Dual Citizen Applying for US Citizenship - Help?

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masonm

New Member
My husband is about to start his citizenship process, but we aren't sure what to do about his other citizenship.
Back story:
We were married February 17th 2010, and he received his green card June 29th 2010. He was born in South Africa and also has citizenship with Sweden through his mother. So before we were married, he was already a dual citizen (South Africa by birth, Sweden through ancestry).

If I remember correctly, a person can only have citizenship with two countries at a time. If this is correct, what will happen with his Swedish and South African citizenship? Will the US government automatically drop one of them for him? Will they contact him and ask him which he would like to renounce? We're afraid they will auto-renounce his Swedish citizenship since South Africa is his "birth" citizenship. What we WANT is to keep Swedish and drop South African (if dropping is even necessary). If he can keep all three without USA getting ticked, that works too.

Does anyone have any experience with already having dual citizenship prior to obtaining US citizenship?

Thanks for any help!
 
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I held dual citizenship before I became a US citizen. There is no numerical limit on citizenships. As long as all the countries involved allow their citizens to hold other citizenships, everything is kosher.

masonm said:
Does anyone have any experience with already having dual citizenship prior to obtaining US citizenship?
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masonm said:
My husband is about to start his citizenship process, but we aren't sure what to do about his other citizenship.
Back story:
We were married February 17th 2010, and he received his green card June 29th 2010. He was born in South Africa and also has citizenship with Sweden through his mother. So before we were married, he was already a dual citizen (South Africa by birth, Sweden through ancestry).

If I remember correctly, a person can only have citizenship with two countries at a time.
Click to expand...

You remember incorrectly. I wonder where these kinds of urban legends come from...

Most countries allow their citizens to hold multiple citizenships of other countries as well (two, three, four, fifty, or whatever).



If this is correct, what will happen with his Swedish and South African citizenship? Will the US government automatically drop one of them for him?
Click to expand...

The U.S. government has no power to affect what happens with an individual's citizenship of other countries.
What happens with your husband's Swedish and South African citizenship after he naturalizes in the U.S., is determined by the nationality laws of Sweden and of South Africa. The U.S. government has nothing to do with that.

While most countries do allow their citizens to hold multiple other citizenships, other do not, and there are also various cases in the middle, where multiple citizenship is allowed depending on particular circumstances.
E.g. some countries make a distinction between a foreign citizenship that is acquired automatically vs foreign citizenship that is acquired voluntarily (e.g. through filing an N-400 naturalization application in the U.S.).

You husband needs to contact the Swedish and the South African consulates and find out exactly what their relevant laws are.

My vague memory is that South Africa requires advanced permission to be obtained from the South African authorities before a South African citizen files a naturalization application with another country; and if such advanced permission is not obtain, the person in question automatically loses his/her South African citizenship upon naturalizing in another country. But I think they don't require such an advanced permission if a foreign citizenship is acquired automatically (e.g. through parents).
At least that's what I seem to remember. But he really needs to check on these things with the Swedish and South African authorities before filing N-400.
 
Since your husband was born outside Sweden and holds another nationality, he would have lost his Swedish citizenship if he didn't apply to retain it by age 22. I assume he already did this (Unless your husband is younger than 22 :) ). http://www.migrationsverket.se/Engl.../Losing-or-retaining-Swedish-citizenship.html

South Africa requires one to apply to retain citizenship before formally acquiring another nationality, or they will lose South African citizenship. http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/index.php/civic-services/citizenship (see "Retention of Citizenship")
 
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