Dual Citizenship Laws

Dual citizenship is a process by which a person can hold citizenship in two countries. Laws regarding dual citizenship will vary from country to country. In some cases, people applying for citizenship in a particular nation are required to give up citizenship in any other nation. In other cases, a nation will allow its citizens to have citizenship in other countries.

Obtaining Dual Citizenship

Dual citizenship is becoming more common. There are several ways to obtain dual citizenship. Children of people from two different countries are often entitled to both the mother's nationality and the father's nationality. In cases where a child is born in the United States to parents from different nations, the child is entitled both to citizenship in the United States and to citizenship in the parent's country of origin. In rare cases, a child born in the United States to a father from one country and a mother from another country, where neither parent is a U.S. citizen, the child may be entitled to citizenship in three countries.

Another way to obtain dual citizenship is through naturalization. If the second country does not require applicants to relinquish their original citizenship, you can have citizenship both in your birth country and in the country where citizenship was acquired via naturalization.

Advantages of Dual Citizenship

Dual citizenship allows a holder of two nationalities to live in either country without the need for a visa or work permit. Dual citizenship can be useful when traveling, especially if there are diplomatic issues between the destination nation and one of the nations in which the traveler holds citizenship. In other cases, visa regulations for a destination nation may favor one nation's passport over another. For example, if you would like to travel to Cuba and hold dual U.S./Canadian citizenship entering Cuba using a Canadian passport will be advantageous.

Disadvantages of Dual Citizenship

One of the disadvantages of dual citizenship is that a dual citizen who encounters legal problems in one of the countries of citizenship can generally not receive help from the other country of citizenship. For example, if you have citizenship both in the U.S. and the U.K. and encounter legal problems in the U.K., you generally cannot ask for assistance from the U.S. Embassy.

In some cases, a particular nation may require you to renounce your original citizenship in order to obtain citizenship in another country. Some people agree to renounce original citizenship in order to obtain the other nationality and subsequently do not renounce original citizenship. The problem with obtaining dual citizenship in this manner is that the second nation could revoke citizenship if the failure to renounce original citizenship is discovered.

Allegiance

Dual citizenship involves giving allegiance to two different nations. In some cases, you may be required to serve in two military services. You are responsible for voting in both countries and are considered a national of both nations.

Laws

Holders of dual citizenship are required to follow the laws of both nations. In some cases, there may be a conflict in laws, such as restrictions on travel and economic embargoes. For example, in the above example of Cuba, by traveling to Cuba, you would have no issues with Canadian law, but you would be in violation of U.S. law. The fact that you entered Cuba would still place you in violation of U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba, even though you entered Cuba as a Canadian on a Canadian passport.

References

• Dual Citizenship FAQ
• U.S. Law Regarding Dual Citizenship
• U.S. State Department Dual Nationality