Lately, I feel like I have to start with this disclaimer to every thread I start. Once I do that, I will continue with my question.
My wife and I are from Eastern Europe living in the USA for the past 13 years after my company moved us to USA. Our kids are born here in the USA.
Today we were invited to a party and we met new families. Of course our accent gave us away and we had to answer many questions about our countries. Forgot to add. My wife and I are born in different European countries. We met in college and got married in my own country.
Long story short here is our number of citizenships.
I am a citizen of 4 countries including USA.
My wife is a citizen of 3 countries and can get her 4th citizenship thru me if she wants to.
My kids are citizens of 4 different countries including USA.
Are we really that unique?
Are there any other posters here with multiple citizenship? Also, have you heard of any people with 4 citizenship?
Nice that you are able to have multiple citizenships. Some countries make you renounce all others for theirs, I believe. I and all my extended family are only US citizens.
4 is a lot. I have 2 citizenships (USA and Canada). In theory I could get a third (Ireland) because a grandparent was born in Ireland. However, I have never seen any point in doing this.
There are potential advantages and potential disadvantages of having multiple citizenships.
One obvious advantage is that in many countries university is more affordable if you are a citizen. Also, in many countries university is a LOT less expensive than in the US. Also, as far as I know most universities outside of the US accept applicants largely based on grades and/or test scores. Thus someone with great grades and great test scores can apply to and get into top universities very easily with much less stress (the application is easy, they know where they will get in, and know they can afford it).
One theoretical disadvantage is the possibility of being drafted, particularly in the case of war. I have heard of cases of men being drafted into two different armies in WW2 – one army on each side of the conflict. In the cases that I know of they only fought on one side (either US or Canada – which was of course the same side).
Another disadvantage is that the US taxes the earnings of US citizens who live and work outside of the US, and continue to do this for 10 years after someone renounces US citizenship. For a very young person with 2 or more citizenships this might be an inducement to renounce their US citizenship early – before they start to make money. For an older person this might be a reason to not bother renouncing US citizenship at all. I don’t think that the actual amount of taxes owed is that large an issue (my understanding is that you pay the excess by which US taxes would exceed the amount of tax you have to pay where you are, which is often zero). However, the time and cost of figuring out how to fill out the forms can be significant, and I have heard of cases of people getting in serious trouble because they filled out the forms wrong.
I and my Ds all have dual American/Canadian citizenship. The U.S. didn’t always allow this. I’ve never heard of anyone having citizenship in four countries.
My mom has three. Her mom’s, her dad’s, and the country where she was born.
It’s interesting that your kids also got your citizenships. Were you not US citizens at the time? Or were they born abroad? I know lots of people whose parents have dual or multiple citizenships but they themselves only have American citizenship. It didn’t get passed down.
My mom’s citizenship almost never comes up though so I don’t think most people even know. I can claim at least one of her citizenships but I’d have to give up my American citizenship to do so.
“I know lots of people whose parents have dual or multiple citizenships but they themselves only have American citizenship. It didn’t get passed down.”
Whether it gets passed down depends upon the laws of each individual country. Canadian citizenship is only passed to the kids if at least one parent is a Canadian by virtue of being born in Canada, and also did not give up their Canadian citizenship prior to 1948. Time is rapidly making the last part of this irrelevant. US citizenship is passed down only if at least one parent is a US citizen who lived in the USA as a US citizen for some number of years (5?) after some particular age (I think 21). Given these two rules, if I had another child now (VERY unlikely) they would be born with US and Canadian citizenship regardless of where they were born or who the mother was. Irish citizenship is only passed down if the parents are legally married (or at least that was the law when I checked). Some countries don’t allow dual citizenship at all.
I have met a few Canadian citizens who had no idea that they were Canadians. In each case a parent was born in Canada but they had no idea that this meant that they are also Canadian citizens.
“My mom’s citizenship almost never comes up though so I don’t think most people even know. I can claim at least one of her citizenships but I’d have to give up my American citizenship to do so.”
The US allows dual citizenship. As such I don’t understand why you would need to give up American citizenship to take another one, although some countries won’t give you citizenship unless you do so. Some countries (I think including Canada) won’t recognize your renunciation of citizenship if the only reason that you do so is because some other country makes you do it.
@DadTwoGirls - Good point on Tax issue. We are on top of our paperwork. I am a little bit of a freak when it comes to keeping track of proper paperwork. We will let our kids chose if they still want to be citizens of other 3 countries if they want to. It will be their decision.
@romanigypsyeyes - Our kids were born here in USA so they are US citizens by birth. We weren’t citizens yet when they were born but we also became citizens of USA later on.
Also some more info to make it more understandable.
My wife was born in Country A then moved to the country where I was born(Country B)
I had citizenship from 2 countries before I got married. (Country B where I was born and country C due to my mother)
So after we got married, my wife became citizens of Country A(where she was born) and Country B(where I was born and where I met her)
In summary.
