Dual Citizenship - Canada/US

TheRealCanadian said:
Yes. One must be a US citizen to be a commissioned officer - an NCO is not (that's what the "NC" stands for)
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In combat, an NCO can receive a promotion to become a comissioned officer. This happens rare
or only in those combats hheavy cacuaslties occurred so that NCO need to be promoted to replace
lost lieutenents. in such situation, I doubt anyoen care to verify citizenship
 
WBH said:
In combat situations, a commanding officer can promote an NCO to be a lieutenent to replace looeys lost
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In a situation like that, I can only guess that if a CO were to promote an NCO to an LT then eventually, when circumstances permit, they will go over all that paperwork and inform you of your options - Stay a commissioned officer by giving up your ties to another country or go back down to your rank.

Update: My husband is retired Army and he looked up the answer for you - Basically I was right. If you were to make LT in a combat situation while deployed, then you have one year to meet the requirements to keep your rank. If you don't (give up your dual citizenship) then you get bumped back down to your original rank.
 
TheRealCanadian said:
Canada has no issues with you taking American citizenship. You will remain a Canadian citizen.
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Thank you, sir! I just wanted to clarify something if that is alright... There is no special paperwork or anything that I would have to fill out, correct? All I need to do is maintain both my passports and stay on the good side of the law? Ha ha. I'm sorry if I sound a little dense. I'm just very surprised, after all the speculation about dual citizenship with immigration officers, that that's all I need to do. Happy of course though... I also read in the oath that I will be taking that I agree to give up allegiance to any other country. That is why I remained confused even after speaking with a worker from the Canadian consulate.
 
ravesky said:
In a situation like that, I can only guess that if a CO were to promote an NCO to an LT then eventually, when circumstances permit, they will go over all that paperwork and inform you of your options - Stay a commissioned officer by giving up your ties to another country or go back down to your rank.
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Since when it started to require US citizenship to be an officer anyway? At least this non-citizen person was
a colonel in the US Army (still icnldujhing air force at that time)

After World War II he served under von Kármán as a consultant to the United States Army Air Forces, and commissioned with the assimilated rank of colonel. Von Kármán and Tsien both were sent by the Army to Germany to investigate the progress of wartime aerodynamics research

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Xuesen
 
ravesky said:
Thank you, sir! I just wanted to clarify something if that is alright... There is no special paperwork or anything that I would have to fill out, correct?
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Correct.

ravesky said:
All I need to do is maintain both my passports and stay on the good side of the law?
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You don't even have to maintain both passports -- you can if you want, but there is no need to. If you live in the U.S., you will probably only use your U.S. passport, since the U.S. requires its citizens to enter and leave with the U.S. passport, and Canada doesn't care which one you use. So you will probably never use your Canadian passport. Plus some U.S. border control officers get cranky about people using other countries' passports to travel. As a citizen of both countries, you have the right to apply for a passport to either one at any time.

ravesky said:
I also read in the oath that I will be taking that I agree to give up allegiance to any other country.
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"allegiance" is not equal to "citizenship". Plus, to give up Canadian citizenship, you need to apply and be approved; you can't just give it up by saying it.
 
newacct said:
"allegiance" is not equal to "citizenship". Plus, to give up Canadian citizenship, you need to apply and be approved; you can't just give it up by saying it.
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Part 10 Question 6 ask if applicants has any title of nobility. If an applicant is a knight, count, baron etc, I am not sure if he is required to
give the title up or not.
 
You need not get ANY passport if you never intend to leave either Canada or the US, whichever you live in.

Also, remember that a US passport is a contentious little documents in many countries. You might then want to use a Canadian passport, which draws fewer prying eyes. You can go to Cuba, for example, or to Iran without the need to book a fully guided (or should I say monitored) tour. Your dual citizenship brings a tonne of advantages. It'd still be illegal to spend money in Cuba, though, since you'd be a US citizen in spite of your use of a Canadian passport (this doesn't stop most people :)).
 
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I am still wondering, why a person would acquire more than 1 citizenship (if his/her country allows dual)?
 
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cafeconleche said:
Options? Because one can? More rights in these countries?
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A few people may not be that pragmatically-minded. They think it is not morally correct to have two
citizenships because you can be loyal to one and only one country as a loyal minister can serve one and only one
emperor/king
 
WBH said:
A few people may not be that pragmatically-minded. They think it is not morally correct to have two
citizenships because you can be loyal to one and only one country as a loyal minister can serve one and only one
emperor/king
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Of course, I agree. I was just citing reasons people would want to apply for citizenship more than once if they are entitled to it. I would.
 
cafeconleche said:
You need not get ANY passport if you never intend to leave either Canada or the US, whichever you live in.

Also, remember that a US passport is a contentious little documents in many countries. You might then want to use a Canadian passport, which draws fewer prying eyes. You can go to Cuba, for example, or to Iran without the need to book a fully guided (or should I say monitored) tour. Your dual citizenship brings a tonne of advantages. It'd still be illegal to spend money in Cuba, though, since you'd be a US citizen in spite of your use of a Canadian passport (this doesn't stop most people :)).
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Around 100,000 US citizens visit Cuba every year. Cubans don't make difference whether you're American or somebody else. You also can't spend money in Cuba if you're US resident, but not a citizen, according to US law. I personally know a few people who traveled to Cuba being US citizens, no problem from Cuban side whatsoever.
 
I wasn't talking about it from a Cuban perspective. I merely meant that as a US citizen (and resident, yes, but in this case, it was citizenship that we are talking about) ought not to go to (yes, it is actually about spending money, but it is very hard not to do so) Cuba.
 
Sorry I didnt get what youre doing in the military

I know theres some mixy rules about it - and im pretty sure im right here
(what im for sure right about is that recruiters and even lots of officers you talk to have no idea what theyre saying or are twisting stuff a little - I love the military i really really do - but unfortunately you can definitely get different answers from different people (youve seen that already))

But - what I've gathered together _NCMs (sorry im Canadian - not officers)
dont have to be citizens
Officers do - but reservist (not active duty - oh and possibly national guard) dont have to give up their other citizenships - but i think active duty do have to - I think.
 
Hello all! Thank you for the input and discussion.
I just wanted to update:
I took my oath today and I am officially an American citizen (and still a Canadian citizen from what I understand). The ceremony was awesome, and I even got to stand in recognition of my military service (I was also the only service member to take the oath today). I was totally not expecting that from all the ceremony walk-throughs I've read on here. So that was a moment to remember! Thank you all for taking the time to answer my question. :)
 
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