What Happens to Abandoned Infant Citizenship? In the United States, you are considered a U.S. Citizen just by being born in the United States. However, I imagine that there are situations where there is no proof that a child was born in the United States, but it would be reasonable to consider or assume that a child was born in the United States, such as finding an infant in the United States. I know that there are a number of people who do not give birth to their child in a hospital. How do they prove a child was born in the United States, to then give them a birth certificate, therefore, citizenship? Do they trust a mother is telling the truth when she reports her child being born after-the-fact? Who/what agency does she report to, in that case? What happens if an infant within the United States is found, but no witnesses relating to the child are locatable/found, such as the child's mother? Technically, there is no proof/witness of birth. Does this child get a birth certificate? Do they get citizenship? Where are they a citizen of? If they receive a birth certificate, what date were they considered born? Was there some sort of court case that a court ruled that an infant found in the United States is considered born in the United States?
This is controlled by 8 U.S.C. § 1401 which details who qualifies for "birthright citizenship". Including of course the condition mandated by the 14th ammendment, Congress is otherwise free to bestow such citizenship essentially as it pleases by duly enacted legislation. One of the cases that receives birthright citizenship is a person of unknown parentage found in the United States while under the age of five years, until shown, prior to his attaining the age of twenty-one years, not to have been born in the United States. So the presumption for young children found in the US is that they are citizens by birth. The law in particular requires positive proof that the individual in question was definitely not born in the United States. Lacking this, or it failing to be found prior to reaching the age of 21 years, they are citizens. For other cases, this will likely end up falling to the courts, who will decide the matter on the preponderance of the evidence. In this case it becomes the burden of the individual claiming citizenship to establish that they are a citizen*. Birth certificates can be filed after birth, and can be submitted as evidence. The laws controlling the validity of birth certificates is locally determined. If there are other birth certificates from other countries, or conflicting witness testimony, then it will fall to the court to decide which case is more likely based on the evidence available. *More accurately the burden generally falls on the entity making the claim about someone's citizenship (their own or someone else's). In a deportation hearing, for example, it falls to the government to establish the individual is not a US citizen. Deporation only applies to aliens, so the defendant must be established as such.
For example, is there a way to search my identity (SSN) in property records and get an official document verifying there are no matching results? No. You can search by name on a county by county basis, however. A certified search result from your county of residence to corroborate you affidavit or declaration and attached as an exhibit to the affidavit or declaration might be worth including (even if it is something of a matter of form over substance). You might also considering attaching a copy of your lease to the place where you reside in New Jersey if you have one. Both of these documents would only corroborate that you don't own what you claim to be your residential address, rather than proving by themselves that you own no real estate in New Jersey. But the authorities you are seeking to prove something to will inevitably have to take you at your word regarding what your residential address is anyway. For purposes of tax exemption in another country, I need to prove that I do not own a house or an apartment in my current state of residence, which is New Jersey. How can I do that? Usually, you would do this by executing an affidavit or declaration under the penalty of perjury to that effect.
Any country can certainly decide who it should grant citizenship status to. There is no international rule that I know of requiring that the recipient be currently a resident of the country granting citizenship. Any country may issue passports to its citizens.
An individual obtains due process rights upon entering into the United States. For a recent write-up on this question, see this piece at Reason. The people Trump is talking about generally aren't being denied admission at an established, legal border crossing; they're coming across wherever they can get through, and only being discovered by federal agents thereafter. Because they're already in the United States, they have due process rights. As for cross-border interactions with ICE or CBP, the extent of due process protections is still an open question. SCOTUS took it up last year, but it kicked the case back to a lower court rather than deciding it.
As I understand it, legal procedure in Common Law jurisdictions (e.g. the UK) is primarily based on evidence given by a person. Paperwork exists to verify that someone has not misremembered something, but even when you have paperwork you need to have someone testify that this is the right paperwork and it hasn't been forged. A piece of paper on its own means nothing. In practice of course the two sides will agree to accept routine matters rather than dragging lots of third parties (e.g. the post office employees) into court to no point. In the case of a letter where you need to prove it was received, the sender will testify that they sent the letter and that the copy they have introduced into evidence is a true copy. The proof of delivery merely shows that the item wasn't lost in the post. If one party testifies that they sent a letter and the other testifies that they merely received an empty envelope then someone is lying, which is a crime meriting further investigation.
Expungement rules and effects vary greatly by state. Good reading on the question can be had here, with notable exceptions to expungement here. Of particular relevance to this question: In some states, individuals who want to work as public school teachers, corrections guards, or police officers should expect that their employers will have access to expunged records. Agencies reviewing applications for professional licenses, including law, pharmacy, or medicine, may also have access. Even in the most favorable circumstances an expungement can't destroy or seal non-government records. For example, if a newspaper reported on a charge or conviction there is no way to eliminate that public record. The mechanics of expungement can also break down. For example, in Pennsylvania it's up to the applicant for expungement to list all the government agencies and entities on which the Order for Expungement should be served. If they forget or aren't aware of some agency that has records covered by the expungement then those records won't be destroyed. (Though if they are later discovered the Order can be served on them and they are still required to comply.)
Community Service Announcement A person going missing is serious. Many thousands of people disappear every year. In most cases they return or make contact with friends or family after a short while, however, a significant number are never heard from again. It is a MYTH that you need to wait 24 hours before telling the police of a missing person. Alert the police as soon as possible. The quicker the authorities start to look for them the more likely there will be a happy outcome. Presumed death All jurisdictions have rules on when a person can be presumed dead, that is, a death certificate is issued notwithstanding the absence of remains. In the united-states this is a matter for state law unless there is a reason for the Federal government to be involved (e.g. military personnel missing in combat). In most, a court or the registrar can decide that a person is probably dead and issue a death certificate/grant probate. People who are known to have been in the area where a tragedy occurred may be declared dead shortly after that tragedy even though no remains are found. For example, people on the Titanic who were not rescued by the Carpathia, people in the 9-11 attacks, the people on MH17 were all issued death certificates shortly after the respective tragedies. Alternatively, at common law (codified by statute in some jurisdictions) a missing person may be declared dead if: The person has been missing for an extended period, most commonly seven years Their absence must have been continuous and inexplicable (e.g. the person did not say they had found a new job and were moving far away) There must have been no communication from the party with those people most likely to hear from them during the period the person has been missing There must have been a diligent but unsuccessful search for the person and/or diligent but unsuccessful inquiry into their whereabouts. Coming back There are interesting legal implications of a person who has been declared dead coming back but they are outside the scope of this question. Please ask another question if you're interested.
The short answer, is "it's complicated". I can think of situations where any of the above options you listed might be true. (Another possible option is "The baby has no nationality at birth", and would therefore be considered stateless, and would fall under the birth country's rules regarding statelessness). To find a definitive answer for your specific situation, I would start with Wikipedia: British nationality law Spanish nationality law Although Wikipedia is not authoritative, it does give you a good overview of the situation for both countries. There are then links to authoritative sources in each article. In the case of a British and Spanish couple, their baby would probably be both British and Spanish at birth. Additionally, if the baby is born in a country (such as the US) which follows the jus soli rules, then the baby would also acquire the citizenship of their birth country.