I have heard of some Americans who have a second passport issued by another country who don’t really have a relationship with that country. That is, I’m not talking about someone who was born in France, or something of that nature.
Supposedly, an old boss of mine had an Italian passport, I think his grandmother was from Italy, but he certainly wasn’t, I’m not sure he had even ever been to Italy. His wife was Venezuelan, and I think he had the passport in case his kids were in Venezuela, and Chavez said no Americans, he could go down there and get his kids out.
Can I get a second passport? I am not a citizen of another country, nor is any living member of my family.
Mods, I’m pretty sure it’s legal for Americans to hold multiple passports, but if not, please lock the thread with my apologies.
Generally, you can only have a country’s passport if you are a citizen of that country. However, in many cases you can be a citizen without having been born there, through your parent(s) or even grandparent(s).
And yes, US citizens can be citizens of other countries, and thus hold foreign passports. They are just required to use their US passports when entering the US.
It depends, but probably not. Passports follow citizenship, and countries have different rules on handing out their citizenship. Some countries, you’re born there, and you’re a citizen and can get a passport. Others, you have to be related to existing citizens to be a citizen yourself.
Ancestry passports are highly dependent on the ancestry involved: people with Irish grandparents can claim Irish citizenship and thus an Irish passport; people with UK grandparents can not.
No cites, but I thought I heard somewhere that a few of the smaller countries had a deal where you could “buy” citizenship - invest enough money in the country and you became a citizen with no residency requirement (or any other requirements besides the $). So, you could effectively buy a passport, but it would be very expensive.
I’m hesitant to post this in GQ, as my experience is indirect, but my wife’s step-cousin related to me that he was looking into obtaining Italian citizenship. According to him, if you can establish that a grand-parent was born in Italy, you are entitled to claim Italian citizenship, and presumably, then able to obtain an Italian passport. My (whatever-the-hell-you-call-that-relation – step-cousin-in-law?) gave up on his quest to become certified to work in the EU after it became too difficult to document the relationship to the satisfaction of the Italian authorities.
There are countries which issue passports to non-citizens, but only under exceptional circumstances. During WW2, for example, neutral countries such as Sweden sometimes issued passports to Jews from the areas occupied by Germany, because German authorities were reluctant to persecute people with such passports, fearing it might deteriorate German relationships with countries whose neutrality was considered desirable. Some nations are known to issue passports to stateless people in order to make it possible for them to travel, but being stateless is really, really rare and not at all recommendable.
My dad and uncles actually succeeded in getting it and it wasn’t their grandparents who had immigrated, it was their great grandfather who had immigrated sometime in the 1870s. They were able to get documentation that satisfied the authorities. My mother through her marriage to dad was able to get Italian citizenship as well.
The reason they did it is that neither of them are US Citizens and they don’t reside in the states. This makes it easier for them to come visit since they aren’t required to get Tourist Visas which are expensive and may not be granted.
Yes- several of them are island nations or located in Central America. We looked into it at one point, actually, but never went ahead. Still might someday, though.
I looked into this once and discovered I could get a British Passport because my father was born (entirely by a fluke) in England. I didn’t do it in the end, but it’s sure not easy to do.
I sent away for a powerful amount of documentation, and the British Passport application is a daunting form, let me tell you. Makes sense when you consider that just a couple of generations ago a big chunk of the world were British Subjects.
But getting a passport from a nation you have no ancestral connection to would seem really unlikely to me. Now I have heard of imitation passports for those in dangerous parts of the world
where maybe you don’t want to be caught with say an American or Israeli passport on you.
Well, unless the Cherokee Nation starts issuing passports, my ancestors have been here too long for that route.
That’s interesting about Kenya, in 2007, I saw a middle aged business jerk on a plane back to the US who was apparently going on to Africa (per an overheard cell phone conversation) He was talking about going to Africa on his Kenyan passport, which I saw. This guy was as white as they come, and had an East Coast accent. For all I know, the guy’s grandfather might have been the governor of Kenya, but I wondered if he didn’t buy it.
Somalia will sell passports, I think, but I don’t think a Somali passport would hold much water, other than as a funny souvenir to show at parties.
If you have a parent born in almost any country you are entitled to citizenship to that country. My child’s father was Scottish and his British passport was not hard to obtain. I know a child with an American mother and a Kiwi father and he has a passport from both countries (born in NZ)…and he’s 3!
That’s not always true. My mother was a UK citizen born in the UK, but I’m not a UK citizen, due to a gender bias in UK law at the time. (If my mother had been my father, I would be a UK citizen, although born in Australia). But my younger brother, born in the UK with a Australian father, is a dual citizen.
You may want to check to see if that law has changed in Australia - my NZ-born husband was able to gain British citizenship due to his mother being a British citizen.
Giles is right about the gender bias though. Fathers count mothers not so much (when it comes to the UK), but that seems to be about grandparents mostly.
I’ve seen various figures quoted, depending on the country and type of passport. For example, PTShamrock quotes a figure of €75,000 for a diplomatic passport from either of two UN-recognized southern African countries. That’s probably much less than it costs to even open a jet ski rental place. Another page on the same site claims:
It’s changed, but the change is not retrospective back to the distant era when I was born. (And it’s a change in UK law, not in Australian law, since it’s a question of UK citizenship).
Wow, that reads like an advance-fee fraud scam. “We can’t tell you which countries they’re for, but send us the money anyways and they might issue you one.” I wouldn’t want to end up with a Zimbabwean diplomatic passport, for example.