U.S. Naturalization and Brazilian Citizenship

[Bjh 39]

Hey everyone

I've read that while technically the Brazilian government has every right to revoke Brazilian citizenship of Brazilians who become naturalized voluntarily in another country (outside of a couple of exceptions), they only very rarely due this unless it's requested by the naturalized Brazilian, mostly because they don't keep tabs on which of their Brazilian citizens is naturalized.

What's your experience with this? Could my wife (after being naturalized) seriously enter and leave Brazil with no visa for either country by showing her Brazilian passport to enter and U.S. passport to leave?

[Emw2290 50]

When she enters and leaves Brazil, use her Brazilian ID (passport or regular ID). When she enters the United States she uses her green card or US passport, whichever she has. 

My husband just did this in January (green card holder). My father-in-law, and his Argentinian wife have been doing the same thing for several years (they are dual citizens). 

[jostermacedo 54]

On 3/15/2021 at 9:08 PM, Bjh said:

Hey everyone

I've read that while technically the Brazilian government has every right to revoke Brazilian citizenship of Brazilians who become naturalized voluntarily in another country (outside of a couple of exceptions), they only very rarely due this unless it's requested by the naturalized Brazilian, mostly because they don't keep tabs on which of their Brazilian citizens is naturalized.

What's your experience with this? Could my wife (after being naturalized) seriously enter and leave Brazil with no visa for either country by showing her Brazilian passport to enter and U.S. passport to leave?

The Brazilian Constitution says that a Brazilian Citizen will lose citizenship if he/she becomes a citizen of another country with two exceptions:

 

1. if the other citizenship is originally recognized by foreign law (e.g. someone born in the US and a son/daughter of a Brazilian Citizen, will be a dual citizen at birth and won't lose the Brazilian Citizenship).

2. if the Brazilian Citizen has the foreign naturalization mandated in order for the Brazilian Citizen to be able to live in the country in question or to exercise his/her civil rights.

 

So, the question becomes what justifies "exercise his/her civil rights"? Is the justification of the right to vote in the US enough to avoid the loss of the Brazilian Citizenship?

 

Anyway, the loss of Citizenship would have to be ruled by a judge after someone (probably the Ministério Público) filed a lawsuit. The matter would probably reach the Brazilian Supreme Court for a ruling to be final. In practice nobody loses it unless something else is on the table.

 

I remember one case that a Brazilian woman immigrated to the US, married a US Citizen, murdered him and fled to Brazil. Ohio requested her extradition and her defense was that by being a Brazilian Citizen she could not be extradited. The Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that she had lost her citizenship by filing for naturalization. She was extradited to the US after a 10-year process.

 

https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-42727904

 

 

Edited April 2, 2021 by jostermacedo