American child traveling to mother's home country

[kenanna 39]

Hello All,

Need advice for child traveling to Belarus. He was born here in the USA 10 months after my wife POE. We are trying to get a visa for his American passport so that he may visit his grandmother in Minsk.

The Belarusian keeps insisting that he needs a Belarusian passport, and not a visa. They are saying he will not be able to return home without it. They are nice enough, but this sort of talk makes me very nervous.

We're talking about apostiles for our passports and his birth certificate. The whole nine yards, rather than simply mailing them the passport and invitation for his visa.

Has anyone, particularly Eastern Europe/Slavic immigrants, ever ran into this sort of thing before. Belarus does not recognize dual citizenship and already they are claiming his is a Belarusian citizen by birth. They will not issue a visa and insist he must have a Belarus passport to return home. Many thanks for any help and replies in advance,

Kenanna

[naire37 53]

Ugh. Eastern European countries are like that.

My brother had a very long story about trying to cancel his Russian citizenship (passport expired).. That required flying to Russia to apply for some piece of paper about not owning any taxes (and you had to apply for it in person, I kid you not!). He wanted to get a visa for that, but told he cannot, he has to first get a new passport. It was a long story that involved a *lot* of paperwork, flying back, and driving to embassy here multiple times.

Basically, USSR may be dead, but its bureaucracy certainly lives on.

The only piece of advice I have for you is: be strong and do *everything* they want and more. Those people will not reason with you. You have to do whatever is required, otherwise you do risk the thin but real chance of your child having problems actually leaving the country. Make sure to study all the documentation needed for the *leaving* part, not just entering - I would not be the least bit surprised to see if there need to be written permissions by both parents. Kind of like "we can't read your birth certificate because it's in English and we lost the apostile copy, so we're not sure if your parents are married so you need permission from both in case one of them is trying to steal you into another country".

Belarus does not recognize dual citizenship and already they are claiming his is a Belarusian citizen by birth.

Makes sense. Russia does not recognize dual citizenship either... which is why I have Russian passport up to date to travel.

From what I've heard, if you ever want to go back, having a citizenship makes things way, way, way easier than trying for any kind of a visa. So you may as well get you child the dual citizenship now, as complicated as it sounds. Hold tight and good luck!

[kenanna 39]

Thank you for your reply. I thought I was done with all this apostille nonsense. We'll try to get his other passport from their embassy before he goes anywhere, if he goes anywhere.

[newacct 688]

It doesn't seem unreasonable. If you are an American and your child is a US citizen you also cannot get a US visa for them.

[Boiler 43,381]

I was thinking the same, why give a visa to a citizen, makes no sense.

[kenanna 39]

We want the visa for him to visit Belarus. They are claiming he is a Belarusian citizen by virtue of his mother being a citizen. He is an American. They insist he have a Belarusian passport to LEAVE Belarus. It's their country and they can make their own rules, I suppose. But he was conceived and born in the USA. American citizens must have a visa to visit Belarus.

i am inclined to not let him vsit a country that thinks they have a claim on him. I am curious if any Belarusian immigrants have experience with this sort of thing.

[Boiler 43,381]

We want the visa for him to visit Belarus. They are claiming he is a Belarusian citizen by virtue of his mother being a citizen. He is an American. They insist he have a Belarusian passport to LEAVE Belarus. It's their country and they can make their own rules, I suppose. But he was conceived and born in the USA. American citizens must have a visa to visit Belarus.

i am inclined to not let him vsit a country that thinks they have a claim on him. I am curious if any Belarusian immigrants have experience with this sort of thing.

I am not familiar with Belarus, but certainly if his mother was a UKC born and bred the child would also be a UKC.

You can not take away his birthright.

[Dakine10 5,452]

Hello All,

Need advice for child traveling to Belarus. He was born here in the USA 10 months after my wife POE. We are trying to get a visa for his American passport so that he may visit his grandmother in Minsk.

The Belarusian keeps insisting that he needs a Belarusian passport, and not a visa. They are saying he will not be able to return home without it. They are nice enough, but this sort of talk makes me very nervous.

We're talking about apostiles for our passports and his birth certificate. The whole nine yards, rather than simply mailing them the passport and invitation for his visa.

