Am I Still a Vietnamese Citizen?

[Piefre 15]

My parents and I immigrated to Canada in the early 90s and we all go our Canadian citizenships in 1998. I don't believe my parents or I have renounced our Vietnamese citizenship. Now I am going to be filing for a K1 Visa very soon and am wondering if Vietnam still considers me a citizen. If so, I want to renounce it.

What can I do to find out if I'm still considered a citizen of Vietnam and how do I renounce my citizenship? Or, can I file my K1 with a Canadian and Vietnamese citizenship? And how do I do that? Will it cause any problems with USCIS? I haven't been back to Vietnam in over a decade, and will probably never take advantage of the citizenship if I still have it. So I am fine with renouncing it. I am also fine with filing for the K1 with dual Viet/Canadian citizenship if that won't cause any problems.

[Tuanv 2]

I don't think it will cause any problem--simply put yourself as Canadian Citizen.

[BinhJerome 14]

First your post sounds strange, a K1 fiancee visa is for a US citizen, are you a US citizen???????????? Canada might also have a K1 visa, but I am not sure.

Second, where do you live? United States, or Canada?

Third, you do not have to renounce your Vietnamese citizenship, and do you still have your Vietnamese passport?

The reason I ask if you still have your Vietnamese passport is because it is easier for you to come and go in Vietnam on visits, so if you are ever planning on visiting Vietnam, you would not want to renounce your Vietnamese citizenship.

Please help clarify what it is that you are wanting to do with information. With the information we can better guide you with our opinions on what you can or cannot do.

What I get from your post is that you currently live in Canada, and you are wanting to marry a United States citizen, so this is why you are filing for a K1 visa with the United States. If I am correct on this, then you will want to file as a Canadian citizen. This is because you currently have Canadian citizenship.

I hope this helps Jerome

Edited November 2, 2010 by jeromebinh

[Dang Lang Thang 0]

From my limited (un-researched) understanding, you are a Canadian citizen to the rest of the world except the Vietnamese government.

To the Vietnamese government, you are a dual citizen of Vietnam and Canada. Thus forth, if you are travelling or staying in Vietnam, you can/will be treated as a national. This implies that you retain the privilege of being harassed, coerced, damnified, imprisoned with alienation from your Canadian citizen's rights.

I guess this does not really concern you since you are looking to immigrate from Canada to the US.

[Indietro09 2]

As far as I know I dont think you will have that much problem bringing your fiancee to Canada and it wont take as long as the K-1 process to the US. Its kinda weird. If u r Canadian then why do you have to file for K-1 to the US. Should you look for Immigrate to Canada forum?

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

I think the OP was born in Vietnam, immigrated to Canada, and now intends to immigrate to the US with a K1 visa.

[Piefre 15]

Thanks for all the responses! Sorry I wasn't clear. I am looking to immigrate to the US. Presently I live in Canada and am a Canadian citizen. I was born in Vietnam though and got my Canadian citizenship about 12 years ago. I have a US citizen fiancé who will file a K1 for me soon. But we were unsure about whether I had to declare my possible citizenship to Vietnam on the forms because my Vietnamese citizenship was never renounced.

My Canadian passport simply lists my nationality as Canadian and nothing else so I am just confused about this one.

Also, I no longer have a Vietnamese passport. That has been expired and gone for about 18 years, I think.

Thanks for any help clearing this up.

[tcTTct 37]

You're Canadian as far as the US government is concerned.

I was born in VN but had Australian citizenship and when I my company applied for my greencard and when I listed Australian for everything, with birth place being Vietnam. Hope this helps.

Edited November 2, 2010 by tcTTct

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Why you might want to explore Viet-nam's position in regard to "dual" citizenship, it has no bearing on your current venture. Your US citizen fiance will petition for you, a Canadian citizen. That's so simple a caveman can do it.

That said, I would suggest to go the CR-1 route instead, purely for financial reasons and to avoid the dreaded AOS thingi.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

For what it's worth, a citizen of Vietnam can only renounce their citizenship IN VIETNAM. It won't be recognized if it's done outside the country. This is all part of the VN subversion laws. This is meant to prevent Viet Kieu from doing or saying anything outside of Vietnam that would be considered contrary to the interests of Vietnam. If they do this, and then return to Vietnam, they will be prosecuted as Vietnamese citizens, even if they think they renounced their citizenship while they were abroad.

[Piefre 15]

Thanks for your responses, everyone. I will be applying as a Canadian citizen then since it sounds like renouncing my Vietnamese citizenship will require a lot more than I thought (thanks, JimVaPhuong, for that very useful and interesting tidbit of info by the way) and seems like it shouldn't matter with the US government so that's all I was really worried about.

I had no idea you had to renounce it while in Vietnam. Sounds like a big mess for anyone interested and I still want to do it--just not right now. Thanks again.

[luckytxn 2,264]

May want to go to the Canadian forum then.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

For what it's worth, a citizen of Vietnam can only renounce their citizenship IN VIETNAM. It won't be recognized if it's done outside the country. This is all part of the VN subversion laws. This is meant to prevent Viet Kieu from doing or saying anything outside of Vietnam that would be considered contrary to the interests of Vietnam. If they do this, and then return to Vietnam, they will be prosecuted as Vietnamese citizens, even if they think they renounced their citizenship while they were abroad.

Cool, Jim,

but for future reference, what's Nam's position regarding dual citizenship?

[luckytxn 2,264]

Cool, Jim,

but for future reference, what's Nam's position regarding dual citizenship?

My wifes Uncle and I was chatting about this awhile back and he told me that they still consider anyone born in Vietnam to a citizen and regardless if they became a citizen and had a passport from another country. We got to talking about it because someone in the family in California had written things critical of the VN government and he was pretty much guaranteed of not being able to return to VN or he would be arrested. Supposedly the VN government had already charged him. He had been in the states a long time and a citizen for about 20 years.

Him and I also was discussing a story I had written about my experiences of meeting my fiancee and the travails we endured. I was starting to shop the story around and he asked me not to publish it as some of my experiences I had written about of when I was in Vietnam and interviews may be construed as anti VN government. I had said that I am a citizen so had no worries but he said that they may be able to glimpse from the story who the interviewees were and also find out who I was and my wifes family and punish them. I had tried to change it up and even deleted a lot and then just ended up putting the story on the back burner. I don't want to harm my wifes family and though I doubt it was that bad I decided to not chance it. Supposedly the VN embassies and consulates has intelligence sections that have people that look for this stuff. I am sure they do as I know the U.S, embassies do also the same type stuff.

[BinhJerome 14]

Cool, Jim,

but for future reference, what's Nam's position regarding dual citizenship?

Vietnam does infact recognize dual citizenship, at least their laws do.

Jerome and Binh