Good friends of mine are citizens of the US and also citizens of Ireland. I understand that while the US government doesn’t officially recognize dual citizenship, they don’t stop people from becoming citizens of another country in addition to the US. My friends have seen some advantages to being citizens of 2 countries – primarily, they were able to buy property in Austria which they could not do if they had been citizens of just the US. I understand too that travel in Europe has been easier for them.
A recent column in the Chicago Tribune pointed out something I kind of knew, but had forgotten – I can become a citizen of Italy if I choose. There’s a bunch of paperwork, and I’m sure some fees, but I almost definitely qualify.
What, besides maybe easier travel in Europe, would be the advantages? What would be the disadvantages?
I might do it anyway since I’m very concerned about what’s going on in the US now, but before I get all mired in the paperwork I’d like to have a clear idea of what exactly I’d be getting into.
What exactly do you want to achieve? Is this just for when [del]Obama comes for your guns[/del] Trump sends the storm troopers after you, or are you looking to reduce your taxes, or what?
Well, we’d like to do some travelling after my husband retires, and easier travel in Europe is an incentive. Saving on taxes would be nice, but I don’t see how that will happen so long as we remain residents of the US.
Mostly though I just like the idea of having options. I doubt we’ll ever want to buy property in Europe, but it’s nice to know that if we want to we can.
If you think the expense and bureaucracy of becoming an Italian citizen is less than getting a visa from the US State Department, then by all means go ahead.
I know lots of dual US-Canadian citizens, and their dual status gives them the right to live and work in either country as they might prefer under different circumstances that might arise, which is really a great position to be in.
Right now there seems to be a great deal of twittering among the US-resident duals that I know who are retired and mobile, with a northward migration as of birds in springtime having become the suddenly trending norm for some reason.
Either you’re being extremely unclear and I’m not understanding you, or you don’t know what a visa is.
There is absolutely nothing – zero – that the US State Department can do to facilitate someone entering Italy, living in Italy, or perhaps working and buying property in Italy, other than issuing a standard US passport which gives the holder the limited right, solely at the discretion of Italian immigration, to enter the country as a visitor for a limited time. Obviously any visas that affirm or extend those rights to a foreign national are issued by Italy and solely at the discretion of Italy.
I’m not sure I follow. Did you mean passports? Why would the US State Department issue visas for US citizens? They’re already allowed to visit the US. If you meant a visa to visit Italy, that would be up to the Italian authorities.
Anyway, to answer the opening question: one huge advantage is you’ve just dramatically increased the region in which you’re free to live and work from fifty American states plus a few territories to all of that plus a bunch of interesting countries. See a dream job in Dublin or London (well, for now anyway)? Go ahead and apply. Want to live in Spain or France or Italy? Go for it.
Personally just that idea has significant value to me, so I would almost certainly apply in your shoes even though it’s unlikely that I’d ever follow through with a move. I think that would be the most significant advantage. I can’t tell if that has value to you, so you’ll need to decide if that offsets the time and money costs of applying for the citizenship.
Of course, double check that the country in question doesn’t have some unexpected requirements from citizens, like military service or the like. There are unlikely to be significant tax implications except maybe some paperwork, although my understanding is that the US is finicky about reporting income earned overseas (but agreements should keep you from being taxed twice). I think worrying about that comes into play if you actually do move, not just by having the citizenship.
OP, look into the Compact Of Free Association. The US has an agreement similar to the European Union with several island nations in the Pacific. If you are an American citizen, you can live or work in any other nation in the Compact.
I’d also add that countries do change their immigration policies from time to time, so depending on the details of your case there may be the possibility that the application is harder or impossible in the future. My mother had some complications to work through for United Kingdom citizenship because of this. If you think this is something you want to persue you may want to lock it in while you can.
The impression I have is that if you can, becoming a citizen of a European country is very helpful. You get access to that country, likely the EU, and don’t really get any drawbacks. Other countries I’d be careful of, because you can get caught in regional politics (most of the middle east responds badly to Israeli citizens, for example) and might have conscription/national service requirements (again, Israel is noted for this). I’d ask an immigration lawyer about it to be sure, but I think it’s a worthwhile thing to do.
The US State department doesn’t issue visas to US citizens because US citizens don’t need a visa to enter the US. To visit Italy she’d need a US passport (which she can already get) and a visa from Italy (or eligibility for a visa waiver program). Even if she gets Italian citizenship, she wouldn’t need a US visa unless she renounced her US citizenship.
Why not Mexico? Or Kenya? Are those people good enough for you? Think about it. Obama’s homeland - full of people just as brilliant as Obama. It must be heaven.
There are a few places you could visit visa free with an Italian passport but cannot with a United States passport. Russia, Brazil, Australia, and Venezuela would be easier to travel to with an Italian passport since those would be visa free.
There is little drawback to dual citizenship in most instances. Rarely important issues relate to mandatory military service (depending on countries of citizenship) and diplomatic notification in the event of arrest would not be required if arrested in country of your second citizenship.
If you have citizenship from any EU country then you can live and work in any other EU country. If you ever wanted to spend a couple of years abroad that’s a huge advantage.
One of my co-workers jumped through all the hoops to claim Italian citizenship through her grandmother. It ended up taking her nearly 3 years, and she’s a very organized person. By the time she made it to the appointment at the Italian Consulate to pick up her shiny new Italian passport, she had a 2-year-old daughter who hadn’t yet been conceived when the process had started. She asked about Italian citizenship for her daughter, and was given an appointment to come back in another 8 months to discuss the matter.
There are lots of reasons to do it, but don’t expect it to be fast.
