“Under the bill, anyone who acquires foreign citizenship would be forced to relinquish their U.S. citizenship, and any who already hold foreign citizenship would have to submit a written renunciation of their U.S. or foreign citizenship to the government within a year. Those who didn’t comply would be assumed to have renounced their U.S. citizenship. Anyone who relinquished their U.S. citizenship would be “treated as an alien for the purposes of the immigration laws,” the bill says. The legislation also directs the Secretary of State to establish a database on Americans with multiple citizenships.”
I do not want to discuss the possibility of this happening. What I want to know is, if you had to choose, which country would you pick, and why?
As I mentioned elsewhere, I am close to the end of the process of securing a second citizenship in my country of residence, Luxembourg.
In the world where this proposal is enacted and I’m forced to choose between completing or abandoning the process (and where the current draconian financial penalty for renouncing cannot be imposed), it’s a no brainer.
Ons Heemechtsland dat mir sou déif / An onsen Hierzer dron.
Most practically, this is where I live and work, and I would have to move back to the US, separate from my non-American husband for a while if not forever, and find a new job. Too great a burden.
Also, in a situation where one party is making me choose and one isn’t, I choose the one who isn’t.
Finally, I’m contemplating giving it up anyway, once elderly relatives pass on and I don’t absolutely need to be able to enter the USA, so it just saves some paperwork and expense.
Reluctantly, I’d still choose to keep my U.S. citizenship. While Taiwan has better healthcare and I like it better, it would be easier to live and work in Taiwan as an American than to live and work in America as a Taiwanese citizen.
An interesting question. I don’t actually have dual citizenship: just a green card, initially acquired through work and now ratified since my wife is a US citizen. I’m a UK citizen, incidentally.
So I suppose this sort of answers the question in a way: I lived and worked in the US for many years but never acquired US citizenship… of course, I didn’t need to.
We live in the UK nowadays, though our children are US citizens by birth and live in the US. We like to hope that we can continue to be basically a transatlantic family because there’‘s a lot to like about both countries.
If I had dual citizenship, I would take the next year to sell everything, pack up, and leave. Since I’m retired, I don’t have a job to worry about, and I have no qualms about moving somewhere else. The United States of America isn’t the country I grew up in, and I don’t believe in anything the government is currently doing. Damage is being done that won’t be fixed in my lifetime. The voters have spoken twice, and that’s good enough for me.
Japan has that policy. Naomi Osaka, the professional tennis player, had dual citizenship in Japan and the United States. When the grace period Japan allows expired and she had to make a choice, she chose Japan.
I am really trying to avoid “If I had…” situations, especially those that do not name what the other country might be. I would like to stick to posters that have (or are very close to having) actual dual citizenship with the U.S. and another country, please.
To be complete, it is not a “grace” period. It is when you reach majority in Japan which is 20. That is when she had to decide. In reality the Dual Citizenship question in Japan is a bit tricky because the law does not specify any penalties, and you are given time to give your other citizenship, with “time” being undefined. For Japan it is a bit of a don’t ask don’t tell situation and I know that there are a number of Japanese that fall in that category.
But back to the original question. I would have no problem giving up my US citizenship, although I was born in the US, I did not spend my formative years here and do not have a special attachment to the idea of the country. I also did not enjoy, while living overseas, the fact that I had to file taxes in the US every year, something the other country I am citizen of, does not require.
As to the list the state department would make, I unfortunately am likely to be on it. I once worked at company that did some work for the then so named INS, and I had get security clearance. As part of the questionnaire, I indicated that I was a dual citizen. It was not an impediment to me getting clearance at whatever level it was I was applying for, but it likely has created a paper trail that the Government has access to somewhere in its deep state recesses.
I honestly do not know what we would do. My family is a crazy mix of citizenships. Including US, that I acquired through naturalization, I have three citizenships. My spouse only has their American but is working on their second. Our kids have two. We don’t live in the US but we still have strong financial and family ties. There are downsides to every option.
Fair enough. For the record, I would move to the UK, where my grandfather came from. Whether it would be to England, Scotland, or Wales, I can’t say without doing research and making a few visits. I’ve been there many times, but living there is a different story.
United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898)
Kawakita v. United States(1952): The Court stated that dual nationality is a “status long recognized in the law” and that an individual can be subject to the responsibilities of both countries.
Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967) - Under the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, a U.S. citizen cannot lose his or her citizenship unless he or she willingly surrenders it.
I have dual citizenship with Australia. As a Fed I went through three national security investigations, kept my security clearance and my dual citizenship.
This looks problematic. I’m an Irish citizen. There’s a legally-prescribed process for renouncing Irish citizenship; submitting a written renunciation to the US government is not that process.
So, if I were affected by the Bill, I would reason thus: why not submit a written renunciation of my Irish citizenship to the US government, as required? This would have no effect at all;I would still be an Irish citizen. Plus, I would get to keep my US citizenship.
Obviously, citizenship laws vary from country to country, and there may be some countries under whose laws any renunciation, however expressed, and to whomever submitted, is effective. But I would think that in this day and age most countries prefer legal certainty about citizenship status, and have prescribed formal processes for both the aquisition and renunciation of citizenship.
I am also a French Citizen which means I have to hate myself, on the one hand I think I am an effete coward, and on the other hand an uncultured brute I have relatives in several different countries so moving would not mean being away from everyone I know.
I have relatives in several different countries so moving would not mean being away from everyone I know.