All my fellow Canadians out there! Are we allowed triple citizenship? I know we can have dual, but any more???
My children have Canadian, U.S. and British citizenship, so yes, you can have as many as you’re entitled to.
It should be noted, however, that some countries require you to surrender their citizenship if you become a naturalized citizen of another country.
Cerowyn you have totally answered my question!
THANK YOU
Doesn’t the US make you surrender your second citizenship? Or is that only if you live there?
It was the U.S. I was thinking of when I mentioned that some countries consider you to have given up their citizenship if you become a naturalized citizen of another nation. Someone once explained to me that it was the swearing of alliegence to another nation that invalidates your U.S. citizenship (such an oath wouldn’t be required if you had another citizenship by birth). However, I can’t speak for the veracity of that claim.
Well, whoever it was that explained that to you didn’t know what they were talking about. There is no such thing as “invalidating” your U.S. citizenship - for the most part you would have to declare intention to give it up, in so many words. Have a careful read through this site.
It depends. The laws change from time to time. When I was younger, I couldn’t get my U.S. citizenship without renouncing my Canadian one. At that time the only country that the U.S. would allow dual citizenship with was Israel.
That has since changed and I have both my Canadian and U.S. citizenship, no problem.
My mother was also told by the U.S. Consulate guy that she could now be naturalized as a Canadian citizen without losing her U.S. citizenship.
I’m not sure what would happen if things changed back again. As Ruadh mentioned, it’s not like your citizenship can be invalidated without formal process. Hm. Interesting thought.
You can have dual citizenship with a country that doesn’t recognize dual citizenships (like Mexico) if you simply don’t tell them you got a new one and are careful about which passport you use when you enter said country.
This only works if said country is your birthplace. Of course.
I’ve heard this Israel thing before but it sets off my bullshit detector. Could we have a cite?
The Master speaks on renouncing your US citizenship and dual citizenship.
Mexico’s allowed dual citizenship since 1998.
Guess my admitedly anecdotal data was stale…
It had something to do with Israel enacting the Law of Return in 1950 that granted citizenship to any Jew who wanted to make “aliya”.
In 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court made the decision on Afroyim v. Rusk that an American can maintain his citizenship in a free country unless he voluntarily renounces it – the “Afroyim” in this case was Beys Afroyim who was a naturalized U.S. citizen who then lost his U.S. citizenship in 1960 because he had voted in a foreign state (Israel).
So I would assume from the Afroyim v. Rusk decision that the “you can keep your other citizenship rule” would be for everybody, but nontheless, I wasn’t able to get my U.S. citizenship until the late 80s (don’t remember why – I was a kid and at the time it didn’t really matter about all the “citizenship issues” that my parents were talking about.)
There is an overview of sorts here, if you want further cite-like stuff.
Hmm… here’s an interesting excerpt from the Washington Report article of my link:
NOTE: This article is archived from 1993 and is therefore not reflecting any current laws there may be.
Well, here I have found the relevant case law, and here is the FAQuestion pertaining to the Israel myth (which, as I suspected, is precisely what it is). You would think an INS commissioner would know better, but then … this is the INS we’re talking about.
The only references I’ve found to any changes to law in the late 1980s relate to loss of U.S. citizenship, so I am still not sure what the problem in your situation was.
It does sound rather apocryphal, doesn’t it? But it’s a good example that shows how widespread the foggy information is.
From your link:
would explain the “special case with Israel” mis-info that gets propogated by folks like the Former INS Commissioner in my link.
I was able to sort things out shortly after the 1986 citizenship law amendments – I’m guessing it had someting to with those changes. From a link within your link:
I had Canadian citizenship and hadn’t lived in the U.S. since I was a toddler – so I’m guessing it had something to do with that rule and a boneheaded INS desk jockey telling my parents: “Oh, well! Citizenship lost!”
BTW- I’m bookmarking your link there ruadh. It’s pretty interesting.
This Canadian Government ‘document’ should answer your question:
Don’t worry about it. It was actually a Mexican Constitutional issue until 1998. When they changed the law, it allowed Mexicans to not surrender their citizenship when taking other citizenships, thereby allowing dual citizenship. However those that had already lost citizenship now need to go back and re-apply!
My best friend became a dual citizen in 1991. So go figure.
The U.S. may not RECOGNIZE a dual citizenship, but it doesn’t necessarily actively prevent anyone from holding it.