In other words are they full and equal citizens of both countries with all the rights inherent thereto. Let us suppose for instance that I had dual citizenship of Canada and the US, or even of Russia and the US like Steven Seagal. Could I work for the FBI or CIA, could I be given top level security clearance? Are there other areas in which dual citizenship could be a problem?
I suppose the question I’m really asking is whether in effect a person with dual citizenship becomes a second-class citizen of both countries.
Any dual-citizenship Dopers with first-hand experience of living as a citizen of two countries? (Or even three. Is there a limit as to how many citizenships you can have?)
In Australia, a dual citizen cannot be a member of the federal Parliament, so that two recent prime ministers (Abbott and Gillard) would have needed to renounce their British citizenship {they were both born in the U.K.). The other limitation in Australia (as in the rest of the world) would be that a dual citizen could not seek assistance from the embassy/consulate of their other country.
At least Jamaica and the Cayman Islands have some requirements that at least some dual citizens cannot serve in certain elected offices. I’ve seen news reports of dual citizens being disqualified from running for office or holding office in each.
As with all citizenship/nationality questions, this all depends on the laws of the countris in question. That goes even for the permissibility of mutiple citizenship. Some countries don’t allow it at all or at least try to restrict it, e.g. by requiring you to renounce previous citizenships when you apply for naturalisation, or revoking yours when you get naturalised elsewhere. Even such countries will, however, normally accept multiple citizenship by birth, i.e., when a newborn child meets the citizenship by birth requirements of several countries. There is, consequently, no general upper limit as to the number of citizenships you can have - I know several cases of triple citizenship, and a friend of mine is going to be a father soon and the baby will be born with squadruple citizenships (parents with different citizenships, one parent is a dual citizen, meaning there are three citizenships acquired from the parents’, plus one for being born on the territory of yet another country).
As to the rights that you have once you hold multiple citizenship: Again, that depends on the laws in question. Most countries, at least that is my impression, grant full and unrestricted citizens’ rights in such cases, no doubt on the simple reasoning that “no matter which other citizenships they may have, they’re still one of us”. Others may restrict it. On top of such legal constraints, there might be a political incentive to renounce other citizenships when you run for public office so that voters don’t doubt your allegiance. Boris Johnson, for instance, renounced his American citizenship (which he had by virtue of being born in New York) and retained only his British one (even though rumours has it that tax considerations also played a role there).
Dual citizen of the US (native) and Australia (naturalized).
In my case, certain acts are inconsistent with maintaining both citizenships.
Becoming a commissioned officer in the military (enlisting is fine).
Joining the government in a policy-making role - usually interpreted as elective office, though I suppose a high enough level of civil service might count.
Either of those, I’d be expected to renounce one or the other.
Nothing else I can think of offhand. I pretty much have all of the rights and responsibilities of any citizen in both countries. I suppose there may be some way I could lose my Australian citizenship - say, if it were discovered I’d committed some sort of fraud in acquiring it.
Dual citizen of New Zealand and Australia. There is no downside in my day to day life. I wasn’t aware of the political and military restrictions but they are far from any possible career path for me.
It cuts both ways. Having dual citizenship may well mean you can’t use one citizenship to escape the responsibilities of the other, e.g., compulsory military service (I seem to remember that coming up on occasion with British/French dual nationals, where a visit to relatives in France resulted in call-up papers).
AFAIK the UK imposes no statutory restrictions on dual citizenship, but I suppose if, e.g., it were a matter of security clearance, a dual citizen might be well be subject to more searching investigation, depending on the other citizenship concerned.
Sometimes dual citizenship occurs because one country does not allow you to renounce citizenship. It’s my understanding that Israel is like this. You can live the rest of your life as a US citizen, and never return to Israel; even run for public office, and claim all the rights and responsibilities of US citizenship after being naturalized, and effectively no longer be Israeli, but Israel still considers you a citizen.
The Soviet Union did not consider defectors citizens of their new countries. People who had be given permission to leave could renounce citizenship and become citizens of other countries, and then would need entrance visas just like any other say, US citizen, and could be ejected for overstaying their visa. But defectors couldn’t return without being at best, having their non-Soviet passports confiscated and not being allowed to leave again, and at worst being arrested for treason.
I suppose that last isn’t really the point of the question, but I’m just trying to make the point that many countries do not allow you to renounce your citizenship, and others do not require it when you take an oath of naturalization in another country. I thought the US was a country that considered anyone naturalized anywhere else to have renounced US citizenship, but I guess I’m wrong about that.
Two data points FYI. When my son graduated college in the US in computer science, he was interviewed at a job fair by the NSA. They told him that in order to accept a job with them, he would have to give up his Canadian citizenship. On the other hand, there is no bar to his running for president on any other elective office.
A friend of a friend had to renounce her Canadian citizenship to become president (and head of state) of Latvia. A lawyer told her he could get her citizenship back in a week if she was interested, but she has retired and stayed in Latvia (where she was born).
As for me, I cannot imagine any way my dual citizenship would handicap me. I now have two passports, but even that is not, strictly speaking, necessary. Although if EU countries impose a visa requirement on Americans the second one could come in handy. (There is a dispute because the US requires visas from some formerly Soviet block countries now in the EU.)
I have dual citizenship since my parents were born in the UK. It never occurred to me that it mattered, I never even applied for a UK passport until I was in my 30’s. Visiting Britain, there was an express line for citizens, but I skipped it because my wife wasn’t a citizen.
