Getting Green Card from US Passport
- Thread starter Mov
- Start date
How can you renounce your US citizenship without being an Austrian citizen?
If you are in the US and renounce it, where will you go?
Citizenships are renounced outside the country.
Usually you would do it at the US consulate in your new country of residence.
And no, a Green Card is not possible, A permanent residency is given to someone who is a non-citizen and wants to reside in the country indefinitely.
Here you are, wants to live in a different country and still want to keep your ties to the US.
And children who are citizens based on their parents acquiring citizenship and given a chance to choose when they turn 18. Aren't they?
I would say it is virtually impossible to switch from a Citizen to a Green Card status.
If you are in the US and renounce it, where will you go?
Citizenships are renounced outside the country.
Usually you would do it at the US consulate in your new country of residence.
And no, a Green Card is not possible, A permanent residency is given to someone who is a non-citizen and wants to reside in the country indefinitely.
Here you are, wants to live in a different country and still want to keep your ties to the US.
And children who are citizens based on their parents acquiring citizenship and given a chance to choose when they turn 18. Aren't they?
I would say it is virtually impossible to switch from a Citizen to a Green Card status.
Mov, you can't have the cake and eat it... if your intention is to move to EU/Austria to live and study there, you wouldn't fulfill the requirements of a US LPR, even if there were a way to "demote" from USC to GC (which does not exist as others said before).
I've lived and worked in the EU as a non-EU (and non-US) citizen: other than having to deal with the work/residency permit bureaucracy (which is universal as in every other country...), there's no serious drawback to retain your USC and live/work in EU.
Renouncing your USC is a complete one-way road, too. When visiting the US, you're back to the status of an Austrian tourist, no work authorization, certainly no GC. My advice would be to defer your decision for your citizenship until later when your life plans get more concrete and you fully established on which side of the Atlantic you're settling
But take a closer look at the Austrian Staasbuergerschaftsgesetz, namely paragraph 27, section (3):
From your OP, you mentioned you were 15 when your mom became USC and in derivation, you. If I interpret the above passage correctly, you actually are still an Austrian citizen. Technically, you should still be able to apply for a Austrian passport. You could also still have a shot at getting a permission for dual citizenship since you did not originally consent to the derived USC.
I've lived and worked in the EU as a non-EU (and non-US) citizen: other than having to deal with the work/residency permit bureaucracy (which is universal as in every other country...), there's no serious drawback to retain your USC and live/work in EU.
Renouncing your USC is a complete one-way road, too. When visiting the US, you're back to the status of an Austrian tourist, no work authorization, certainly no GC. My advice would be to defer your decision for your citizenship until later when your life plans get more concrete and you fully established on which side of the Atlantic you're settling
But take a closer look at the Austrian Staasbuergerschaftsgesetz, namely paragraph 27, section (3):
(3) Ein minderjähriger Staatsbürger, der das 14. Lebensjahr vollendet hat, verliert die Staatsbürgerschaft außerdem nur, wenn er der auf den Erwerb der fremden Staatsangehörigkeit gerichteten Willenserklärung (Abs. 1) seines gesetzlichen Vertreters oder der dritten Person (Abs. 2) vor dem Erwerb der fremden Staatsangehörigkeit ausdrücklich zugestimmt hat. (BGBl. Nr. 202/1985, Art. I Z 13)
The incomplete, loose translation for non-German speakers: ... a minor 14 years or older will only loose the (Austrian) citizenship if he/she has explicitly given consent to the foreign citizenship...
From your OP, you mentioned you were 15 when your mom became USC and in derivation, you. If I interpret the above passage correctly, you actually are still an Austrian citizen. Technically, you should still be able to apply for a Austrian passport. You could also still have a shot at getting a permission for dual citizenship since you did not originally consent to the derived USC.
Triple Citizen
Registered Users (C)
This does make sense. If the OP never gave his consent when 15, he is still an Austrian citizen.
Thanks for the informative reply. I looked at my US passport and the date of issue is 2005 a few days before my birthday (my date of birth is 1992). Which means I was going to turn 14 a few days later. Crap, that may be an issue.
Since my parents are now USC, then I would be more then fine with giving up US citizen for EU, also given the fact I would be studying/living in EU and possibly also Armenia. The important thing is I could visit US without needing visa, that all it matters I don't care about the working issue.
If I go to Austria for a year in a couple of years, could I just do everything there? In the worst case scenario, I will just re-acquire it there (and will have to relinquish USC).
Last edited by a moderator:
The passport issue date is not the relevant date, check your US naturalization certificate (which has likely an older date). But yes, it means that your were too young to require your consent and you likely cannot retroactively apply for double citizenship, sorry.
Even if working in the US is not in your stars, your visits to see your parents would be completely on the terms of B1/B2 (or visa waiver), i.e. you cannot visit longer than 3 months (6 with a B1/B2) and not longer than 6months in a 12month window. Also, every time you'd visit the US, you will need to convince the IO at POE that you will return back to the EU (i.e. have a return ticket, have a place to live in EU etc). Your parent's USC will not help you in any immediate way and might only make a IO more suspicious.
On the other hand, your parents could at a later time sponsor you again for a family-based GC. But wait times for those GCs are rather long (FB1 for unmarried sons/daughters is currently ~6 years until a immigrant visa becomes current (http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4597.html)
You mean relinquish your USC? Yes, afaik, you can relinquish your USC at the US embassy/consulate in Austria (after you reclaimed and regained your Austrian citizenship).
I don't have a certificate, I was never given one, only a passport. So this means, if I want to renew my Austrian passport, I have to also give up USC. Also meaning I don't have to go through a naturalization process just to get back my passport. Here is a sentence from the Austrian nationality law: "A person who lost Austrian nationality as a child (other than by deprivation) may re-acquire it by declaration within 2 years of turning 18." I guess I would fall into that situation.
In terms of not being USC, I wouldn't really need it. My parents would visit and I would visit making my trips every few years. Worst comes to worst and I ended up living in US, I would have to go through the grueling process of getting green card, but most likely that wouldn't happen.
Jackolantern
Registered Users (C)
While it is true that the certificate of citizenship, obtained by filing N-600, would be required in order to see the exact date that the US recognized Mov's citizenship, in this case the passport itself is enough to know that the citizenship was granted before age 14.
Ultimately, instead of debating layman interpretations of various snippets of the Austrian law, Mov should not assume that Austrian citizenship was lost, and should instead communicate with the Austrian consulate (or directly with the Austrian government) to get something conclusive in writing from the Austrian government to say whether Austrian citizenship has been lost or retained. If it has not been lost in the first place, there would be no need to reacquire it.