Question for the learned folks on this board

[Guest bluboy]

I am watching c-span where a question was dodged not too deftly by a heavy from the justice dept. Is it the case that an American citizen (who is jewish) can go a fight with the Israeli army but no other citizen is allowed to fight in a foreign army? If this is true, why is this the case? Could a palestinian American go fight for Palestine? Could a Taiwanese American go fight in Taiwan against China etc.?

 

Separately- on the matter of John Walker Taliban- he joined the Taliban before we -america were at war with the taliban- and fought with them against the northern alliance- in fact we were in discussions with the Taliban governement about building an oil pipeline through afganistan. So we clearly thought that the Taliban were good enough to do business with. Then came Sept 11th- John Lind- stayed on the side he was on - the Taliban- we then declared the Taliban the enemey for obvious reasons and then John became a traitor. Was he really able to leave the Taliban at that point once we had declared war? blu

[Guest Fin Fang Foom]

Israel is the only country you can have dual citizenship with.

 

Informatively yours,

 

FFF

[+ bigjoey]

i think there are a few others; monaco (if that is a country??) i think is one.

[Guest Fin Fang Foom]

>i think there are a few others; monaco (if that is a

>country??) i think is one.

 

Nope, only Israel.

 

Definitively yours,

 

FFF

[Guest Les]

Dual Citizenship

 

 

This list is based on the best current information. Some countries don't acknowledge foreign citizenship at all. Others have various restrictions regarding losing or acquiring dual citizenship and for that reason are not listed below. If you are concerned about losing your present citizenship when you naturalize as a U.S. citizen, speak to a representative of your government before filing for naturalization.

 

 

Dual Citizenship Generally Allowed After U.S. Naturalization

Dual Citizenship Generally Not Allowed After U.S. Naturalization

 

 

 

 

Dual Citizenship Generally Allowed After U.S. Naturalization

Albania

Antigua

Barbados

Belize

Benin

Bulgaria

Burkina FASO

Cambodia

Canada

Cape Verde

Central African Republic

Colombia

Costa Rica

Cote D'Ivoire

Croatia

Cyprus

Dominica

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

El Salvador

France

Ghana

Greece

Grenada

Guatemala

Hong Kong

Hungary

Iran

Ireland

Israel

Jamaica

Latvia

Lesotho

Liechtenstein

Macao

Maldives

Mexico

Morocco

Nevis

New Zealand

Nigeria

Namibia

Panama

Peru

Poland

Portugal

Romania

St. Christopher

St. Kitts

St. Lucia

Slovenia

Sri Lanka

Switzerland

Syria

Togo

Tunisia

Turkey

Tuvalu

United Kingdom

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dual Citizenship Generally Not Allowed After U.S. Naturalization

Algeria

Andorra

Azerbaijan

Bahrain

Belarus

Belgium

Bhutan

Bolivia

Botswana

Brunei

Buruni

Cameroon

Congo

Chile

China

Cuba

Djibouti

Equatorial Guinea

Gabon

Guinea

Honduras

India

Indonesia

Iraq

Japan

Kazakhstan

Kiribati

Kuwait

Kyrgyz Republic

Laos

Libya

Malawi

Malaysia

Mali

Mongolia

Monaco

Myanmar/(Burma)

Nepal

New Guinea

Nicaragua

Niger

North Korea

Norway

Oman

Pakistan

Palau

Papua New Guinea

Principe Island

Quatar

Rwanda

Saudi Arabia

Sierra Leone

Singapore

South Korea

Sudan

Swaziland

Sweden

Taiwan

Tonga

Uganda

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

Uzbekistan

Venezuela

Vietnam

Yemen

Zimbabwe

 

The City University of New Work

 

Hi bluboy,

Don't you think these rules and regulations should be changed?

I think it's unpatriotic to have dual citizenship.

Take care, Les

:-)

[+ Charlie]

I believe this is a list of countries which continue to recognize the citizenships of their own nationals even after they have been naturalized as US citizens, but the US does not recognize them as dual citizens once they have been naturalized.

 

John Lindh does seem to be a pathetic case of someone caught in a situation where the rules changed in the middle of the game if he was only fighting for the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, but if he was also working with al-Qaeda against the US, that is a different story.

[Guest Musclebearshare]

Blu - To your first question, no it's not the case that only Israeli/US dual nationals are allowed to serve in a foreign army. From the Dual Nationality FAQ http://www.richw.org/dualcit/faq.html :

 

-----

But doesn't serving in a foreign army result in automatic loss of US citizenship?

No. As explained above, essentially nothing causes automatic loss of US citizenship any more. If you join a foreign army, you can lose your US citizenship if you acted with the intent of giving it up. Otherwise, you can still keep it.

 

Current US law says that foreign military service will result in loss of US citizenship if the person served as an officer (commissioned or non-commissioned) or the foreign military force is engaged in hostilities against the US; the service was voluntary; and (most importantly) the person intended to give up his US citizenship.

 

Current US policy goes further. Unless a dual citizen is serving in a "policy level position" in a foreign government, commits treason against the US (e.g., by fighting the US voluntarily during wartime), or acts in a manner considered totally inconsistent with any possible intent to keep US citizenship, the State Department is unlikely to take any action. Further, the current policy statement on foreign military service recognizes that dual citizens sometimes find themselves legally obligated to participate in the military forces of their other country of citizenship, and can do so in such situations without endangering their US status.

