I possibly phrased this poorly. I mean that if you were born in the US, and have a child, and that child is not born in the US, then your child does not automatically inherit American nationality. Or am I mistaken?
I think it’s not quite so simple, as my friend was able to gain Italian citizenship because her father was born there, but I think her cousin could not, as her cousin’s father wasn’t borh in Italy. Until recently (1992), Italy did not permit their citizens to acquire dual citizenship which meant that Italians had to give up their Italian citizenship to gain another citizenship.
Depends on the parent’s situation. If the parent grew up in the U.S. (satisfies the 5 year rule, for example), then the child will automatically inherit nationality.
Coworker took his baby to the U.S., when coworker still had only U.S. citizenship. Immigration was not amused that the baby did not have the proper paperwork, as U.S. citizens should provide a U.S. passport when entering the U.S. Coworker has since renounced his U.S. citizenship and has already looked into the details of what his child has to do to renounce.
Depends on specifics - if two US married citizens, one of whom was born in the US have a child abroad , that child will pretty much automatically be a US citizen as the child born abroad of two married US citizens will be a citizen as long as one parent ever resided in the US - and there is no time limit , so being born in the US will usually qualify (unless the mother was traveling through the US) . If the parents aren’t married and/or only one is a citizen, there are physical presence requirements which are different for every permutation
It’s definitely not simple - because the reason I will be eligible is because my great-grandparents did not renounce their Italian citizenship as they never became American citizens.
Incorrect. I have dual citizenship with Oz. I did it because I wanted to do it. The US doesn’t care.
Just to clarify, I heard this from a friend when I was in the process of applying for my second citizenship. This worried me, so I consulted a US immigration attorney. The attorney told me that my friend was correct, the US does not allow dual nationalities by choice, only by marriage (or birth). However she also said that it is never enforced and that she herself had chosen to take a second nationality without any worries. She did tell me to be careful not to be too blatant about it with US officials though.
I see a few people have mentioned the headache of filing US taxes as an expat. In case anyone is interested, I found an online tax preparer that specializes in taxes for US taxpayers abroad. They are very good and quite reasonable. I’ve used them for over 10 years now. If you are interested, send me a PM.
(I am not employed by them!)
That doesn’t smell right to me. A US immigration attorney would know about immigrating into the US but not necessarily about emigrating out. When I applied for British citizenship I don’t think the US even knew about it, and definitely didn’t care.
Back before I renounced and had both US and UK passports when flying into the US I’d check in with the airline with the US passport and present that at passport control in the US. On the way back I’d check in at the airport with the US passport but then present the UK passport in London since the passport control queues were much shorter for EU citizens.
That’s definitely what the attorney told me, but I am beginning to have doubts. I think she may have made a mistake, for the reason you mentioned (lawyers are people too right? 
)
I just did a bit of googling and none of the sites I saw said anything about restrictions to dual nationality if the non-US nationality was taken by choice. There used to be restrictions on dual nationality in general until the late 60s, but now it is fine and fairly common.
I found this site particularly helpful by the way…
So maybe I should retract my word of caution. I am happy to be wrong in this case as it is better not to have to look over my shoulder.
Yet another data point in regards to the lack of an issue in the US with having a dual nationality: I am an us-born dual national, and I once worked at a company with a division that had a government contract. When they decided that I should do some work for that division, I had to apply for security clearance. They took my finger prints, asked for all kinds of references, etc. There was a part of the application that asked if I had any other nationality, to which I replied honestly. Some time later, I got a request to send them copies of my passports, which I did. Then my clearance came through at the same level as my colleagues. The most amusing part of the whole thing was that because I was out of the office when the others applied, I actually applied later than them, but got my clearance sooner. I guess sometimes it pays to be weird.
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It is not so much the dual nationality per se that they worry about. For security purposes, they might care about stuff like if you are a full colonel in the Russian Army. So they always ask about it.
It’s not just the headache/inconvenience of filing US taxes; it’s about buying and selling property, getting a mortgage, even being able to open a bank account.
Does anyone know why all the banking things don’t run afoul of the Fourth Amendment, specifically the “unreasonable search”? Declaring income is one thing, but declaring assets just in case you’re doing something dodgy seems illegal.
I agree, I just wanted to add to the point that having a dual nationality is not generally a problem for the US even when it comes to getting government clearances.
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My question is why it isn’t a breach of the Canadian Human Rights Act: discrimination by the Canadian bank on the basis of national origin. US law doesn’t apply in Canada, so how can a Canadian bank rely on a US law to single out American citizens in Canada out for special restrictions?
Could it have something to do with a treaty, say the Tax Treaty, between the two countries? I know the US and Canada have a very elaborate tax treaty that considers all kinds of circumstances for people who have interests in both countries. (The US has similar tax treaties with many countries.)
It is not a question of a treaty, it is a question of the US saying, if you don’t tell us about your clients who are US citizens then you can’t bank in the US. Countries can set whatever rules they want for a company to be registered/do business within their borders, and this is what has been done here. Some foreign banks have decided that they don’t want to do the reporting, and don’t want to take the chance of being barred from the US banking system so simply look for any American sounding name in their database and either close the account, or threaten to do so unless you can prove you are not a US citizen. Those same banks will also not allow you to open a bank account to begin with. I was talking to a UK citizen that had to deal with this issue at the foreign bank he used when some of those laws became more stringent.
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Yes, I’m not questioning that the US government has the right to impose that requirement on banks doing business in the US. That’s Congress’ call. No doubt about that.
But US law doesn’t apply to a Canadian bank in Canada. Canadian law does. And Canadian federal human rights law says that federally regulated entities, like Canadian banks, cannot discriminate in offering services to the public in Canada. One of those prohibited grounds is national origin.
So if a Canadian bank refuses to provide an account to a US citizen in Canada, solely because of their citizenship, why is that not discrimination on the basis of national origin, contrary to the Canadian Human Rights Act?
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms prohibits the government of Canada from enacting laws that discriminate on the basis of citizenship. Even if the Canadian federal government has signed a treaty with the US on banking, how can Parliament rely on that treaty to pass a law authorizing banks to deny service to Americans in Canada based solely on their citizenship?
Interestingly, one of the few ways to lose US birthright citizenship is to join a foreign military.
One of my cow-orkers had that happen by accident. He was born in the USA to already-naturalized US citizen parents, so he was fully a birthright US citizen. He attended college in Canada as a non-Canadian but with the appropriate permission to live in Canada where his Dad was then stationed as a career US Foreign Service officer.
One summer he took a part time job as an honor guard “extra” working for the Canadian military. They’d dress up like soldiers in the fancy ceremonial uniforms with unloaded guns and parade around for the tourists. The paperwork to hire on for this job was a variation on the paperwork to enlist as a real soldier in the real Canadian military. An unscrupulous recruiter substituted the paperwork and a couple dozen “extras” suddenly found themselves AWOL from the boot camp they hadn’t intended to sign up for. Oops. They were all Canadians except for my cow-orker.
Double oops on him when the US found out. They yanked his US citizenship and even his Dad couldn’t fix that. Fortunately he was also a Dutch citizen by virtue of his parents’ birth nationality. Otherwise he’d have been a stateless man serving in the Canadian military. Oddly, even though he’d enlisted in their military, the Canadians did not want to take him on as a citizen as well. Actually not so odd; the Canadians would not want an e.g. 2-year stint as an enlistee to be the express lane to Canadian citizenship.
Note to young folks: make sure to fully understand any government paperwork BEFORE you sign it.