# Must a U.S. President have been a resident for 14 years immediately prior to being President? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 26, 2018, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-a-u-s-president-have-been-a-resident-for-14-years-immediately-prior-to-being-president/820318 "2018-08-26T22:08:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-a-u-s-president-have-been-a-resident-for-14-years-immediately-prior-to-being-president/820318/21 "2018-08-30T19:09:14Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I like the idea that 35-21=14 meaning that the founders wanted the president, if he was only the minimum age of 35, to have spent his entire adult life in the United States, lending support to the suggestion that it was the immediately preceding 14 years. If they meant that, it would show up in the notes and drafts that they went through before reaching the final version. Is there mention of that? For US Representatives, you must be age 25 and 7 years a citizen. For Senators you must be age 30 and 9 years a citizen. And while these are citizenship requirements, not residency, they presumably must be citizens immediately preceding their service. But that means adult life starts at age 18 for Reps and 21 for Senators if you follow the same logic. IMO, if they writers of the Constitution wanted the 14 years to be immediately preceding running for office they had ample opportunity to make that clear. That they didn’t indicates that that’s not what they had in mind. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-a-u-s-president-have-been-a-resident-for-14-years-immediately-prior-to-being-president/820318/22 "2018-08-30T19:49:56Z")
Note on the multiple of sevens. There was a tradition (or at least a _belief_ that it had been a tradition) in times of yore that males became a page at 7, a squire at 14, a knight at 21. Even if you were not in a class where that career path was an option, the 7 year spans sometimes occurred for other categories of people. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-a-u-s-president-have-been-a-resident-for-14-years-immediately-prior-to-being-president/820318/23 "2018-08-30T20:16:35Z")
I would think that a Court would interpret “a Resident within the United States” as meaning a _legal resident_, not requiring actual physical presence for every day of those 14 years. For example, I am an Election Judge in Minnesota. We have hundreds of Minnesota citizens serving in the military, often at overseas locations. But they remain legal residents of Minnesota, and are eligible to vote in elections. We make extensive efforts to make sure that they get a ballot from their home town, and that their completed ballot gets counted. They are still legal residents of Minnesota, can vote in our elections, pay taxes on their income, etc., even though they may spend several years outside the state, including times when they might never set foot in the state for an entire year. But still ‘residents’ of the state. I think any court would apply much the same reasoning for anyone in the military, or even working overseas, or studying at a foreign educational institution. Especially for an elected office, where the voters chose to elect this person, despite them spending time elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-a-u-s-president-have-been-a-resident-for-14-years-immediately-prior-to-being-president/820318/24 "2018-08-31T17:11:29Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I like the idea that 35-21=14 meaning that the founders wanted the president, if he was only the minimum age of 35, to have spent his entire adult life in the United States, lending support to the suggestion that it was the immediately preceding 14 years. That is an interesting idea, but it might just be a coincidence. There were all kinds of different time limits thrown around in the framing of the Constitution, and it’s not clear to me that they ended up in a particular spot due to specific design or just as a result of complicated changes and compromises. I think the numbers here are basically just as arbitrary as any others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-a-u-s-president-have-been-a-resident-for-14-years-immediately-prior-to-being-president/820318.md?page=1)