Pulaski

I am intrigued. When there are 206 "nations" at the Olympics, several of which aren't even "countries", and a number of which (13, I think) aren't even members of the United Nations which "country" are you from?

mandela

Scotland.

Pulaski

Yup, I was right with "country".

mrken30

This may change at any time. For instance Denmark and Norway do not recognize dual citizenship. The people voting for Brexit wanted to be more like Norway. If you are interested these are list of other countries that recognize dual citizenship.

List of countries that allow or disallow Dual Citizenship | DLG Immigration

Pulaski

The trend is definitely toward more countries allowing dual citizenship. For example Germany used to be intollerant of dual citizenship, but now it is apparently much easier, and Spain, while officially requiring anyone naturalizing as a Spanish citizen (unless they were born in Portugal, or from some Latin American countries), to "renounce" their other citizenship(s), in practice that isn't happening, as reported by a BE member recently. .... He only had to "renounce" his British citizenship to the Spanish, which needless to say isn't recognized by the British government.

The problem is that in many cases someone is born a dual national - for example it doesn't matter if the US outlawed dual nationality, little Miss P was born a British citizen and there is nothing the US government can do about that.

sir_eccles

Meh boring. I was hoping you were from Greenland.

Pulaski

I was rooting for Bouvet Island.

mrken30

Germany has got to be one of the more complex systems.For example:

A child born to an American parent and a German parent acquires both American and German citizenship at birth, regardless of place of birth. Neither country requires a person born under these circumstances to choose between American and German citizenship. They may keep both for life.

A child born in Germany to two American parents may also become a dual national at birth. But under German law, such a person has to choose between American and German citizenship before turning 23.

German law requires an American who becomes a German citizen through the Einbürgerung process (see “Basic Primer on German Citizenship Law”) to formally renounce his/her American citizenship.

https://de.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen...l-nationality/

My German friends here had to give up German citizenship to become USCs. But that was a long time ago.

morpeth

There is another factor perhaps unquantifiable, is over time will US impose more rules and requirements on citizens who are overseas ?

glowie

With me being German and eligible to apply for the US citizenship in around 1 1/2 years, I investigated a bit.

Germany does recognize dual citizenship (I'm not familiar with birth rights,"just" if you're trying to naturalize in a different country).You have to fill out a form called “Beibehaltungsantrag”, which basically means asking for permission to keep the German citizenship. You do need good reasons for it though. Ties to Germany is the one side (family, friends, frequent visits, bank accounts, etc.), but even more important you need to give valid reasons why you want the other citizenship and these have to be current reasons, not like "I want to take care of my parents in 5-10 and might spend time outside of the US longer than allowed to keep my green card".
The best argument for this part(based on the granted permissions I read about up until this point) is the job market. Finding job descriptions that fit to your qualifications that require US citizenship for example. But even then, it seems to be a lot depending on the government employee who checks your application. I heard that the consulate ones are not as strict as the ones working within Germany.


Most important: You cannot start your naturalization process before you have the permission, otherwise you won’t be granted the permission. Same goes for serving in your “second” country's military. If you did/do that, your permission will be denied.


I have to say, this is the only reason I would hesitate to take on the US citizenship, not getting permission to keep my German one.

mrken30

I wonder if applying for an N-400 would affect your eligibility.

glowie

The info that I have is that you're not allowed to do anything in the naturalization direction before being granted the permission to keep the German citizenship. Otherwise it will get denied.
(Though it is questionable how the German government would know that I already applied, since the form doesn't ask for this information.)

becks_r

A friend of mine, a US citizen, who has lived in UK for 30+ years has recently retired and renounced his US citizenship because of the tax implications. He wanted to sell his house and buy smaller one and use the profits to increase his pension. He was told he would lose a bunch of money from the profit on the house to US taxes. I would have to look seriously at the tax implications of being a US citizen before I took the plunge, and I certainly wouldn't want to give up my British citizenship, but that is a personal thing for me

Nutmegger

You don't have to. That isn't part of the equation.

Pulaski

In most cases you cannot just give up US citizenship to avoid a tax bill. Someone trying to renounce their US citizenship risks being assessed an "exit tax".
Nobody suggested you needed to or should.