# What is superman's immigration status? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 15, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133 "2009-04-15T01:09:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/1 "2009-04-15T01:09:36Z")
If superman was real what would be his immigration status? Would he be an illegal or would the destruction of Krypton give him refugee status of some sort? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/2 "2009-04-15T01:16:06Z")
He’s a natural-born citizen. There’s a principle in common law that a foundling is considered a citizen of the jurisdiction in which he was found. This status can be challenged, but only up until age 18, at which point the citizenship is irrevocable. Since nobody challenged Clark’s citizenship while he was a child, the revelation that he wasn’t born here is irrelevant. There was also a silly retcon at some point that said that his space capsule kept him in a fetal state and he wasn’t actually “born” until he landed, as justification for making him eligible for the Presidency, but since this retcon is both extremely silly and unnecessary, I prefer to ignore it. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/3 "2009-04-15T01:19:39Z")
_I’m sick of all those “vacuum backs” coming in and stealing all our super-heroing jobs._ ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/4 "2009-04-15T01:21:29Z")
Naw, he’s a stateless individual entitled to the protection of the U.S. Government under the 1954 Convention Related to the Status of Stateless Persons. Since under the treaty he should be treated as any resident alien, he would be entitled to naturalize if he wished. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/5 "2009-04-15T01:22:33Z")
I looked all over GQ for this thread. I’m sure I posted it there. Oh well, since it isn’t really a debate could someone move it? That said. That’s pretty interesting **Chronos**. He actually would be a citizen. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/6 "2009-04-15T01:23:25Z")
Moving thread from Great Debates to General Questions. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/7 "2009-04-15T01:24:33Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Naw, he’s a stateless individual entitled to the protection of the U.S. Government under the 1954 Convention Related to the Status of Stateless Persons. > > Since under the treaty he should be treated as any resident alien, he would be entitled to naturalize if he wished. The treaty wouldn’t apply to non-humans. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/8 "2009-04-15T01:28:13Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Moving thread from Great Debates to General Questions. yay thanks ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/9 "2009-04-15T01:31:03Z")
At most, the Kents might have to fill out Form I-600 (“Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative”) or I-600a (“Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition”). ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/10 "2009-04-15T01:32:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > He’s a natural-born citizen. > > There’s a principle in common law that a foundling is considered a citizen of the jurisdiction in which he was found. This status can be challenged, but only up until age 18, at which point the citizenship is irrevocable. Since nobody challenged Clark’s citizenship while he was a child, the revelation that he wasn’t born here is irrelevant. > . It’s been enshrined in statute. It has been a part of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) since about 1940. Oddly enough, it had never been a applied to a real life fact pattern until 2006. NA § 301(f)) (AKA The Foundling Statute) – a person of unknown parentage found in the United States while under the age of five years, until shown, prior to obtaining the age of twenty-one years, not to have been born in the United States shall be citizens of the United States at birth. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/11 "2009-04-15T01:34:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > He’s a natural-born citizen. > > There’s a principle in common law that a foundling is considered a citizen of the jurisdiction in which he was found. This status can be challenged, but only up until age 18, at which point the citizenship is irrevocable. Since nobody challenged Clark’s citizenship while he was a child, the revelation that he wasn’t born here is irrelevant. This is codified at 8 U.S.C. sec. 1401(f). You won’t get far arguing common law in immigration court. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/12 "2009-04-15T01:35:29Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The treaty wouldn’t apply to non-humans. Why would you say that? It doesn’t say “Stateless humans” and Supe is indisputably a person contemplated by the statute. In the definitions section of the Convention - a Stateless Person For the purpose of this Convention, the term “stateless person” means a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/13 "2009-04-15T01:41:06Z")
So if Krypto had landed in the U.K., would they still try to quarantine him? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/14 "2009-04-15T01:50:04Z")
He’s a person because he passes the duck test. That the duck test is largely composed of phenotypical evidence and not deep philosophical or genetic tests is a product of our legal system which is composed of thousands of individual cogs, which are themselves composed of persons with human emotions and empathy. Certainly Supes would not be turned down in court if he wanted to sue someone in general (unrelated to immigration) on the grounds that he is not human? The reason is not some deeply embedded law that only humans may initiate lawsuits(corporations can, too, come to think of it,) but that the clerks at the court would not turn him away. A zombie who for all purposes seemed and looked and acted like a person (but was literally programmed with a very limited set of responses) would have a better chance of initiating a suit than the most complex and intelligent computer program (even if that sapient computer system is entrusted with money and decides to hire lawyers on its behalf.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/15 "2009-04-15T01:50:54Z")
> [@](#): > > This is codified at 8 U.S.C. sec. 1401(f). You won’t get far arguing common law in immigration court. It’s my understanding that common law is valid in the US until and unless it’s contradicted by statute. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/16 "2009-04-15T01:52:48Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Oddly enough, it had never been a applied to a real life fact pattern until 2006. Incomplete answer, only partial credit awarded. Seriously, more information? It sounds quite interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/17 "2009-04-15T01:56:18Z")
This has been covered in canon at several points. The United Nations once proclaimed Superman to be a citizen of the world. Superman doesn’t have a public identity. Clark Kent has one but nobody questions him. Without an identity it would be hard to make Superman anything. I’m pretty sure that knowledge of his non-human status has changed in various continuities. You’d have to specify whether any governmental body knew he wasn’t from earth. So the question has to be made more specific. You need to stipulate a huge number of facts. Are you assuming that an adult living among us as a human revealed himself to be an alien and that the complete backstory of his being taken in and raised here has been made public? Without all that you get different answers. And what penalties would the Kents face for concealing this information? ---
**Author:** ![ivn1188](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e480ec/32.png) [@ivn1188](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivn1188)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/18 "2009-04-15T02:03:04Z")
The real question is, what is the INS going to do about it? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/19 "2009-04-15T03:13:43Z")
I think you mean USCIS, and the answer is that he’ll have to file a form, some documents, and … oops, not that form, _this_ form, and these other documents, and wait 6 months, or a year, and… I’m sorry, this was filled out incorrectly, you’ll need to resubmit all your documents – don’t get snippy with me, I’m just doing my job [but you’re looking like a prime candidate for a deep background check by the FBI, a–hole], and wait… and wait… Be fun to watch anyone try to deport him, though. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133/20 "2009-04-15T03:59:46Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > Be fun to watch anyone try to deport him, though. Please. It’s Superman, the Big Blue Boy Scout. Once judgment was rendered, he’d voluntarily deport himself rather than break the law. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-supermans-immigration-status/493133.md?page=2)