While applying for a tourist visa to India, I noted some fine print about Indian nationals who had become citizens of foreign countries. I gather India does not allow dual citizenship and so these are people who have renounced Indian citizenship and they have a different set of requirements than purely foreign visitors. (IIRC the USA has the same issue with those who have renounced US citizenship - cannot visit longer than 30 days a year.)
Canada had some similar issue. When the Lebanese situation blew up for the second time, about 10 or 15 years ago, Canada spent a lot of money arranging for Canadian citizens to be evacuated. Many were dual Lebanese and Canadians, who had come over to Canada when the first civil war started, then went back when things quietened down. The result, I think, was the new rule(?) that if you are also a citizen of the other country and have not lived in Canada in the last 10 years(?) then Canada will not help you if there is an emergency need for evacuation.
If I visit the USA and am arrested on trumped-up charges, I cannot appeal to the Canadian government for help as I can in every other country. And vice-versa. While I’m in the US, my rights as a Canadian are curtailed, and while I’m in Canada, my rights as an American are similarly restricted. But this only applies to a tiny set of highly unlikely circumstances when the two citizenships might come into conflict. In practice, it makes no difference at all.
Our former GovGen, Michäel Jean, had French citizenship as well as Canadian. The French government required her to surrender her French citizenship because the GovGen is the Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces, which they viewed as being incompatible with holding French citizenship.
I think the military one depends which other country you’re from - I can’t see it being an issue for a New Zealander, or a Briton, or a Canadian (ie somewhere that recognises the Queen as head of state).
The political one is only at Federal level too - there’s nothing stopping either of us as dual NZ/Australian citizens from running for political office at state level or in local government.
Yes, it can be more difficult to get a security clearance with dual citizenship.
And there are a heap of things that go along with the dual citizenship that also make it more difficult to get security clearance: for example, in the USA in order to get a security clearence you have to report all the travel you ever did on a non-USA passport. Your USA-passport travel is already on record.
Traveling between your two countries can be a mental challenge. Traveling between Aus and the USA, you must travel on one passport, must leave Aus on your Aus passport, and must enter the USA on your USA passport - mutually incompatible requirements which are not fully enforced.
Financial regulations are most onerous when one of the coutries is the USA, but in theory apply to other coutries too. Many European financial institutions would not like to deal with American citizens, and many American financial institutions would not like to deal with European citizens, this is complicated enormously by residence regulations. Historically, nations with strong capital controls have the most regulation.
One that is becoming increasingly important is deportation. Most countries /can’t/ deport a person that doesn’t have a valid foreign citizenship. Most countries /can’t/ deport local citizens… But people with dual citizenship are in a slightly uncertain place: countries have deported dual citizens, have revoked citizenship for dual nationals, .do deport people with only the ‘right’ to local citizenship, and may get more narky in the future.
History also tells us that even when not deported, dual cirizens are interned in vast numbers during time of war.
The small number of people who were able to get permission to legally emigrate from the USSR had their Soviet citizenship cancelled by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. IIRC there were also occasional “amnesties” where defectors could be given pardons & have their citizenship cancelled in exchange for “reimbursing” the state for the cost of their education in hard currency.
I actually had an Australian security clearance when I was an NZ citizen and only an Aus resident. The rules subsequently changed and the job and security clearance required Aus citizenship for new hires but existing employees were grandfathered in. Subsequently it looked like I might need citizenship after all so I got it just to be sure. In the end I didn’t need it.
Spain doesn’t have limitations along the lines of “can’t hold some offices or jobs”, but requires reciprocity in order to accept the dual citizenship itself: if Duckistan doesn’t accept dual citizenship, period, or requires Spaniards to renounce Spanish citizenship in order to become Duckistanis, then Spain doesn’t allow Duckistanis to become Spaniards without renouncing Duckistany citizenship.
One of the countries in such a situation is the UK, so we have people who right now can hold local elected office but who won’t be able to keep it after Brexit is wrapped up unless they switch, as they won’t be “citizens of the EU” any more and can’t become Spaniards without renouncing UK citizenship.
I have UK / Australia dual citizenship and I’ve never ever had this be a problem. I’ve travelled many times back and forth, left Australia on the Australian passport, entered the UK (or Europe) on the UK passport, rinse and repeat. In some cases I’ve had to show both passports at checkin to show that I’d didn’t need a visa for my destination country. I guess maybe “travelling on one passport” might be a US dual citizen specific rule but I don’t think it’s a general one?
For me personally dual citizenship has only been a plus with no downsides at all. On the extremely unlikely chance I wanted to run for parliament in Australia then as far as I know I could give up my UK citizenship but still retain residency rights there.
However for US dual nationals there is definitely a down side to having US citizenship if you live overseas. You have a much harder time getting a foreign bank account and you still have to fill in US tax returns even if you live and work the entire year overseas.
Hadn’t seen this - usually the agent will look at me with two passports in my hand, roll their eyes, and sort it out. As you say, international travel really isn’t set up for dual citizens.
Isn’t that confusing two different issues? The mutual rights accruing to EU citizens (voting and standing for office in local and EU Parliament - but not national parliaments) aren’t the same as whether or not you could have dual UK/Spanish nationality. The UK doesn’t forbid dual nationality, and on what you say, Spain in that case wouldn’t.