Can people who naturalize keep their old citizenship?

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saltman

New Member
The Dual Citizenship FAQ by richw (google for it -- can't post URLs yet) states:

Finally, some people who become US citizens hope to take advantage of the fact that the US didn't make them actually go to their old country's consulate and get their citizenship revoked (all they were required to do was make a renunciatory statement as part of the US naturalization oath) -- and so they continue to exercise rights of citizenship in the old country as though nothing had happened. The US State Department used to take a dim view of such behavior if they found out about it, and people acting in this way were known to lose their US citizenship on the grounds that their pledge to renounce their prior status had evidently not been made in good faith. Now, though, the State Department almost never pursues such cases.
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Reading this forum and other forums, it seems like people retaining their old passport is extremely common. In fact, there are famous people such as Arnold Schwarzenegger who seem to be doing the same thing.

Are people aware of any cases where this has caused problems for people today? Would you recommend against it? If someone were to keep his old citizenship, could his US citizenship be taken away and he could be deported? In the latter case, it almost seems that just keeping your Greencard and never naturalizing might be better?

Thanks for your answers!
 
Somebody losing Citizenship on these grounds is unheard of, revoking a US Citizenship is very serious and hard process for USCIS and requires a US district court ruling if it's appealed, it becomes extremely difficult specially after 2 Years of naturalization as USCIS loses jurisdiction of starting denaturalizing someone administratively.
Living on a GC keeps the doors open for deportation and other actions of revoking permanent resident status for various criminal activity or long absence from US.
State department understands the rights someone holds in a country where he/she is born, besides you are allowed to have dual nationality.
Some countries are very strict on this like India takes that very seriously and do not allow dual nationality.
I have seen many many people traveling on the Passport issued by their home country when going over there and use a US Passport on their way back all the time.
 
saltman said:
Reading this forum and other forums, it seems like people retaining their old passport is extremely common.

Are people aware of any cases where this has caused problems for people today? Would you recommend against it? If someone were to keep his old citizenship, could his US citizenship be taken away and he could be deported? In the latter case, it almost seems that just keeping your Greencard and never naturalizing might be better?
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Keeping your old passport once you become a US citizen does not automatically equate to keeping your old citizenship. In some cases, keeping your former passport once you become a US citizen can cause problems later, but it would never lead to you loosing your US citizenship. For example, if you are an Indian citizen and naturalize to US citizenship, you are required to surrender your Indian passport as India does not recognize dual citizenship.
Find out the rules for your country in order to determine how they apply to dual citizenship.
 
saltman said:
Are people aware of any cases where this has caused problems for people today? Would you recommend against it? If someone were to keep his old citizenship, could his US citizenship be taken away and he could be deported? In the latter case, it almost seems that just keeping your Greencard and never naturalizing might be better?
Click to expand...

The US doesn't care if your old country still considers you a citizen.
 
I understand that some countries do not allow their citizens to renounce their citizenship, and that the US is ok with that.

There are also some countries which do not allow dual citizenship and where you lose that other citizenship if they find out you became a US citizen.

I am asking about the other case though: What if your home country (such as Switzerland or the UK) have no objection to you becoming American, and upon naturalization, you continue to use your Swiss or UK passport (thereby still exercising your citizenship, and not, as you could, renounce it so that you are only a US citizen). Is this in contradiction to the naturalization oath? The FAQ quoted above seems to suggest that in the past, people got stripped of their US citizenship if the State Department found out that people who had naturalized continued to use their old passport. But apparently that's not something to be worried about any more?

So: For eg a Swiss or UK citizen, is it perfectly safe to naturalize in the US, and keep using their Swiss/UK Passport whenever they travel home and never renounce their Swiss/UK citizenship:?
 
saltman said:
So: For eg a Swiss or UK citizen, is it perfectly safe to naturalize in the US, and keep using their Swiss/UK Passport whenever they travel home and never renounce their Swiss/UK citizenship:?
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Yes, that's perfectly fine. You'll still need to use your US passport when you return to the US.
 
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