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With the exception of children of foreign diplomats, people born in the United States are US citizens. Some people who are born outside of the United States may have acquired US citizenship at birth if one or both of their parents are United States citizens who lived in the United States for at least 5 years. Some people can derive citizenship from their parents if before they turn 18 years old they become legal permanent residents, one or both of their parents is a United States citizen, and they live in the legal and physical custody of the United States citizen parent. Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) can become United States citizens by a process called naturalization. They must have maintained LPR status for the statutory period (3 years for spouses of US citizens and persons who obtained their green card as victims of domestic abuse, and 5 years for everybody else), can show good moral character during the statutory period, and have been physically present in the United States at least half of the time during the statutory period.

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