Snowdaisy

Hi there everyone.

I am a Brit woman married to an American...We both live here in the UK...We are just doing all the paperwork to obtain dual citizenship for him and for me.

My husbands brother has just told my husband that the USA will not accept him having a dual citizenship...is this true?...I am sure I have read here in these threads that it is possible....So please could someone help???

Snow XXX

BritishGuy36

You can't obtain US citizenship by "doing paperwork". You each need to live in the other's country for a time before you become eligible for citizenship.

If hubby has been here long enough, he can apply for British Citizenship. How long as he been here? I presume he has indefinite leave to remain?

Once he has UK citizenship, he will need to apply for an IR-1 visa for you, then you will need to both go and live in the US for three years before you become eligible to apply for US Citizenship.

It's true that the US doesn't recognise his UK Citizen status. That doesn't mean that it's a problem, though, he would just use his UK passport when entering and leaving the UK, and the US passport for entering and leaving the US.

Ray

Dual citizenship ...all you need to know

http://www.richw.org/dualcit/

NC Penguin

Please tell me how you're eligible to become an American citizen whilst living in the UK?

Like you, I'm married to an American but I had to be married to him, move to the US and fulfill US residency requirements before even being eligible to apply for US citizenship. If you know something different, I'd like to know.

koogar

This is what the US Depertment of State has to say about.
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1753.html

penguinsix

I think there is a very small exception to the residency rules for citizenship if your husband is overseas (and you with him) for US military service, religious work, or in the business of exporting US goods overseas with a US company. I've seen it once (can't remember the statute right off the top of my head) but it's rarely used. In fact I talk to some immigration people in the Congress and they didn't even know it was there (but after they looked at it they thought it was valid).

Snowdaisy

Sorry, I think you have kind of jumped the gun...I did not mean that we are obtaining dual citizenship simply by doing some paperwork....if that were the case I would not be asking advice...lol......but we have filled out paperwork to start thre ball rolling.

When I say paperwork I simply mean that we are making our preparations. My husband has lived here for nearly 5 years and has right to remain...he is applying for his citizenship now...apparentlly he has to do this Britishness test...is this right?...anyway although we see no problem with him obtaining the citizenship here, he did not want ot lose his own...which is what his brother implied.

We are going to move back to the states in the near future...maybe in a year or two...but is it true that it is best to obtain a green card for me whilst we are still here?...again his brother seems to think thats what we should do...or should we just wait until we get to the States???...any thoughts or ideas on that please?

thank you all for the replies so far.

Snow

Ray

Thank god you married the right brother..the other one is a
know nothing idiot.....

you will apply for a visa about a 9 months before you intend to
arrive here ... on arrival they will stamp your passport ..and your
green card will be sent to you ... out there

fatbrit

You need to apply for an immigrant visa for the US around a year before you intend to move. Ask here in the Marriage Visa forum when ready and they'll point you in the right direction. Doing it when you get here is frowned upon -- and in you case it's simply not necessary. His brother appears to be a man of many opinions.....but with little factual basis to them. I'd take them with a pinch of salt if I were you.

Snowdaisy

Thank you Ray...very helpful link.

BritishGuy36

I didn't jump anything. I simply replied to the statement you made.

It appears you do know something about the process but it's clear you need to learn more.

As Ray and fatbrit say, you need a visa to get into the US to live, you cannot obtain a green card in advance.

Bill_S

That's not very fair to BritishGuy; dual citizenship by paperwork is exactly what you said:

As everyone has noted, there is much more than "paperwork" involved. You will learn a lot from the Marriage-Based forum.

FlyergirlUK

I'd suggest having a look here for more information on your husband's eligibility for citizenship.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

I am a lawyer, but I'm not YOUR lawyer. However, I happen to lecture on this subject every so often to other lawyers.

The United States does NOT prohibit "dual citizenship." First of all, it is each country that determines who their own citizens are. For example, US law requires that, as part of it naturalization process, an Englishwoman must sear allegiance to the United States and tell Liz to go to Hell. However, the UK says that although Liz can tell you to go to Hell, you can't tell her to go to Hell. Viola -- dual nationality.

The real question is -- what constitutes an act of expatriation? It used to be that naturalizing in another country was an act of expatriation. However, in the Afroyim v Rusk case from the early 1960's, the Supreme Court sharply curtailed this expatriation -- an expatriation must clearly be unequivocal and intentional.

The last serious litigation on expatriation involved Mier Kahane who fought very hard to keep his US passport. However, the litigation became moot upon his assassination. Although not on point, a Nazi war criminal Johann Breyer had been stripped of his naturalization due false statements. However, when they went to deport him, he asserted that he had derivative US citizenship from his mother at the time of his birth in 1925. At that time, the US immigration statutes stated that persons like Breyer [and some Englishman named Winston Churchill] were not US citizens. However, that statute has now been found to be in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. The Court of Appeals did note the irony of a Nazi seeking equal protection of the laws. Although they cited Afroyim at length, they did not discuss the irony of a Nazi not having expatriated [by waging war against the US] based upon the case of a dual US/Israeli national.

As a result, simply acquiring UK nationality is NOT an expatriating act. However, if he was to make a trip to Grosvenor Square to the US Embassy, he can expressly renounce his US citizenship. However, the Embassy will bend over backwards that he understands what he is doing and that it is truly voluntary.

FWIW, I have one brother-in-law who holds dual US/UK nationality -- two passports, no problems.

Bill_S

Sounds like the OP needs to trade up to a smarter BIL... is yours available?