It isn’t highly sought after by Canadians, I can tell you that. We, personally, know dozens of duals who have renounced their citizenship and many others who are in the process, given what is happening in the current administration. The tax policies are a PITA for citizens living in another country. Even if you don’t end up paying any U.S. tax, the filing and reporting requirements are costly.
1 Like
A long time ago, I knew a family that needed a looooong advance time any time it needed to cross a border. Four people, and four different nationalities:
They lived in the U.S., where Dad had gotten his PhD and was a university professor at the time.
Dad grew up and was educated mainly in France, but had been born in 1945 to ethnic Polish parents in a refugee camp in what later became East Germany. He was in his mid-30s, and had never held a passport from any country. This was a point of pride with him, but it did not make travel easy, to say the least. Notwithstanding, at one point or another, he held academic posts in nine universities on five continents, including tenured positions at universities in the U.S., Canada, and Switzerland. (I believe eventually in his academic career he was effectively required to acquire U.S. citizenship, however.)
Mom was Trinidadian by birth. When Trinidad became independent, she opted for Commonwealth citizenship rather than Trinidadian citizenship. She held a British Commonwealth passport.
Their older child had been born in France, and held French citizenship. Their younger child was born in the U.S., and was a U.S. citizen.
The parents were trying to raise the children to be bilingual in English and French, but when I met them the older child had completely lost his French. To avoid having their daughter lose her French, too, her parents (and everyone else, except her brother) spoke to her only in French. You were not allowed to talk to her other than in French. So they had a French child who spoke only English and an American child who spoke only French.
Both children wound up getting undergraduate degrees in Europe, and both live and work in the U.S. now.
1 Like
multiple citizenship provides no practical value if you have U.S. citizenship , unless you move to another country and denounce your US citizenship for tax purposes.(removing a citizenship) and in fact having more than one citizenship can lead to many problems in many countries, especially for minors with multiple citizenship. some folks see it as a status symbol…makes you more wordy or something…but from a practical stand point it has no value.
I have a friend who has both a U. S. and and Israeli passport. She mostly uses the US passport to travel because she’s afraid that there are some countries that will discriminate against her with the Israeli passport. Not sure if this is true or not.
1 Like
I have Albanian/U.S dual citizenship but only use my American passport for travel. It gets me through places a lot easier than my Albanian passport (which takes $300 to renew as its old now).
Just waiting for Albania to hopefully join the EU soon and then I will have access to the rest of Europe too. 
But probably not for a while…
1 Like
“Mom was Trinidadian by birth. When Trinidad became independent, she opted for Commonwealth citizenship rather than Trinidadian citizenship. She held a British Commonwealth passport.”
in that case it is a very logical choice. to travel on a passport from trindad you would probably need visas for most non caribbean countries, and it would be hard to get them because they assume you are attempting to come and stay.
1 Like
Israeli and American. Steps have to be taken to handle military service obligation. With an Israeli passport, one was able to visit Cuba.
Another advantage of more than one passport has been that if one passport is within six months of expiration, some countries won’t let you in and so we have been able to use the other one.
I have known people with three passports, but not four.
1 Like
Having another citizenship means that you can work in the other country without needing a work visa, or otherwise travel or live there without the usual restrictions based on visas or (if allowed) entry-without-visa. Whether that is of value to you (in comparison to any additional liabilities) depends on your situation.
1 Like
Probably more likely if your social circle includes immigrants from countries that have citizenship by descent and do not restrict having additional citizenships (e.g. Canada and Mexico as well as the US; probably more common in Europe and Latin America than in Asia). If two such immigrants different citizenships that can be passed by descent (or one with more than one citizenship that can be passed by descent) have a kid in the US, the kid could have three (or more) citizenships.
1 Like
the country my family is from is an economic disaster and the chance of employment is zero. that and zika, yellow fever and dengue make that no value to me.
Looks like citizenship in that country is not of value to you. But it does not mean that having another citizenship is of no value to someone else (who may have it in a more “useful” country).
1 Like
I can think of several, including the right to work and live in the other country as mentioned above.
• Speed through passport control of the second country
• Ability to travel to countries without the expensive visa that US passport holders need.
1 Like
Korea recently legalized dual citizenship for people over 65 who were born in Korea. Being already over 65, I am thinking of taking advantage of this new law after retirement. That will allow me to live in Korea and receive US social security and pension payments. I have not yet talk to anyone in a similar situation (because I am not panning to retire soon), but are there any disadvantages of doing that?