My wife: Citizens of Country A, B and USA
Me : Citizens of Country A, B, C and USA
My kids: Citizens of Country A, B, C and USA
Good thing is all of us carry passports from European Union countries. Our kids can chose to go to college in Europe for almost pennies compared to colleges in USA. We will respect our kids choices and we will let them decide where they want to go to college. But it is my dream and my wife’s dream to see them go to Europe and study at the college where my wife and I graduated.(It is the top college in my country and graduates end up at great US colleges for grad school. One of my friends is a professor at Princeton and another at Harvard.
I’m aware. And after I posted I remembered that my friends with Canadian parents have dual.
On the other hand, my friends whose parents are from Indian and other places did not inherit citizenship because they were born in the US with the intention of staying in the US.
The country in question requires you give up US citizenship if you claim theirs. It’s not the US that requires it.
I looked into it quite seriously after this last election
Additional citizenships can be useful if one wants to visit or work on the other countries (or several EU countries) without the usual need for visas or being limited by restrictions if allowed to enter without visa. But there can also be liabilities like US citizens having to file and pay income tax even if one has no US related income, or mandatory military service in some countries.
In a college context, citizenship may allow attending a university at the citizen price instead of the often higher international price.
Keeping track of 4 citizenships sounds exhausting - passport renewals, consulate registrations, which passport did I get stamped when I traveled last time…
EU passport has a significant value for educational purposes; other than that, I personally would prefer that my kids honor their heritage by knowing the ancestral language(s) and keeping in touch with family that is still living in the old country.
H born in South America. His dad was European and his mother American. Holds three passports. Spent teenage years in Europe and moved to America in the 1980s. Our kids have EU and US passports. I hold only US citizenship–I think 7th generation.
Years ago I had a coworker who had both European and US passports (pre-EU - can’t remember which was the other country). After the Iran hostage crisis, she carried both with her when traveling thinking that the European one might be “safer” for her then admitting to being an American citizen. Today, those two might be equally disliked by a terrorist.
@DadTwoGirls@alwaysamom I’m also dual US and Canadian. The rules on passing down US citizenship require that one of the parents to be physically present in the US for at least 5 years, at least 2 of which are after they turn 14. https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-parents I moved my US born kids to Canada before the oldest turned 14. I’ve got long google docs for the older 2, counting the number of days they’ve spent in the US. At the pace the oldest is going, he’ll be 40 by the time he’s been in the US long enough. I’m trying to convince him to do grad school in the US.
I’ve never met someone with more than 2 citizenships before.
“The rules on passing down US citizenship require that one of the parents to be physically present in the US for at least 5 years, at least 2 of which are after they turn 14.”
So at this point if either of my daughters were to move to Canada, then their kids would also have dual citizenship (assuming that their kids were born in Canada). This is a good thing to know. Of course, years from now it is very hard to predict whether US citizenship will be as highly sought after as it is currently.
Canadian citizenship only passes to the kids, and no further unless the “Canadian born abroad” either returns to Canada (eg, to give birth there), or marries someone born in Canada.
The last part is an issue which dogged a Korean-American colleague as despite spending most of his life in the US, because he left South Korea after 6 and his parents didn’t realize the need to provide official written denunciation of his South Korean citizenship before he turned ~16, he has to wait until he’s ~38 or so to visit South Korea or face the risk of being apprehended and immediately drafted into the South Korean military for 2-3 years(2 in Army/Marines, 3 in Navy/Air Force). And because his parents didn’t renounce his South Korean citizenship before he turned ~16, he’s still a South Korean citizen and can now only renounce it after completing his mandatory military service there or staying away until he’s 38.
South Korea and Singapore are two countries who tend to be most strict about mandating this for all males citizens(Singapore also mandates conscription of male children of non-citizen permanent residents) of conscription age whereas other societies like the ROC(Taiwan) have some legal workarounds(If a male ROC citizen emigrates before 16, he can obtain an “overseas Chinese” status which allows him to visit ROC controlled areas for a certain amount of months each year/two year period without any worries about getting drafted. However, if one overstays more than 2 times, he will be liable for immediate conscription.)
One HS classmate who had overseas Chinese status and US citizenship ended up getting drafted by virtue of overstaying because he opted to attend NTU after HS. Since that exceeds the permitted length of time his status allows before he’s liable for conscription, he ended up getting conscripted for 2 years in the ROC Army after undergrad.
I was born a naturalized citizen almost 60 years ago of another country. When my parents legally immigrated to the US when we were young, my parents could have chosen to automatically seek citizenship for us too but decided to let us decide for ourselves at 18. One by one, we all did. Since I was in college at the time, and planning a wedding, decided to do this at 23. The US then required you to renounce all other citizenship which I was glad to do, Since that has changed,a few of my sibling got their other passport but I still have no desire to form an allegiance with any country but this one.
