Already Having a Dual Citizenship befor the GC & US Citizenship..

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NEWBIE67

Registered Users (C)
This forum is really great in answering some basic questions.

One of my relatives asked me the following question: If someone is already a dual citizen (Birth Country-India and naturalized country: an EU country) before receiving the US Green Card. Her Green card was marriage based.

So when she applies for US citizenship what happens? Do she have to give up the naturalized country's citizenship? Or can she keep it?

Her naturalized country (that EU country) only allows further naturalization to any other country only based on marriage. And she is married to a US citizen.

After becoming US citizen, does the US have any problem about her having/keeping her EU country's citizenship? Because that EU country allows her the US citizenship only if that happens on the basis of marriage to a US person.


NEWBIE67
 
One cannot have dual citizenship with India since India does not recognize dual citizenship. If an Indian citizen takes up citizenship of another country he/she automatically loses Indian citizenship. India offers OCI which is not dual citizenship but is a form of permanent resident visa.

US does not explicitly support or reject dual citizenship. In other words US will not strip you of your US citizenship if you take up citizenship of another country.
 
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People always assume that PIO and OCI is dual citizenship, which it is NOT.

The US won't say anything about his or her EU citizenship.
 
nkm-oct23 said:
One cannot have dual citizenship with India since India does not recognize dual citizenship. If an Indian citizen takes up citizenship of another country he/she automatically loses Indian citizenship. India offers OCI which is not dual citizenship but is a form of permanent resident visa.

US does not explicitly support or reject dual citizenship. In other words US will not strip you of your US citizenship if you take up citizenship of another country.
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She is not worried about her Indian citizenship. She is worried about loosing her EU citizenship after the US.
 
There's some confusion.

First, there's no such thing as getting US citizenship based on marriage to a citizen. You can only get US citizenship by naturalization based on being a permanent resident; marriage to a US citizen (or serving in the armed forces) may speed it up, but not change the underlying basis.

Second, while the US doesn't care about dual citizenship (it just doesn't recognize it) other nations do; so the European nation may revoke the person's citizenship, just like India has done.
 
If the EU country is alright with her taking another citizenship then she should be alright. The US is not going to ask her or force her to give up that EU citizenship.
 
TheRealCanadian said:
First, there's no such thing as getting US citizenship based on marriage to a citizen. You can only get US citizenship by naturalization based on being a permanent resident; marriage to a US citizen (or serving in the armed forces) may speed it up, but not change the underlying basis.
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Hi RealCanadian --

Well you raised an interesting point. In the light of your above comments, if the law of that EU country (Ireland) says the following:

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform can revoke your certificate of naturalization if:

You have, by any other voluntary act other than marriage, acquired citizenship of another country.

Now in the light of above law, do you think that she can prove to her EU country that her taking up the US naturalization was based on Marriage to a US citizen? (i.e. Voluntary act of marriage)???

If she can not prove that her acquiring of US citizenship is voluntary, but through marriage, then her EU country may revoke her citizenship.

I mean does your comments that
TheRealCanadian said:
You can only get US citizenship by naturalization based on being a permanent resident; marriage to a US citizen
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 are interesting in context of her situation.
 
I would say it is better to contact the Irish embassy. My interpretation of that law would be that one is only safe if the citizenship is automatically granted due to marriage. In the US one has to voluntarily apply for it. On the other hand it says that the minister of Justice,... can revoke, not shall revoke. Of course, this is not much consolation, but it is possible that the minister of Justice only revokes the naturalization in special circumstances. It's hard for me to say anything about the citizenship laws of other countries, I have enough trouble trying to understand the laws in the US ;)
 
NEWBIE67 said:
Now in the light of above law, do you think that she can prove to her EU country that her taking up the US naturalization was based on Marriage to a US citizen? (i.e. Voluntary act of marriage)?
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Reading that quote, I believe it's referring to situations where one automatically becomes considered a citizen solely by virtue of marrying a citizen of that country. I don't believe this applies to US citizenship, since US citizenship is never granted automatically through marriage. Therefore, it seems to me that Ireland could revoke her citizenship.
 
NEWBIE67 said:
Hi RealCanadian --

Well you raised an interesting point. In the light of your above comments, if the law of that EU country (Ireland) says the following:

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform can revoke your certificate of naturalization if:

You have, by any other voluntary act other than marriage, acquired citizenship of another country.

Now in the light of above law, do you think that she can prove to her EU country that her taking up the US naturalization was based on Marriage to a US citizen? (i.e. Voluntary act of marriage)???

If she can not prove that her acquiring of US citizenship is voluntary, but through marriage, then her EU country may revoke her citizenship.

I mean does your comments that are interesting in context of her situation.
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Can anyone else share thier ideas/points/explainations on this?
 
Where did you read this information? Look at the links I've provided. If you check websites of the Irish government, there is nothing leads me to believe that your citizenship will be revoked.
 
cafeconleche said:
Where did you read this information? Look at the links I've provided. If you check websites of the Irish government, there is nothing leads me to believe that your citizenship will be revoked.
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It is not my about citizenship, it is the about the citizenship of one of my relatives...

I read the information about revoking from the following link:

http://www.irishabroad.com/travel/irish-citizenship/Articles/irish-citizenship-naturalisation.aspx

Look under the "Revoking citizenship" section (bullet point 5).

Same information can be found on the Irish Government's own official website too.
 
TheRealCanadian said:
Reading that quote, I believe it's referring to situations where one automatically becomes considered a citizen solely by virtue of marrying a citizen of that country. I don't believe this applies to US citizenship, since US citizenship is never granted automatically through marriage. Therefore, it seems to me that Ireland could revoke her citizenship.
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That's where she is confused. Because on a seprate explaination, the law also says, and below quote are the exact words, found on the below site:

http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/WP07000047

Marriage not to effect loss of citizenship:
A person who marries a non-national shall not , by virtue of the marriage, cease to be an Irish citizen, whether or not he or she acquires the nationality of the non-national.

I don't know if this can apply to all born citizens or naturalized Irish citizens, or does it even apply in her situation or not...
 
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To be honest, I know several people who have Irish and American citizenship. They're born Irish citizens, but I really don't think that would be an issue. Call the embassy or consulate to be doubly sure. Even better, call the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and ask them directly.
 
cafeconleche said:
To be honest, I know several people who have Irish and American citizenship. They're born Irish citizens, but I really don't think that would be an issue. Call the embassy or consulate to be doubly sure. Even better, call the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and ask them directly.
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You'r right, I should call the office in Ireland... to confirm.

What I know now is Born Irish people can have the DUAL no matter what.. but if some body was naturalized Irish, then they can't have American, unless they can prove they had marriage-based US natrulization.

thanks for the opinion..
 
The article of the law that seems to apply, and it has been mentioned in different ways earlier seems to be:

19.(e) that the person to whom it is granted has by any voluntary act other than marriage acquired
another citizenship.

For me, applying for naturalization in the US is a voluntary act. The marriage provision is for countries that grant automatic citizenship to spouses. In my humble opinion your friend would risk getting the Irish naturalization revoked. The law doesn't seem to give much room to preserving the Irish citizenship in this situation. You could read the "unofficial" compiled version of the irish nationality act here:

http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/ConsolidationINCA.pdf/Files/ConsolidationINCA.pdf
 
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