Dual Nationality

Citizenship in one particular nation confers certain benefits, protections, and unique opportunities and responsibilities. And that same citizenship can also severely restrict your liberty and economic options, especially in the area of financial investments and protection of assets.

We speak here not just about currency controls or land ownership, although such restrictions do indeed exist in some nations. A prime example of unreasonable economic restriction is the statutory denial to U.S. citizens of free access to numerous offshore investments, stocks and mutual funds. While these investments are legal, U.S. law imposes such onerous and costly reporting, registration and marketing burdens on foreign companies that most shy away from American clients. But a U.S. person who holds a second passport can use that status to open doors to a wide world of investment opportunity about which most Americans know very little.

No doubt government bureaucrats and tax collectors see dual nationality as a serious threat to their control over the citizens they claim to serve. As more citizens acquire dual nationality debate is intensifying. Eager to work abroad free of red tape and restrictions, or to strengthen ties with their ancestral lands, record numbers are obtaining a second, foreign passport.

Dual nationality simply means that a person legally is a citizen of two countries at the same time, qualified as such under each nation's law. This status may result automatically, as when a child born in a foreign country to U.S. citizen parents is both a U.S. citizen and a citizen of the country where he or she is born. Or it may result from operation of law, as when a U.S. citizen acquires foreign citizenship by marriage to a spouse from another nation, or a foreign person naturalized as a U.S. citizen retains the citizenship of their country of birth.

Under U.S. law, a second passport does not jeopardize American citizenship. U.S. citizens, including dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. Dual nationals may also be required by the foreign country to use its passport to enter and leave it. But use of the foreign passport in a proper way does not endanger U.S. citizenship.

Some countries won't permit their citizens to hold a passport from another nation. This was the case in the U.S. until 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of U.S. citizens to hold a second, foreign passport. Before that time the official rule was that a person acquiring second nationality automatically lost U.S. citizenship. Since 1967 the government generally presumes a U.S. citizen does not wish to surrender citizenship. As a matter of policy the U.S. government recognizes dual nationality but does not encourage it because of what it views as problems and conflicts that may result.

In the final analysis, it is the law of the nation which is seeking to impose its control over a dual national that determines whether expatriation, or loss of citizenship, occurs. Dual nationals owe allegiance and obedience to the laws of both countries of which they are citizens. Either country has the right to enforce its laws, especially when the person is physically within that country.

The trend toward multiple nationalities has the potential to turn upside down traditional notions of how people think of themselves, their careers and their communities. It's drawn a flurry of attention from scholars, many of whom believe nationalities are artificial and, thus, interchangeable.

France and the United Kingdom are among the major nations allowing dual nationality. In recent years, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil and the Dominican Republic have allowed their citizens to hold a second passport. South Korea and the Philippines are considering it. And in a move expected to substantially boost the number of the world's dual citizens, Mexico in 1998 began allowing its nationals to hold a U.S. passport.

Millions of Americans are eligible to become dual citizens based on their family ties to foreign lands that themselves allow dual citizenship. Relying on U.S. Census data, some estimates say the pool of eligible American dual nationals grows by at least 500,000 each year, based on the number of U.S. children born to foreign born parents within the U.S.

Citizenship in some nations brings with it automatic rights recognized by other countries. Citizens of any European Union country have the right and freedom to reside and work in any other EU country. Citizenship in any of the fourteen Caribbean Commonwealth (CARICOM) countries grants rights in all other member nations. Citizenship in many Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America offers an accelerated path to citizenship in Spain, and that in turn opens the door to free movement in all other EU nations. A similar fast track citizenship arrangement offered by Portugal operates to benefit citizens of former Portuguese colonies around the world, including Brazil. Persons who have ancestors from Ireland, Germany, Italy or Mexico may have an automatic right to dual citizenship and a second passport from those nations simply by filing a claim showing proof of ancestry.