Has anyone, particularly Eastern Europe/Slavic immigrants, ever ran into this sort of thing before. Belarus does not recognize dual citizenship and already they are claiming his is a Belarusian citizen by birth. They will not issue a visa and insist he must have a Belarus passport to return home. Many thanks for any help and replies in advance,

Kenanna

A child born to one Belarusian parent and one non-Belarusian parent are considered citizens of Belarus until the age of 18, at which point they can make a choice to claim or reject Belarusian citizenship. It does not matter which country the child is born in or what other citizenship they have. Your son will need a US passport to fly to Belarus, and a Belarusian passport in order to leave Belarus. They are correct that Belarusian law does not allow him to travel there on a visitors visa.

Belarus has a similar approach to dual nationality as the US and many other countries. They may acknowledge that your son has dual citizenship, but while he is there, he will be treated as a Belarusian citizen only.

[kenanna 39]

Thanks for all of the replies. Thank you, Dakine10, that's what they're telling us. We'll work this out before he leaves to visit his grandmother. I was under the impression that Belarus did not allow dual citizenship. One would have to renounce citizenship to claim Belarusian citizenship. That's something he can decide for himself oneway.

I certainly want my son to be proud of his heritage. I am sure he will when he is old enough to understand. But his birthright is American. He was blessed to be born in this country.

[Boiler 43,381]

Anybody born in the US is a US citizen essentially, most other countries require something more than where you popped out.

A quick google produced this for Belarus:

Citizenship Act (2002)[edit]
Acquisition of citizenship[edit]
Belarusian citizenship can be acquired:

by birth
by naturalization
by registration
Citizenship by birth can be acquired by a child if one of the parents is a Belarusian citizen or both of them are permanent residents of Belarus.

Citizenship by naturalization can be gained if the applicant:

had permanent residence in Belarus for 7 years preceding the application
has enough knowledge of one of state languages (Belarusian or Russian)
has legal income
has no foreign citizenship, or will lose the foreign citizenship after acquisition of Belarusian citizenship, or has renounced his citizenship
The required period of residence can be reduced for several categories of people, including ethnic Belarusians, the descendants of ethnic Belarusians born abroad, people who held Belarusian citizenship in the past, and people who have made significant contributions to development of Belarus).

Citizenship by registration can be acquired by:

people who hold USSR citizenship and were born in Belarus, or had a place of residence in Belarus before November 12, 1991, as well as their spouses who hold citizenship of USSR, and their descendants
a child of a Belarusian citizen
an adopted child
Termination of citizenship[edit]
Belarusian citizenship can be terminated by:

renunciation of citizenship
loss of citizenship, such as by entering the military service, police service or government service in another state.

[Dakine10 5,452]

Citizenship by birth can be acquired by a child if one of the parents is a Belarusian citizen or both of them are permanent residents of Belarus.

The kicker now is that the child is considered a citizen by Belarus until age 18, at which time they can make their own claim (or not). Previous law (prior to 2002) allowed the Belarusian parent(s) to make that decision when the child was born. Belarus recognizes that dual citizenship may exist in these cases, otherwise there wouldn't be an option to reject the Belarusian citizenship.

Many of the citizenship laws in the former SSR republics were influenced directly by the dissolution of the USSR to avoid leaving people stateless or stuck in the "wrong" country.

[Dakine10 5,452]

Thanks for all of the replies. Thank you, Dakine10, that's what they're telling us. We'll work this out before he leaves to visit his grandmother. I was under the impression that Belarus did not allow dual citizenship. One would have to renounce citizenship to claim Belarusian citizenship. That's something he can decide for himself oneway.

I certainly want my son to be proud of his heritage. I am sure he will when he is old enough to understand. But his birthright is American. He was blessed to be born in this country.

Remember as he gets older that he is subject to Belarusian law when he travels there. One thing to watch out for in eastern European countries is for mandatory military service.

That's a ways off, but keep it in mind. The last thing you want is for him to go on vacation and end up in the Belarusian army.

[Boiler 43,381]

US has selective service, I spoke to someone today who did a runner to Canada back in the day.

[Dakine10 5,452]

US has selective service, I spoke to someone today who did a runner to Canada back in the day.

Sure, but living here people tend to be aware of US law. Many countries have mandatory military service for citizens and you don't want to be surprised by that fact when you're "just visiting".

[Boiler 43,381]

It will for better or worse be a VERY different world when this becomes a consideration.