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Elon Musk, who left the Trump administration, is not a natural-born American. Born in South Africa, he became a Canadian citizen at 17, moved to the US on a student visa, and was naturalized in 2002 after several visa changes.
As soon as billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that he is leaving the Trump administration after leading a tumultuous efficiency drive, people began searching to find out whether the billionaire holds American citizenship.
Earlier on Wednesday, Musk took to his social media platform X to thank President Donald Trump as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency comes to an end.
This article presents a detailed, factual account of Musk’s path to US citizenship, his legal status, and the surrounding political context.
Elon Musk is not a natural-born American — here’s why
Elon Musk was born on 28 June 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, so he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States. His mother, Maye Musk, is Canadian, which allowed Elon to obtain Canadian citizenship in 1989 when he was 17 years old. This helped him move to North America for his studies and eventually to the United States.
How Elon Musk came to America: The student visa that changed his life
In 1989, Musk moved to Canada and began studying at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. In 1992, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in the United States using a J-1 student exchange visa. This move was a major turning point in his life, allowing him to enter the growing tech scene in Silicon Valley.
Elon Musk’s path to becoming a US citizen
Musk became a naturalised US citizen in 2002. He went through several stages of visa changes, including obtaining a work visa after university. In an interview with CNN, Musk mentioned that his early jobs sometimes involved “grey areas” when it came to work permits — something that many immigrants in tech faced in the 1990s. Despite the challenges, he eventually became a US citizen through legal means.
English (US) ·