Believe it or not, it’s not unheard of for there to be a stateless Jewish child born in Israel.

Believe it or not, it’s not unheard of for there to be a stateless Jewish child born in Israel.

Some U.S. expats in Israel choose not to apply for Israeli citizenship for one reason or another.

That generally works fine for long term living, with a few minor limitations, but day to day life goes on. Their children can also grow up with the same residency status.

But when those children get married, things can suddenly get complicated.

Imagine two U.S. citizens, both raised in Israel without Israeli citizenship, getting married and having a baby.

That child may be effectively stateless at birth.

Under U.S. law, a child born abroad to two American parents is only a citizen at birth if at least one parent has lived in the United States.

If both were born and raised entirely in Israel, the baby doesn’t automatically qualify.

The N-600K citizenship application can fix this, but it requires another citizenship first and a flight to the U.S. using a foreign passport.

So even if the parents preferred not to, they often end up forced to apply for Israeli citizenship for the child, simply to avoid lifelong statelessness. Once the child has that, they can proceed with the N-600K.

Until that happens, no U.S. citizenship means no Social Security Number, and the child can’t be claimed as a dependent on the parents’ U.S. tax return. 

It’s a small detail with real financial impact and another reminder of how much legal status matters in practice.

There is another path which offers a solution:

Apply for citizenship by descent.

Many Ashkenazi Jews qualify through European ancestry such as Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, or Romania.

Sephardic Jews may be eligible for Spanish, Portuguese, or even French citizenship if of Moroccan or other North African descent.

Ideally, this should be done by the original expats themselves, so that their children and grandchildren already have another nationality.

That way, they can preserve the option to live in Israel long term without ever applying for Israeli citizenship and still have a clear path to transmit or claim U.S. citizenship for their kids.

Planning ahead is always a good thing.