# Must applicants for US citizenship surrender their foreign passport upon becoming naturalized? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 30, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-applicants-for-us-citizenship-surrender-their-foreign-passport-upon-becoming-naturalized/648852 "2013-01-30T23:49:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-applicants-for-us-citizenship-surrender-their-foreign-passport-upon-becoming-naturalized/648852/41 "2013-02-04T12:56:39Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Yes, [there is](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_of_the_European_Union). > Anecdotically, regarding the possible independance of Scotland and Catalogne, this is an issue. Would/should the citizens of these newly founded countries keep their EU citizenship or not? Not the same situation, but Greenland left the EC in 1985 and it’s citizens are citizens of the EU by treaty. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-applicants-for-us-citizenship-surrender-their-foreign-passport-upon-becoming-naturalized/648852/42 "2013-02-04T13:17:30Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Are you sure of this? It directly contradicts what a colleague told me. Namely that she lost her Italian citizenship when she became a Canadian citizen, but since that happened after her children were born, it didn’t apply to them. They became Canadian citizens when she did, but were minors and took no oath. > > FWIW I will mention that the US knows I have become a Canadian citizen, but I still get a US passport that I travel with (it lasts twice as long as a Canadian passport) and when I return to Canada, I show that and my citizenship card and no border agent has ever remarked on that. I did have to turn in my immigrant card when I became a citizen. I checked with my friend. Her Italian citizenship is “suspended”. It isn’t clear what that means, but she doesn’t hold Italian citizenship any more. She can re-activate if she wants to though. I think that is the key. Some countries always allow their birth citizens access to citizenship no matter what. Even though for practical reasons individuals give up the citizenship. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-applicants-for-us-citizenship-surrender-their-foreign-passport-upon-becoming-naturalized/648852/43 "2013-02-04T13:17:36Z")
Apparently this is a much bigger deal in France than in Sweden. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-applicants-for-us-citizenship-surrender-their-foreign-passport-upon-becoming-naturalized/648852.md?page=2)