Formally and Legally giving up former birth country after US Citizenship....

[guzzyron 0]

Actually, the US doesn't 'allow' dual citizenship - it just pretends that the other citizenship doesn't exist. If they 'allowed' it, that would mean they would recognize it as still being an official citizenship in addition to the US citizenship - and they don't. Once you become a US citizen, as far as the US is concerned, you are only a US citizen. They have no control over the citizenship laws of other countries, however, so there is no real way they can 'enforce' US citizens to give up citizenship in another country as well. I have dual US and Canadian citizenship. To the US, I am only an American, formerly a Canadian. I am not both an American and a Canadian. To Canada which does officially recognizes and allows for more than one citizenship, I am both a Canadian and an American - not one or the other. That is the difference.

It seems like an expensive and time consuming process to renounce a previous citizenship, Ant. If it is also a 'corrupt' government running the country the likelihood of some sort of bribe in order to get it taken care of is probably pretty accurate. Good luck.

Hey Kathryn, I'd like to correct a couple of things in your post:

1. Actually, the US government (USG) does ALLOW and RECOGNIZE dual citizenship. Until relatively recently, the US had several laws that forbade anyone from holding dual/multiple citizenships but the US Supreme court struck down most of those laws in a 1967 and a 1980 ruling (Afroyim v. Rusk, 1967 and Vance v. Terrazas, 1980) and mandated the USG to allow and recognize dual citizenship.

2. Also, it's not completely accurate that the USG "pretends that the other citizenship doesn't exist". Generally, multiple citizenships is OK BEFORE one attains US citizenship. But if anyone voluntarily applies for the citizenship of another country AFTER obtaining US citizenship, that person's US citizenship may be taken away because it's assumed that by so doing you're renouncing your US citizenship. Read this State Department article.

[sachinky 465]

Regarding India, you lose your Indian citizenship if you acquire USC. You have to surrender your Indian passport to the Indian Embassy and obtain a certificate of renunciation from them.

There are other options like PIO (Person of Indian Origin) and OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) which allows you to enter India without a visa and to hold land, property, bank accounts etc. The only difference, I think, is that you can't vote or hold an Indian passport.

[Deb+Steve 13]

I still don't think that even with renouncing, you can have the place of birth removed from your passport. In Aus, you have to have it and I'm assuming that is the same with the US. Is that what you were wanting to do? Remove the place of birth?

[sachinky 465]

Yea, that's just not possible. All USC, natural-born and naturalized, have POB listed on the passport.

[NickD 203]

Regarding India, you lose your Indian citizenship if you acquire USC. You have to surrender your Indian passport to the Indian Embassy and obtain a certificate of renunciation from them.

There are other options like PIO (Person of Indian Origin) and OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) which allows you to enter India without a visa and to hold land, property, bank accounts etc. The only difference, I think, is that you can't vote or hold an Indian passport.

Okay, you surrender your Indian passport and renounce your citizenship, but can you still visit your mom in India with your US passport with your POB written in by our DOS as India?

This is what we are running into with Colombia, how many other countries also have this policy? Its not that you want to maintain citizenship and a passport in your country you were born in, you just don't have any other choice.

Another option is to try to bring your mom here, but she doesn't want to part with the rest of her kids, brothers, sisters, and the life she known all of her life. And if she did agree, she may not live long enough as the processing times redefine the meaning of eternity, but if she did So and is getting free health insurance in her country and is in the super high bracket here, you could never afford to pay for it.

But you still love your mom and want to be able to visit her, they won't let you do that unless you maintain citizenship and a passport of that country. And that's because our DOS puts your place of birth in that country.

America is a country of all nationalities and races and even if you were born here, can have problems visiting that country if you have identifying features peculiar to that country.

[Vijay 0]

I don't think there is a problem as far as I know where Indian citizens giving up Indian citizenship and visiting India after becoming US citizens.

Edited June 25, 2010 by Vijay

[NickD 203]

I don't think there is a problem as far as I know where Indian citizens giving up Indian citizenship and visiting India after becoming US citizens.

There is in Colombia, would be interesting to see a list of countries where this is a problem. Would give our Department of State something worthwhile to do and correct it.

[sachinky 465]

The difference is that Columbia doesn't recognize the Oath of Allegiance to the U.S.A as a renunciation of your wife's Columbian citizenship. To them, she is still a Columbian citizen and will be, till she takes the additional (legal/formal, whatever those may be in Columbai) steps of giving it up.

For India, the renunciation is automatic. Acquiring USC means you've automatically lost your Indian citizenship. Surrending the passport is a formality. Getting the 'renunciation certificate' is a fairly new thing, from what I understand, because of the extra security concerns regarding the Headley case. You now need it to apply for an Indian tourist visa, or OCI/PIO.

[NickD 203]

The difference is that Columbia doesn't recognize the Oath of Allegiance to the U.S.A as a renunciation of your wife's Columbian citizenship. To them, she is still a Columbian citizen and will be, till she takes the additional (legal/formal, whatever those may be in Columbai) steps of giving it up.

For India, the renunciation is automatic. Acquiring USC means you've automatically lost your Indian citizenship. Surrending the passport is a formality. Getting the 'renunciation certificate' is a fairly new thing, from what I understand, because of the extra security concerns regarding the Headley case. You now need it to apply for an Indian tourist visa, or OCI/PIO.

Thought this country was bad with the first half of our yellow pages loaded with attorney ads. In Bogota is a square where on one side, their congress meets, on the other side, a much larger building with notaries as they call them there for the only purpose of putting pressure on their congress. Since you have to hire a notary just to keep your citizenship current, their laws are putting a lot of money in their pockets. Its all about money, not justice. Doesn't India have attorneys?

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Very specific cases (i.e., Nick's) notwithstanding, and acknowledging that in some cases it might be desirable to omit the place of birth in one's passport, I'm not sure why -- generally speaking -- this is such a big deal.

Unlike the Green Card, where the 'resident since' gives away the information one might not want to be known to any Government official, the US passport does not tell whether or not the holder is a naturally born USC or not. I, for example, was born in Germany. I could have been born in Sweden (where my father was born) or Denmark (where my grandfather was born), or even France or Italy.

Yet, even though I was born outside the US of A, I theoretically could be a natural born USC, because both my parents were USCs themselves. Hence the place of birth has only one purpose, making sure that somebody who is not born on US soil can't become the President of the United States. What are the odds?

Why else would the place of birth cause any of you such grieve?

Ant,

none of us knows who you are, where you live, what you look like, so I think in order for us to understand why you are so displeased with the country you were born in, it might help if you were to name it. If I would dislike a country so much that I would want to erase it from my memory, I don't think I would give them money anymore. But that's just me.