Dual Citizenship

[SweetheartSarah 3]

I'm Canadian, about to file the Citizenship application. There's a portion that asks if I'm willing to relinquish all prior citizenship to another country. My plan was to have dual citizenship, but I'm not sure if I can with this question on there. There is no other reference to ask for dual citizenship nor can I find a document for it. Anyone have any insight?

[Ontarkie 13,917]

~~Moved to USC General Discussion, from K1 P&P~~

[EM_Vandaveer 2,370]

You are not relinquishing your citizenship. You are "giving up your allegiance", but that does not mean you are giving up your prior citizenship.

Source: I am a naturalized US citizen. I didn't have to give up my birth country citizenship.

Edited November 26, 2016 by EM_Vandaveer

[Lemonslice 4,556]

You are not relinquishing your citizenship. You are "giving up your allegiance", but that does not mean you are giving up your prior citizenship.

Source: I am a naturalized US citizen. I didn't have to give up my birth country citizenship.

Important to note that for some countries, actively seeking another citizenship (i.e. applying for US Citizenship and getting it) WILL make you lose your initial citizenship.

[EM_Vandaveer 2,370]

Important to note that for some countries, actively seeking another citizenship (i.e. applying for US Citizenship and getting it) WILL make you lose your initial citizenship.

Sure. OP's Canadian and Canada is NOT one of those countries.

[Lemonslice 4,556]

Sorry, I didn't mean she would lose her Canadian citizenship; just that others reading your answer should double-check for their own country of citizenship rather than assume that they will keep it.

[ptm897 41]

To the Original Poster.. If you naturalize in the U.S. you do not jeopardize your Canadian citizenship. Canada allows dual citizenship so the act of you naturalizing in the U.S. does not jeopardize that at all. If you happen to come from a country that does not allow dual citizenship like, Japan, Philippines, then when you take the oath of allegiance and complete the naturalization process you have lost the citizenship of your former country because they will no longer consider you a citizen upon naturalization in the U.S. For a green card holder here in the U.S. from countries like Japan and the Philippines if they go to their consulate here to renew their passport the consulate will ask to see their green card and when they cannot produce that green card because USCIS took it during the naturalization process, that is how those countries that don't allow dual citizenship keep their checks and balances and are able to find out that their citizens have naturalized in another country. So when a Filipino citizens naturalizes in the U.S. the consulate will find out when they go to renew their passport and they cannot produce their green card to show the consulate because they have naturalized and have a naturalization certificate. Then the Filipino consulate will refuse to issue their passport and notify them that they are no longer a citizen of the Philippines.

So, because Canada doesn't care if you naturalize you will not have renounced your Canadian citizenship unless you sign renunciation papers at your local Canadian consulate and tell them you don't want to be a citizen anymore and turn in your passport to them. There is an actual renunciation process that you have to go through with your own country in order to renounce if you come from a country that does not care one way or the other if you naturalize.

So if you naturalize in the U.S you would always maintain two passports and when you go abroad outside of the U.S. to visit someplace you enter those countries on whatever passport is more advantageous to you, but when you come back into the U.S. you will always and forever present your U.S. Passport for inspection at any border or port of entry. You would never again show your Canadian passport to a U.S. Immigration official at any border or port when you are coming back in once you have naturalized.

Technically the U.S. doesn't allow dual citizenship for their citizens under most circumstances and there is always a fine line between that. The U.S. recognizes that many people naturalize here and are allowed to retain their citizenship from their other country if that country allows them to. When you naturalize in the U.S. our office has no legal right to confiscate your Canadian passport from you as that is property of the Canadian government, the only time Immigration is allowed to confiscate a passport from someone is if they are in the process of deporting a criminal and they are securing their travel document to effect the removal.

Many people born in the U.S. are born dual citizens and they have 2nd citizenship through direct blood/lineage from one of their parents that was still a citizen of another country at the time of their birth here in the U.S. so some people here are born citizens and then also hold another citizenship and that is allowable. Then there are many people that naturalize in the U.S. and they come from countries that allow dual citizenship so even though they take our oath of allegiance and they are telling us in that oath that they "Absolutely end entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty to whom or which they have heretofore been a subject or citizen"...etc.... you are not really renouncing that citizenship unless you would go to your countries consulate and sign renunciation papers to that country and turn in your passport to them, you have not really renounced.

I hope this information is helpful, I am an Immigration Officer with USCIS for the past 20 years now, I spent 10 years interviewing in our Citizenship branch and the derivative U.S. citizenship is my specialty and my geek thing for the past 14 years.. I love my job and I actually just discovered this message board today through something on FB. I know that many of my fellow co-workers will refuse to admit to the people that they interview that you are able to retain your citizenship from the country you are from if that country allows you to have dual citizenship, and Canada and the U.K, and many other countries allow dual citizenship. Many USCIS officers can be really militant about that and will refuse to tell you during the interview process that you are allowed to retain your citizenship from your country if they allow you to, many have the mindset that once you naturalize here they don't want you thinking that you can still retain your previous citizenship. I've heard the way some of them talk to applicants in their office and that always got me angry because they are not telling them the truth.

We have books at work that have a list of many of the countries and it tells us if that country allows dual citizenship or not, and it's very easy to find out, just call your countries consulate here in the U.S. and ask them.

[shayy17 3]

Just out of curiosity then can a U.S. citizen apply for citizenship to another country (Canada let's say since it allows dual)?

I assume since the policy seems to be you enter and leave with your US passport and the U.S. doesn't ask about other citizenships it would be?

[ptm897 41]

Just out of curiosity then can a U.S. citizen apply for citizenship to another country (Canada let's say since it allows dual)?

I assume since the policy seems to be you enter and leave with your US passport and the U.S. doesn't ask about other citizenships it would be?

Hi Shay,

this article here sums it up pretty good, the US has relaxed their rules on dual citizenship, they frown on it in most circumstances for those of us born here and that wish to go abroad and naturalize somewhere else, but I know several people that have done it, it is much easier to maintain when you get your second citizenship through direct family lineage, through the blood lines, like parents and grandparents.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2013-03-24/john-roska-its-legal-americans-have-dual-citizenship.html

[shayy17 3]

Thanks I was always curious about the reverse

[Calicolom 265]

Israel, you can be dual citizen, with US

[SweetheartSarah 3]

Important to note that for some countries, actively seeking another citizenship (i.e. applying for US Citizenship and getting it) WILL make you lose your initial citizenship.

This I know, although Canada is not one of them.

[vanee 13]

I'm Canadian, about to file the Citizenship application. There's a portion that asks if I'm willing to relinquish all prior citizenship to another country. My plan was to have dual citizenship, but I'm not sure if I can with this question on there. There is no other reference to ask for dual citizenship nor can I find a document for it. Anyone have any insight?

As others have said, you can maintain your Canadian citizenship.

After you become a US citizen, to the US government, you will be only American. If they ask what your citizenship is, at a border crossing or anywhere else, tell them "American." But in other situations, you can describe yourself as an American, a Canadian, or both, depending on the situation.