I have citizenship in both the US and Missouri.
Really? News to me - I know someone who is a triple UK/US/Canadian citizen, and hasn’t had any issues retaining all three. And she’s an immigration lawyer, so I’m sure she’s researched all the issues.
I don’t think you have to do that anymore. Like Frank mentioned, there was a change in the law. My dad is from Michigan and my mom is French Canadian. My sister and I were born in the U.S. but hold Canadian passports too. We also both reside in Canada, but in different cities. ETA: My cousin did it the other way around and got her U.S. citizenship without needing to relinquish her Canadian passport.
Technically, when I go into the U.S. I’m supposed to go in as a U.S. citizen, but I can’t remember why. (Probably in case I get drafted or something.)
The pros are access to more work opportunities. I can’t think of any cons.
The same is sort of with the U.S. You’re supposed to super-duper-pinky-swear that you hereby renounce all citizenship claims elsewhere, but the U.S. can’t actually make any other country agree that you’re not their citizen anymore. Basically, it’s more of a ceremonial thing.
My dad had to do the whole swearing allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, thing when he got his Canadian citizenship too. I don’t think the UK oath says anything about renouncing other citizenships, though.
I was born in the UK, so I’m a British citizen, but I’ve never had a British passport. I’ve been a Canadian since I was about 12 years old and travel fine on that passport.
I am from Northern Ireland, so I have both British and Irish passports.
My brother is the same, except he complicated the issue by moving to America, marrying a girl from Kentucky and having 2 kids. So he has three.
He always has to go one better than me…
Have fun riding, just dont count on a job, meaningless or otherwise ;).
(My new South Korean flatmate picked a bad time to come to Dublin on a working visa, there are no jobs here, and things are getting worse)
I could have dual citizenship, but I’ve never had any reason to apply. My parents were Australian and I was born in the US, so I am still eligible for Australian citizenship if I ever want it. Maybe if I ever need that free health care…
Currently only a South African citizen, but I plan to apply for United States citizenship at the end of the year - if that is approved I will have dual citizenship.
From my perspective the United States citizenship is quite useful - many more countries don’t require a visa for US versus SA citizens. On the other hand if I wanted to travel to Brazil I’d do it as a South African, since they don’t require visas for that but they do for Americans.
I also don’t believe the UK makes you relinquish foreign citizenship. For one thing, this requirement makes no sense - I don’t think every country in the world has a clearly defined mechanism for relinquishing citizenship. There may be requirements against actively applying for foreign citizenship, but another reason I think it unlikely is the vast number of people I know who have both South African and UK citizenship.
The US is the same way as far as I know - dual citizenship is tolerated, although I think actively applying for foreign citizenship while an American is a gray area.
I’m dual Israel/US, and have been from birth. My parents were born and raised in the US, immigrating to Israel a few years before I was born.
I use my U.S. passport to travel to the States. Other than that, I used to vote in U.S. general elections, but I haven’t done that since 2000. Interestingly, my son is also a U.S. citizen - I’ve lived in the States for 5 years as a child and 2 as an adult, which is enough to qualify me to pass on the citizenship.
Triple citizen.
Canadian by birth.
British through my mother.
Australian through immigration and naturalization.
Three passports.
I also hold a US Permanent Resident (Green) Card.
I also have triple citizenship. UK by birth, Canadian by residency and where I grew up and finally US by marriage as my husband sponsored me to live here. My daughter has dual citizenship and I’m going to get her the other shortly.
I also have triple. French by birth - Paris. Peruvian through my parents. American through immigration and naturalization since 1998. One advantage for me, or rather my kids, would be that if they wanted to study in France they could since I was born there…I’m sure that a fair amount of documents/paper work would be involved in order for this to happen.
I was born in the UK, and am a naturalized Canadian.
My kids have UK (through me), Canadian by virtue of being born here, and US (through their mother) citizenships. They have both Canadian and US passports, and I imagine they’ll get a UK one someday (or at least they’ve both said they intend to).
My wife and I are US born, naturalized in Canada. Our three children and six (so far) grandchildren are all dual citizens. Canada does not ask you renounce previous citizenship and the US does not take it away. I use a US passport only (along with a Canadian citizenship ID card) coming back to Canada. Reason: The Canadian passport lasts only five years, instead of ten and is more complicated to get. Reason I got naturalized (just last year after living here for 41 years): it was getting harder and harder to cross the border and prove Canadian residence. You had to get a card; it took up to a year to get and expired after five.
I’ve got dual New Zealand/Australian citizenship.
Interestingly, there are so many New Zealanders living overseas with dual citizenships that the New Zealand Arrival/Immigration Card actually has a “New Zealander Travelling On A Foreign Passport” option for the “Citizenship” question.
I think you’re quite correct. Whenever I hear someone talking about dual citizenship and say something like “I’d have to (or had to) give up my citizenship in X country”, I never know what that means in practice.
Has any country ever really enforced renouncing old citizenships before allowing someone to become one of their citizens? If anyone knows of such a case then how did it work in practice? Was it just an honor system or did they have to go to their embassy and renounce citizenship first and prove it? Do countries provide documentation to prove that someone is no longer a citizen? You obviously can’t fly home to your old country, renounce it and fly back because for a while you’d no longer be a citizen of any country or have a valid passport. I have a hard time seeing how that sort of thing could have ever worked.
Did he say what he actually had to do? Did he have to go to the Irish Embassy and renounce his citizenship and come back with documented proof that he was no longer a citizen of Ireland before he could become a US citizen?
A country obviously has the right to say “if you become a citizen of another country then we will cancel your citizenship of our country” but a country has no real control over the other citizenships of one of their new citizens. I guess they could have a law for new citizens that says something like “to keep your new citizenship with us you must come back in a year and prove that you’ve renounced all other citizenships”. Do any countries do that? How would they handle it if the other country has no easy path to renounce citizenship?
No, he didn’t say, and I didn’t think to ask. He came here in 1948, and became a citizen in 55 or 56, one of the high stress times in the Cold War, so I’d guess if there was ever a time when they forced you to renounce foreign ties, that was it.
It do remember that in my researches about the subject I came across more than one statement the the US used to require renunciation of foreign citizenship as a condition of US citizenship, but no longer did. I don’t know when this change took place.
Until I turned 22, I had dual citizenship with Iceland. IIRC, I still have an identification number within their social welfare system, but since I’m not a fluent/native Icelandic speaker and I am not living and working in Iceland, I don’t really have any eligibility to reinstate the Icelandic citizenship.
My German friend says she can’t hold another passport and remain German, although I just checked the Wiki link (not gospel I know) and it says she can - she just needs to apply for a Beibehaltungsgenehmigung!