You need to be talking to your security officer, not the UK consulate. The fact that you say you would hate to give up UK citizenship is a strike against you in getting a US security clearance, so never say that to a US official. It would show a "foreign preference" and that's a critical factor.

The US does not require you to renounce other citizenships to get a clearance, but you will probably have to return your passport to the UK consulate or give your passport to your security officer. You may also be asked to deface the passport.

The US wants to make sure you have no foreign preference or substantial ties to a foreign country. Things that would be bad are: 1) having foreign family; 2) money in foreign countries, houses or making social security payments to a foreign country; 3) using your foreign passport.

You will probably be asked if you would be willing to renounce your UK citizenship in the interview, but you won't be required to do it. I went through this a year ago and as my UK citizenship is more important to me than my US citizenship I decided not to pursue the job offer I had as I would have had to lie to get the clearance.

Oh. Well, sorry for misleading everyone.

I have recently gone through this process. If you are a Canadian or British citizen, you are not required to renounce your citizenship. Those are the only current exceptions. This may change and you may have to renounce in the future, but you are safe for now.

What have you been smoking?

Which process? Needing to renounce your non-US citizenship in order to gain a US security clearance?


That's great... well, unless the job or security clearance requires it.

Ian

Do you mean getting a US Security Clearance. If so there is no requirement to renounce any foreign citizenship. However, you must not show a foreign preference like holding and using a foreign passport. So did you give uo your foreign passport?

My Daughter was a dual UK/US citizen and she held a UK passport as a child. She joined the USAF in 2004 and during basic training she had to submit a letter to the UK Consulate in Washington DC stating that she wished to relinquish her UK Passport as she was a US Citizen. Even though she did this it still took three years for her to be granted a Secret Clearance and this is the highest clearance she will ever hold as she held a UK Passport.

My Son on the other hand never held a UK passport only a US passport, he also Joined the USAF in 2004 and he received his clearance within 6 months and will never be restricted on what clearance he can hold. Neither of my children had to physically renounce their UK citizenship although of course there Allegiance is to the USA.

This sounds right. I'm dual US/UK and never went for the security clearance as I didn't want to give up my UK passport. I tend to travel on my UK passport, I have family in the UK and have been paying voluntary UK national insurance for the past 25 years so all those would go against me.

Isn't your son also a dual UK/US citizen? Since a passport is only proof of the status and not the status itself, are you saying the only difference between the two is that your daughter had the PPT and your son didn't? How odd!

Ian

This all sounds a bit confusing.....I have a good friend who is a dual-national Australian-US.

He moved to the US when he was around 25 and holds a US Top Secret clearance....he has not had to renounce his Australian citizenship but had to give up his Australian passport.

He still has large amounts of family in Australia.

Having a foreign citizenship is NOT the issue when getting a security clearance, it's showing a preference for that foreign country over the US. Each case will be different, but things that will go against getting a clearance are:

having and using a foreign passport;
having closer family ties in a foreign country than in the US;
having bank accounts abroad or getting payments from a foreign country.

I think a good question would be to ask which country you support in sporting events.

As your friend gave up his AUS passport that shows that he has a clear preference for the US. If he has family and friends in Australia the case worker will ask questions about that and apply common sense. If they are his mum, dad etc that's no problem. However, if he was married to an Australian citizen and they had children and chose to live in the Australia rather than trying to move to US that might be problematic.

Exactly Ian-Mstm... I found it rather odd too.. My Son had to submit the same letter in basic training as well claiming US over UK citizenship but of course had no passport to submit, he was however included on my UK passport when you where able to do that. I honestly think it is handled on a case by case basis and they decide as they go along. Weird thing is I am their Mother and. when this was all happening I was working on an RAF/USAF occupied base in the the UK and was employed by the Ministry of Defense.. Go figure

There is usually a meaningless solution.

Each case is different. However, status ie being a UK citizen is not the major factor, it's the preference for the UK over the US. By holding a UK passport your daughter was showing a preference for the UK. The security folks think of it like this "why does she need a UK passport, she has a US one....getting the UK passport is not necessary so why did she do it?". It sounds a bit stupid when it's the UK, but security people are trained to look at thinks from what might seem like a perverse angle. Your son's not having a UK passport even though he qualified for one just proved what a good loyal American he is and so he sailed through.

Also joining the US military is very different from working for the UK military or MOD in collaboration with the US armed forces. In fact having a family member who is foreign and works for foreign military is generally not a good thing.

[QUOTE=nun;9705351]Each case is different. However, status ie being a UK citizen is not the major factor, it's the preference for the UK over the US. By holding a UK passport your daughter was showing a preference for the UK. The security folks think of it like this "why does she need a UK passport, she has a US one....getting the UK passport is not necessary so why did she do it?".

She lived a majority of her life in the UK so having a UK passport alleviated all the hassle when they bought the UK visa into effect, travelling on her US passport became harder and harder so we opted to get her a UK one, not knowing at that time that she would chose the US military for a career.