|
|
Dual Citizenship Laws
Friday, September 04, 2009
InstructionsObtaining Dual CitizenshipStep 1: Dual citizenship is becoming more common. There are several ways to obtain dual citizenship. Children of people from two different countries are often entitled to both the mother's nationality and the father's nationality. In cases where a child is born in the United States to parents from different nations, the child is entitled both to citizenship in the United States and to citizenship in the parent's country of origin. In rare cases, a child born in the United States to a father from one country and a mother from another country, where neither parent is a U.S. citizen, the child may be entitled to citizenship in three countries.
Another way to obtain dual citizenship is through naturalization. If the second country does not require applicants to relinquish their original citizenship, you can have citizenship both in your birth country and in the country where citizenship was acquired via naturalization.
Advantages of Dual CitizenshipStep 1: Dual citizenship allows a holder of two nationalities to live in either country without the need for a visa or work permit. Dual citizenship can be useful when traveling, especially if there are diplomatic issues between the destination nation and one of the nations in which the traveler holds citizenship. In other cases, visa regulations for a destination nation may favor one nation's passport over another. For example, if you would like to travel to Cuba and hold dual U.S./Canadian citizenship entering Cuba using a Canadian passport will be advantageous.
Disadvantages of Dual CitizenshipStep 1: One of the disadvantages of dual citizenship is that a dual citizen who encounters legal problems in one of the countries of citizenship can generally not receive help from the other country of citizenship. For example, if you have citizenship both in the U.S. and the U.K. and encounter legal problems in the U.K., you generally cannot ask for assistance from the U.S. Embassy.
In some cases, a particular nation may require you to renounce your original citizenship in order to obtain citizenship in another country. Some people agree to renounce original citizenship in order to obtain the other nationality and subsequently do not renounce original citizenship. The problem with obtaining dual citizenship in this manner is that the second nation could revoke citizenship if the failure to renounce original citizenship is discovered.
AllegianceStep 1: Dual citizenship involves giving allegiance to two different nations. In some cases, you may be required to serve in two military services. You are responsible for voting in both countries and are considered a national of both nations.
LawsStep 1: Holders of dual citizenship are required to follow the laws of both nations. In some cases, there may be a conflict in laws, such as restrictions on travel and economic embargoes. For example, in the above example of Cuba, by traveling to Cuba, you would have no issues with Canadian law, but you would be in violation of U.S. law. The fact that you entered Cuba would still place you in violation of U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba, even though you entered Cuba as a Canadian on a Canadian passport.
Photo/Video CreditPhoto: stock.xchng (http://www.sxc.hu/photo/994329)
Related Content
Giving up U.S. citizenship is a serious matter; once you proceed with the renouncement, the process is irrevocable. Giving up citizenship results in the loss of all U.S. rights and protections, as...
Dual citizenship means that you are legally recognized as a citizen of both the United States and another country. If your parents are American and you were born in different country, you can...
U.S. citizenship is governed by the Immigration and Nationality Act (Title 8 of the U.S. Code), although various other national and state laws apply. This article gives an overview of how U.S....
Dual citizenship is when a person is a citizen of two countries at the same time. Because of the advantages to dual citizenship, many people are opting to go through the process.
Requirements for Italian-U.S. citizenship largely involve establishing an ancestral or marriage connection to Italy. For those who have family or business interests in the United States and Italy,...
|
- Relationship advice
- Brain teasers, trivia & jokes
- Random questions
- And much more!
go