Dual Citizenship for the US Citizen after marriage?

[Mike B. 231]

With dual citizenship be aware that its not illegal in US but while in the othe county ...lets call it PARADISE if U get in any difficulties arrest etc the US embassy

will not intervene if U hold a PARADISE passport and citizenship because effectively that is also now your homeland, after the plights of US hostages who were singled

out yrs ago many opt for dual passports so they would use when tavelling to Europe/mideast, but for some then visa were required in PARADISE passports

Of course, this raises the question of how much the US embassy will help any of its citizens, dual citizens or not. US citizens are routinely arrested in Latin America while trying to smuggle cocaine into the United States. The embassies are likely to give those drug trafficking citizens all the help you'd expect, which is pretty close to none. I remember watching a thing on TV about some young women who were arrested in Peru by DINANDRO (rough equivilant of the DEA). The totality of the US embassy's help was to offer each of them a single sheet of blank paper and tell them that if they wanted to use it to write a short message to their families, the embassy would fax it to a fax number in the US. Those young women would have faced thirty-five years in a US prison had DINANDRO not snatched them before they got on their plane home, so the feds weren't exactly willing to move mountains to help them.

There was also recently a news item about two American girls who were arrested in Israel, supposedly because the Israeli government thought that one of them had a vaguely Arabic-sounding name and might have once said something that was somewhat sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians. The girls were stripped naked and thrown into some filthy holding cell. The American embassy's response was more or less to tell them that they shouldn't have run afoul of our great allies, the Israelis, especially when one of them has such a name. Thanks a lot, embassy!

The bottom line is that even if you're not a dual citizen, if you get arrested in a foreign country and yell out "But I'm an American citizen!," you are likely to be laughed at.

[Peter_Pan 661]

The text that you quoted accurately says that applying for the citizenship of another country is legal and is not considered a renouncement of US citizenship unless it accompanies some sort of voluntary and intentional renunciation of US citizenship. I believe that that directly contradicts what you wrote when you stated "you cannot apply actively for another country's citizenship." You can indeed apply for another country's citizenship, and in fact you can do so and be perfectly safe in maintaining your US citizenship as long as you don't also do something that voluntarily and intentionally renounces your foreign citizenship, such as formally swearing off your citizenship at the US embassy or something like that. See, e.g., Vance v. Terrazas, which establishes that a United States citizen cannot have his or her citizenship revoked, and that citizenship can only be lost through intentional renunciation. The interesting and pertinent thing here is that, as I understand it, the method that the Department of State uses to determine whether or not a person was intentionally relinquishing United States citizenship is to ask. So if you were ever put in the extraordinary situation of having the Department of State question whether or not you intended on relinquishing your United States citizenship, they'd ask if you if did, and you could, of course, simply reply "no."

See this page for more information about the above. Here is a pertient quote from it:

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.

No. The mere fact that you apply is considered renouncing your US citizenship.

POTENTIALLY EXPATRIATING ACTS

Section 349 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1481), as amended, states that U.S. citizens are subject to loss of citizenship if they perform certainspecified acts voluntarily and with the intention to relinquish U.S. citizenship. Briefly stated, these acts include:

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• obtaining naturalization in a foreign state (Sec. 349 (a) (1) INA);
• taking an oath, affirmation or other formal declaration to a foreign state or its political subdivisions (Sec. 349 (a) (2) INA);
• entering or serving in the armed forces of a foreign state engaged in hostilities against the U.S. or serving as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer in the armed forces of a foreign state (Sec. 349 (a) (3) INA);
• accepting employment with a foreign government if (a) one has the nationality of that foreign state or (b) an oath or declaration of allegiance is required in accepting the position (Sec. 349 (a) (4) INA);
• formally renouncing U.S. citizenship before a U.S. diplomatic or consular officer outside the United States (sec. 349 (a) (5) INA);
• formally renouncing U.S. citizenship within the U.S. (but only under strict, narrow statutory conditions) (Sec. 349 (a) (6) INA);
• conviction for an act of treason (Sec. 349 (a) (7) INA).

Edited October 5, 2012 by Peter_Pan

[Mike B. 231]

No. The mere fact that you apply is considered renouncing your US citizenship.

STOP. Just stop. You don't know what you are talking about. You are factually incorrect. The Supreme Court of the United States and the United States Department of State have already issued rulings on the issue. Once again you have quoted material that directly contradicts your assertion, as your quote is of the amended INA, which was brought into line with Vance v. Terrazas with the inclusion of the phrase "voluntarily and with the intention to relinquish," the product of an amendment. As I have already shown you by posting the policy of the Department of State, the method that is used to determine the intention of the United States citizen in question is, and a quote, directly from the Department of State, "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."

Now, you may not like this, and that's fine. You can write a letter to the Secretary of State urging her to change this policy. Or, perhaps, you do not understand the policy, and that's fine also. But if you don't understand it, you should not post about in on this board, as you are telling people something that is wholly incorrect. I don't know how else to impress this upon you. It is particularly frustrating that you are quoting material that in absolute plain text that any literate native speaker of English would understand states that applying for citizenship in a foreign country is only considered a renunciation of citizenship when there is the specific intent to do so.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

No. The mere fact that you apply is considered renouncing your US citizenship.

Mike B is right, you are wrong. Applying for another citizenship does NOT give up your US citizenship. This is a well known fact. The important wording is "voluntarily performing any of the following acts with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality". As Mike B correctly stated, you are simply asked if you intended to give it up. If you didn't, you don't lose it. Simple and what thousands of USC's have done.

**Edit - I suggest you call and speak to a good immigration attorney and ask them. Perhaps even go to the passport office and ask (actually have your USC spouse do so). Try a google search even.

Edited October 5, 2012 by Vanessa&Tony

[VanessaTony 3,567]

STOP. Just stop. You don't know what you are talking about. You are factually incorrect.

Your head okay? I hope it's not bleeding from all the slamming it into a brick wall you're doing :S Sometimes you just can't tell people. My husband has a coozy that says "i can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you"... i think it's one of those situations :S

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Free Cool Aid?

It boggles the mind how much false information is floating around when it comes to multiple citizenship.

The U.S. does not recognize multiple citizenship, which means that for the U.S. a U.S. citizen is "only" a U.S citizen and nothing else. The U.S. government knows that many Americans hold another citizenship or two, but they don't care about this as long as it does not interfere with U.S. interest. So if a U.S. citizen -- for example -- is also a citizen of Iran, Uncle Sam just ignores this fact. But if said citizen joins the Iranian army, he'll have a problem.

Taking on another citizenship as an American is not of Uncle Sam's concern either. The intent to give up one's U.S. citizenship requires clear evidence to that fact. The U.S. government will not simple assume that a U.S. citizen wishes to be no longer a U.S citizen just because he naturalized in another country. In fact, if you spend some time on Youtube, you'll find several Americans who had to put up a real fight in order to renounce their U.S. citizenship. It's actually pretty hard to do.

In general, multiple citizenship always involves the laws and policies of all countries involved. And since there are about 195 on this planet, it can get really complicated when country number three is introduced.