1 Like
"Korea recently legalized dual citizenship for people over 65 who were born in Korea. Being already over 65, I am thinking of taking advantage of this new law after retirement. That will allow me to live in Korea and receive US social security and pension payments. I have not yet talk to anyone in a similar situation (because I am not panning to retire soon), but are there any disadvantages of doing that? "
The main disadvantage that I can think of is the need to file tax returns in both countries.
1 Like
“multiple citizenship provides no practical value if you have U.S. citizenship”
We are about to pay for four years at a very good university in Canada, with the total price of four years being only slightly less than the cost of one year at a comparable university in the US. I think that this counts as “practical value”.
1 Like
Having multiple passports help. Nobody can say it has no value. For business I had to travel Brazil. Brazil wants visa from US citizens but doesn’t want visa from the EU passport I hold. So I was able to travel to Brazil without a visa.
Another situation with Russia. My third country has access to Russia without Visa so I am planning on using that passport when I go to Russia to visit World Cup. Oh, Russia needs visa from US citizens and EU Passport holders as well. So my third passport comes in handy.
Another situation. If my kids decide to go to college in Europe, I will pay pennies compared to US colleges. An engineering degree in Germany or a Law degree in France. The world is open to them.
1 Like
In the ROC(Taiwan), having dual citizenship(Only available to those born in ROC or children of ROC citizens whose parents got them registered as citizens within a certain period after birth) has the following additional benefits:
Getting taxed at a far lower rate for wages than non-citizens on Alien residency card.
Paying the same tuition rate for university as citizens rather than the higher tuition rate charged for international students(Still a bargain by US standards).
One oddity is attaining admission to ROC universities is actually EASIER for overseas Chinese and internationals. As well as my HS classmate scored on the national college exam despite spending the vast majority of K-12 in NYC public schools…including our public magnet, if he took the test as a regular citizen who attended K-12 in the ROC areas, his score wouldn’t have met the cutoff score for NTU’s engineering department whereas as an Overseas Chinese/international, it more than exceeded it.
1 Like
I don’t think it’s so uncommon to have more than two citizenships. My son has a friend with three: U.S.A. (by birth), Canada (through her father, who’s from Montreal), and Brazil (through her mother, who’s from Sao Paulo). She went to college at the U. of Toronto and is now in graduate school at McGill, and has thereby saved her parents quite a bit of money. And she has a grandmother and other close relatives in Brazil, and has been able to spend a lot of time there.
My son and I will both have two citizenships fairly soon: the U.S.A. (by birth), and Germany – me through my mother and her parents, and my son through me, based on Article 116(2) of the German Basic Law, which provides for restoration of citizenship to former German citizens who between January 30, 1933, and May 8, 1945, were deprived of their German citizenship on political, racial, or religious grounds, and to their descendants. See http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/05__Legal/02__Directory__Services/02__Citizenship/__Restored.html and http://www.uk.diplo.de/contentblob/4235518/Daten/4289717/CitizenshipReobtainingGermancitizenship.pdf. We put in our applications about a year ago (together with the extensive documentation required to prove eligibility), but given the backlog resulting from the large numbers of applicants, it can take at least a year and a half sometimes.
This was not something that I ever felt particularly compelled to do, although I find it somewhat meaningful symbolically as the restoration of something both my mother and her parents were deprived of for the sole reason that they were Jewish. It’s the least that Germany can do after what happened to my mother, her parents, and their family, although obviously nothing will ever make up for that. And it does give me options should I ever decide that I need to leave this country. Not that that’s very likely to happen, but one never knows. But having German – and thereby EU – citizenship will potentially benefit my son in all sorts of practical ways that are far more likely to occur, by allowing him to live, study, and work in Germany and elsewhere in the EU without restriction should he ever choose to do so. (He is already quite proficient in German, and has spent several months each in Germany and Austria.) .
1 Like
@donnal I didn’t know about that German thing. My father’s mom qualifies. I’ll have to look into that out of interest.
1 Like
@romanigypsyeyes, I don’t know if your grandmother is still alive; if she is, she would definitely be eligible from what you say. But your father would be eligible through her (regardless of whether she is still alive) only if he was born on or after April 1, 1953. For persons born before that date who were not personally deprived of German citizenship, they are entitled to restored citizenship by descent only if it was their father who was deprived of citizenship, and not if it was their mother. It seems incredibly unfair to me: because of that law, I am entitled to restored citizenship through my mother because I was born after that date, but my older sister is not, because she was born before that date. Germany has declined to change that aspect of the law, though.
1 Like