guideline C: Foreign Preference,” with factors including possession or use of a foreign passport. The guidelines also list mitigating conditions, including that dual citizenship based solely on parents’ citizenship or birth in a foreign country can weigh in the applicant’s favor.¹⁰ For families expecting a child to pursue military, intelligence, or federal law enforcement work, it’s a conversation worth having early rather than late.

1
The LawPhil Project. Republic Act 9225 – Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003
2
Commission on Filipinos Overseas. Primer on Philippine Dual Citizenship Act
3
Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles. Dual Citizenship (RA 9225)
4
Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines. Report of Birth – Application by Mail
5
Philippine Consulate General. Dual Citizenship (RA 9225)
6
Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines. Apostille
7
Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines. Schedule of Fees
8
Philippine Consulate General. Schedule of Fees
9
U.S. Department of State – Travel.State.Gov. Dual Nationality
10
U.S. Department of State. Dual Citizenship – Security Clearance Implications