Dual Peruvian and US citizenship?

[Ryan H. 0]

While I have seen many people on these forums who seem to be dual US / Canadian or US / Great Britain, I was wondering if anyone has recent experience wherein they have been able to obtain US Citizenship and still retain their Peruvian citizenship. I ask this question on behalf of my wife.

Thanks in advance.

Ryan H.

[moonhunt 1]

It's really up to the law of Peru. Right?

In US immigration law, it is mentioned as implicit dual citizenship rule.

There is no explicit mentioning about it from the law except a couple of things.

After taking US citizenship, if you take another citizenship on your own will, US government can revoke your citizenship if they find it.

Until it happens, it really up to Peru's law about their citizenship.

If Peru lay allows dual citizenship, your wife can have dual citizenship.

So best way to find out whether Peru allows dual citizenship, you better check with Peru Embassy or Consular office in U.S.

The meaning of dual citizenship is that if you enter/leave US land, you have to use US passport, and if you enter/leave other citizenship's country - in this case, Peru -, you have to use Peru's passport.

So you can be exempt from VISA requirement from both country, and if other country's visa rule has better for one or another, you can choose to use whichever you like.

Of course, if you want to buy the land and things like that, if applicable, local rule for their citizen will be applied, not considered as foreigners.

While I have seen many people on these forums who seem to be dual US / Canadian or US / Great Britain, I was wondering if anyone has recent experience wherein they have been able to obtain US Citizenship and still retain their Peruvian citizenship. I ask this question on behalf of my wife.

Thanks in advance.

Ryan H.

Edited July 20, 2008 by moonhunt

[zyggy 9]

It's up to Peru... call up the local consulate and see if they permit dual citizenship if one naturalizes as a US Citizen.

Edited July 21, 2008 by zyggy

[lucyrich 20]

After taking US citizenship, if you take another citizenship on your own will, US government can revoke your citizenship if they find it.

You missed one key phrase in INA 349. You can only lose citizenship if you perform an expatriating act with the intention of relinquishing your US Citizenship.

The above would be correct if it were revised to say "After taking US citizenship, if you take another citizenship on you own will and with the intention of relinquishing your US Citizenship, then the US government can honor your intention and consider your citizenship revoked if you confirm to them that this was your intention."

BTW, the same rule applies to natural born US Citizens. It doesn't matter whether you acquired citizenship by birth or naturalization.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscode08...81----000-.html

Note the phrase "with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality".

http://www.travel.state.gov/law/citizenshi...enship_778.html

Note the paragraph:

When, as the result of an individual's inquiry or an individual's application for registration or a passport it comes to the attention of a U.S. consular officer that a U.S. citizen has performed an act made potentially expatriating by Sections 349(a)(1), 349(a)(2), 349(a)(3) or 349(a)(4) as described above, the consular officer will simply ask the applicant if there was intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship when performing the act. If the answer is no, the consular officer will certify that it was not the person's intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship and, consequently, find that the person has retained U.S. citizenship.

But of course, this whole discussion is about a hypothetical US Citizen who naturalizes into another country. OP's question was about a Peruvian citizen who naturalizes into the US. You're correct that whether or not Peruvian citizenship is affected by US naturalization is a question for Peruvian law to settle. I certainly don't know Peruvian law well enough to answer.