Why USC?

S

sanjoseaug20

Registered Users (C)
So we took up USC about a year and a half back. This was after staying in US for 14 years and just after 5 years of GC. However, we had to return to India just after USC because of family reasons. When we filed for USC we had no plans to return to India, but by the time the interview came, we knew that we will get a new passport and move to India. We anyway finished the last steps (interview and oath) without thinking through what the next few years were going to be. We did not want to take a break of 1 year in residence and then struggle through getting citizenship like many people here.

Anyway, now it is much later ... and lo and behold ... it seems like a waste of time to take up USC. As of now, we do not seem to have a need to return to US, now or ever. However, the burdens of USC seem to be more than what we expected. For example, the kind of banks accounts you can open, the kind of investments you can make, the kind of school fees you pay (in terms of some schools sending non-Indian kids to their international branch with higher fees), and the kind of jobs you can take up (not a big difference, but some). In hindsight, it seemed like that going for USC under the gun (of a ticking clock) was a bad decision.

So the question is ... at what point do you decide to give up USC? Did you do this? What is/was your thinking?
 
stop bitching abt it, give it up and secure an indian citizenship. i plan to do the same if i chose to relocate and live in india in the future. its ur call
 
Since you are back in India and presumably have an OCI, you have to wait 5 years to re-apply for Indian citizenship. Until then, you are stuck being a US citizen.
 
sreeleshk said:
stop bitching abt it, give it up and secure an indian citizenship. i plan to do the same if i chose to relocate and live in india in the future. its ur call
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??
u might call it bitching, but i think this is just a marker ... there are many threads of people asking why usc vs gc ... i wanted to record my perspective.
 
This thread is (probably) also for people with similar circumstances who are tied up outside US but took up USC for various reasons. How does it feel after 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 years? After how many years do you realize you are never going to return to US (to visit YES, but not to live)?
 
if you believe in economic cycles (not as a religious belief but as statistical model), everything that goes up will come down and everything that goes down does come up (aka cyclic process). I understand that India has lot of opportunities in some sectors of employment and you might be enjoying that growth while attending to family reasons/issues. In couple of years when downtrend starts, you will want to be in a "phoren" country with lot of opportunities, :). Just like immigrate to US, get a GC, etc. as done previously.
So, as they say in US; let's cross the bridge when we get to bridge, Let's not think ahead of ourselves, etc. just chilax and enjoy best of both worlds for now. :)
 
sanjoseaug20 said:
So we took up USC about a year and a half back. This was after staying in US for 14 years and just after 5 years of GC. However, we had to return to India just after USC because of family reasons. When we filed for USC we had no plans to return to India, but by the time the interview came, we knew that we will get a new passport and move to India. We anyway finished the last steps (interview and oath) without thinking through what the next few years were going to be. We did not want to take a break of 1 year in residence and then struggle through getting citizenship like many people here.

Anyway, now it is much later ... and lo and behold ... it seems like a waste of time to take up USC. As of now, we do not seem to have a need to return to US, now or ever. However, the burdens of USC seem to be more than what we expected. For example, the kind of banks accounts you can open, the kind of investments you can make, the kind of school fees you pay (in terms of some schools sending non-Indian kids to their international branch with higher fees), and the kind of jobs you can take up (not a big difference, but some). In hindsight, it seemed like that going for USC under the gun (of a ticking clock) was a bad decision.

So the question is ... at what point do you decide to give up USC? Did you do this? What is/was your thinking?
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I think you can give it up anytime. Do you have any kids? What about for their future and education, if they want to come back and study in the U.S or if they want to travel to other countries without having to go to the embassies in India. I do understand certain countries are growing economically, but those countries still have a long way to go, the number of people who want to go there is still low, plus there's no diversity really and the big chunk of the population still lives in poverty. Countries like the US still attracts people, it will be the same even in 20 years when your kids will want to have a US based education. As of now you said no need to ever return to US. Never say never.

It's not a waste of time for other people to be USC as they can still own land and buy properties in their countries.

I think people who take up USC should really think hard before taking it. We think it's just "something" you do, but taking another country's citizenship have some implications and i am sure you were aware of that since you must know other Indians or you were a member of some forums.

The only thing i don't like is that i have to get a visa to go to my country but right now we are pushing our government to recognize dual citizenship may be Indians need to try to push their government to remove certain conditions.
 
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Fair points, but rather than responding in detail, I would just say sh*t happens.
Still looking for people in the same boat (past, present, or would be) to share their opinion. Forget what happened in the past ... if you pulled the plug on USC, when did you, why did you?
 
sanjoseaug20:
One thing that may happen in future is if India gives dual citizenship. May not happen in next 10 years. But then you can get best of both worlds. With so much corruption in India, I guess it may be easy for OCI's to lobby the Government to give dual citizenship.
 
good points
dual citizenship is unlikely because it would require a change to the constitution.
However govt. could make it easier for a person with OCI to operate bank accounts, have investments in IPOs and mutual funds stc.
 
Interesting thread.

For me, becoming a USC was a no brainer. I come from a country not opposed to dual citizenship (they do not recognize dual citizenship but they do not take your citizenship away when you naturalize elsewhere).

I think if my country of origin took away my citizenship I would have never become a USC. In that case my "best of both worlds" would be maintaining a green card.
 
eltoro said:
Interesting thread.

For me, becoming a USC was a no brainer. I come from a country not opposed to dual citizenship (they do not recognize dual citizenship but they do not take your citizenship away when you naturalize elsewhere).

I think if my country of origin took away my citizenship I would have never become a USC. In that case my "best of both worlds" would be maintaining a green card.
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i would have done that too, but uscis/dhs makes spouses of green card holder wait quite alot of time!
 
for someone like me, whose country of origin doesn't not allow dual citizenship (I think you can probably figure it out which one it is), becoming a US citizen is a dream comes true probably b/c I love the USA and enjoy the right to travel to many countries visa-free.

My dad, who is a citizen of my country of origin and currently lives there, bitches about the US to me through the phone while being perfectly pleased with the fact that his son owns a US passport lol (I was like, dad, stop doing that, I am an American too).
 
I see that you are from the Indianapolis office. Can you tell me how much time it took you for the oath after the interview was done. Thanks.
 
xxhwx said:
for someone like me, whose country of origin doesn't not allow dual citizenship (I think you can probably figure it out which one it is), becoming a US citizen is a dream comes true probably b/c I love the USA and enjoy the right to travel to many countries visa-free.

My dad, who is a citizen of my country of origin and currently lives there, bitches about the US to me through the phone while being perfectly pleased with the fact that his son owns a US passport lol (I was like, dad, stop doing that, I am an American too).
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I see that you are from the Indianapolis office. Can you tell me how much time it took you for the oath after the interview was done. Thanks.
 
I really think people need to stop hiding their country of origin. It REALLY helps if we can put things in perspective, and when you say "my country doesn't allow dual citizenship," etc., we really would like to know which country. I don't think it impinges on your privacy THAT much, do you? I was Indian.
 
The question is ... how does it relate to someone who is not planning to travel back to US for another 2, 5 or 10 years?
 
fairlakes said:
I think you can give it up anytime. Do you have any kids? What about for their future and education, if they want to come back and study in the U.S or if they want to travel to other countries without having to go to the embassies in India.
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Parents cannot renounce US citizenship for their children. So the children will remain US citizens until and unless they renounce it themselves after turning 18, regardless of what their parents do about their own citizenship.
 
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