Dual Citizenship Ukrainian-Any Other

[HHY2K 0]

Hi everybody!

Reading many posts here related to travel to Ukraine, I have seen great many confusion on the facts and practices on dual citizenship with Ukraine. I will bring up a few points never mentioned before on this board, but I am very curious about the experiences people having going back to Ukraine after gaining a second citizenship elsewhere. It seems to be a great misconception that the fact that Ukraine does not recognize dual citizenship means, when someone gets a second citizenship (in the US or anywhere else) in that moment his/her Ukrainian citizenship seazed to exist. And for this reason this person should not use his/her Ukrainian (international) passport for travel. Unfortunately it seams, that it is not the case at all, but it is the opposite!

Ukraine not allowing dual citizenship means that any Ukrainian having a second citiznship is considered only a Ukrainian citizen until he/she renounce Ukrainian citizenship (complicated and lenghty process) and as such MUST use a Ukrainian passport when going to Ukraine. Not doing so is crime. Problems arise when they want to leave the country as they do not have the required visas to travel abroad (EU, US etc) so they need to show their other passport to proove, they don't need a visa. What happens at that point is a question and sharing any experiences are greatly appreciated.

Complicating the issue further they can not get a visa to the country of their second citizenship as they are citizens there, therefore they can't prove that they are allowed to enter an other country without showing the second passport!

Thank you!

Edited May 16, 2012 by HHY2K

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hi everybody!

Reading many posts here related to travel to Ukraine, I have seen great many confusion on the facts and practices on dual citizenship with Ukraine. I will bring up a few points never mentioned before on this board, but I am very curious about the experiences people having going back to Ukraine after gaining a second citizenship elsewhere. It seems to be a great misconception that the fact that Ukraine does not recognize dual citizenship means, when someone gets a second citizenship (in the US or anywhere else) in that moment his/her Ukrainian citizenship seazed to exist. And for this reason this person should not use his/her Ukrainian (international) passport for travel. Unfortunately it seams, that it is not the case at all, but it is the opposite!

Ukraine not allowing dual citizenship means that any Ukrainian having a second citiznship is considered only a Ukrainian citizen until he/she renounce Ukrainian citizenship (complicated and lenghty process) and as such MUST use a Ukrainian passport when going to Ukraine. Not doing so is crime. Problems arise when they want to leave the country as they do not have the required visas to travel abroad (EU, US etc) so they need to show their other passport to proove, they don't need a visa. What happens at that point is a question and sharing any experiences are greatly appreciated.

Complicating the issue further they can not get a visa to the country of their second citizenship as they are citizens there, therefore they can't prove that they are allowed to enter an other country without showing the second passport!

Thank you!

The issue of Ukrainian dual citizenship is completely cloudy. Everything I have read to date leads me to believe that Ukrainian citizenship is NOT "automatically lost" when one becoems a US (or other country) citizen.

That said, there are other parts of the law which are vague and messy so lets not go there because we do not have to, and I will update you on another recent even reported here.

When entering or leaving UKRAINE a dual citizen (And I am speaking US/Ukraine, like my wife) will show ONLY her US passport. She enters and leaves as a US citizen and this is fine for visa-less travel up to 90 days, which so far covers anything we need.

When entering Russia from Ukraine she shows her UKRAINE passport (either internal or international, either is OK for Russia) Otherwise always use the US passport. There are plenty of members here that have reached that level and have been doing this for some time with no problems.

The Ukrainian passport has two uses for most dual citizens...to visit Russia without a visa and to show citizenship for various other purposes (such as we own property there) For these purposes you can also use the internal passport.

Recently a member from Ukraine, now a US citizen visoted family there and found it necessary to stay more than 90 days. She was worried about having a violation not being able to enter the next time. When she left they simply asked her to see her Ukrainian passport to show she was also a Ukraine citizen and then it was OK she stayed longer. Go figure.

I susupect a lot of these laws are not written to affect the people thathave come to the US and become citizens. I suspect they are in place in order to protect themselves from Russia who has been known to invade countries (such as Georgia in 2008) "to protect Russian citizens" and I think Ukraine is taking a diplomatic "check" to that move more than anything else. Not that it matters what I think

In practice...Use the US passport, keep the Ukraine passport tucked away and have fun.

[HHY2K 0]

The only problem with this practice (used by many admittedly) that it is against the law, because it is clearly written in the citizenship act, that any Ukrainian with a second citizenship is considerd a Ukrainian citizen, so she/he must use the Ukrainian passport. If he/she doesn't, then can be prosecuted on that ground, while using the Ukrainian passport nothing can be done against this person as there is no laws to prosecute dual citizenship (the law simply says that they just don't care about your US or whatever passport)

Of course, I am very happy that you answered with some actual experience. My wife and I had crossed many times over land borders from the EU with her Ukrainian passport, even though she has a EU citizenship as well, but to leave UA we relied on an old EU permanent resident card as well for proof that she does not need a visa to go to the EU. Unfortunnately this card expires and as she is alrady a EU citizen, she wont get a new one (duh!).

Will see how they handle triple citizenship when she gets the third one next year. We are afraid, if we travel on a foreign passport, her identity will show up in their computers as being Ukrainian and that is hard to defend (without a 20 dollars bribe

She would be very happy to get rid of her Ukrainian citizenship, but it seems to be pretty hard to do as there are no set rules to do that either. How it is done is anybody's guess, and only anecdotal evidence exist that it had been done ever... go figure, a state so young, it couldn't even order a beer in a bar.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Unless changed recently, Ukraine law forbids dual citizenship with any country and is not unclear about it. What IS unclear is how one loses a Ukrainian citizenship as nothing appears automatic. There are also words about the law needing to be declared enforceable by the President and no one knows if that means for ALL Ukrainians or on an individual basis. Nor does anyone know if the declaration extends to another President. Yushenko declared the law in effect after the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, but does that extend to Yanukovich? No one seems to know and so far they do not seem to care. I do know one dual Ukraine/US citizen that states he shows BOTH passports on entering and leaving Ukraine and claims no problems. I believe him. Enforcement of any law in Ukraine is always a sometimes thing. I just know the majority of them, as it seems from the stories told here, use only the US passport and keep their mouths shut about anything else. Though they speak really good Russian for an American and their passort says they were born in Ukraine

And for one member recently there was a lot of drama about her overstay as a US citizen and members (including me)had all kinds of advice for her, EXCEPT "show them your Ukrainian passport" thinking that such was forbidden and it turns out that was all she had to do!

For most members reporting here it has been a non-issue.

What you describe regarding the attitude toward citizenship is exactly the USA attitude. The USA does not care about dual citizenship, you are a US citizen or you are not a US citizen. The USA does not "recognize" dual citizenship and does not encourage it, nor do they forbid it.

[HHY2K 0]

...and I think this is the very same policy what Ukraine is pushing in other words as there are no sanctions (as of now) to have de facto dual citizenship. But they do forbid for dual citizens to use their forign passport in Ukraine, they are very clear about that.

We all know on the other hand, that the law in Ukraine are nothing more than suggestions... even the former minister president is in jail, tortured and such... what do I expect? All I can hope for, that nobody cares, or even if, I'll get out of it with ridiculous bribe. The very reason not to live in that country is exactly this fenomena. If I could figure out here what is right and what is wrong, I might very well move there and live happily in such a beautiful country.

Further complicates the situation, that my wife is an ethnic Hungarian and while lived her entire life in Ukraine, she does not speak or understand much from Ukrainian language. Imagine that how this plays down at the POE when they start to ask questions and all she can come up with as an answer is: I don't understand, sorry!