-----

 

On the question of Palestine, there is no officially recognized Palestinian state (thanks to Israel's repressive policies), so there isn't really an army for a Palestinian American to join, nor is there a nation for a Palestinian American to be a dual national of. Similarly, the U.S. never officially recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, so John Walker joining them didn't really constitute joining a foreign military in the U.S. State Department's eyes.

 

Michael

[Guest Thunderbuns]

>Separately- on the matter of John Walker Taliban- he joined

>the Taliban before we -america were at war with the taliban-

>and fought with them against the northern alliance- in fact

>we were in discussions with the Taliban governement about

>building an oil pipeline through afganistan. So we clearly

>thought that the Taliban were good enough to do business

>with.

 

Same old story. Money talks. In our profit oriented society, very few avenues will not be persued if there is a buck to be made.

 

Thunderbuns

[trilingual]

The law on dual-citizenship (at least for U.S. citizens) has been complicated, and the written law isn't necessarily up to date. The ability to be a dual-national without losing one's U.S. citizenship is fairly recent and is the result of court decisions. The basic principle is that citizenship is extremely precious and isn't something the government can take away at whim. The only grounds for invalidating citizenship are those cited in the post above, like active treason, or taking other actions that unequivocally indicate an intention to abandon U.S. citizenship. There are very few such acts. In most cases, the only to lose U.S. citizenship is to renounce it.

 

In this ever-smaller world, there are lots of people born in other countries who become U.S. citizens (or who are children of such people) who also have another nationality. In some cases that's because their countries of origin don't recognize loss of citizenship. (I.e., once a Slobbovian, always a Slobbovian.) That can cause problems, for example, for a draft-age person with Slobbovian nationality who goes back to Slobbovia for a visit. In other cases, it's possible to give up local citizenship, but people don't want to because of other legal hassles, like restrictions on the ownership of property by foreigners. This is one reason a lot of Filipinos (who staff all the airport security checks in San Francisco) haven't taken out U.S. citizenship even though they've lived here for years. If they become U.S. citizens their rights to own property back in the Philippines will be severely restricted. And so on. Dual nationality/citizenship is just not such a black and white issue.

 

Thanks to the other posters for providing useful info on the topic!

[Guest Ant415]

Blu,

 

You be surprized that the US government would prevent someone from supporting the Isreali army????? If you are, don't be be. The US is very supportive of Isreali armed forces.

 

I am not anti-Isreal, they certainly have a right to exist. It is more about our policy on Isreali.

 

Is it possible for the US to broker a peace in the region, given how supportive we are to Isreal?? Should Arab states trust us?

 

I may not know all the issues on Isreal/Palestine, but it is just my comments as an average Joe on the streets. There are lots of average Joes, we all have our right to an opinion.

[Guest Thunderbuns]

>I may not know all the issues on Isreal/Palestine, but it is

>just my comments as an average Joe on the streets

 

I hope no one exploits you by sucking on your dick for $80 ;-)

 

Thunderbuns

[Guest Musclebearshare]

>In this ever-smaller world, there are lots of people born in

>other countries who become U.S. citizens (or who are

>children of such people) who also have another nationality.

>In some cases that's because their countries of origin don't

>recognize loss of citizenship.

 

I'm one of those. I was born in the U.K. and adopted by American parents. When they came back to the U.S. (I was about 13 months old) with me, I had a British passport. I was naturalized at about age 5. But the U.K. doesn't have a problem with that, so I'm able to retain my British citizenship. When I lived in London several years ago, I had a friend who's situation was exactly the reverse. He was born in the U.S. to British parents. They moved back when he was about 5 and he was naturalized as a U.K. citizen. He claimed he lost his U.S. citizenship at age 18, because he'd taken citizenship in another country, but I think he may have been misinformed or behind the times. Most of the court rulings that made it much more difficult to lose one's U.S. citizenship are from the late '60s and into the '70s, but there still seem to be a lot of people who think the U.S. strictly forbids dual nationality, except for Israeli nationals. On the other hand, maybe his status was complicated by the fact that his parents weren't U.S. citizens. At the time I knew him, he hadn't actually tried to renew his U.S. passport.

 

Michael

[swallows22]

I was born and raised in the US and moved to Australia in 1975. At that time anyone who took out Australian citizenship automatically lost their US citizenship. However, that all changed in 1990. The US allowed dual citizenship. In addition, anyone who had lost their citizenship previously had it re-instated back to the day it was lost.

I became a dual citizen in 1993 and have had no problems travelling between the two countries.

PS I was working for the US Consulate in Sydney at the time and made sure the facts were correct. Cheers!

[Guest roninx]

I have a question for ya. I was born in Hong Kong but moved to the U.S. very young and got my citizenship. Can I become a Hong Kong citizen again? Can I also get a British citizenship since it was still "owned" by Britain when I was born?

[trilingual]

With regard to the guy born in the U.S. of British parents who moved back to the U.K. when he was five years old. As far as I know, he's still a U.S. citizen unless he took the formal step of renouncing his citizenship (by stating that in writing, addressed to the local embassy or consulate, or something similar). If he just acquired British nationality because his parents are British, he's most likely a dual national.

 

With respect to Hong Kong, the answers are probably more complicated. I don't know what Hong Kong law said about loss of citizenship at the time you acquired your U.S. citizenship, nor do I know what the current law is. You'd have to check with the Hong Kong government. Presumably, if you try to regain Hong Kong citizenship now you'd also be regaining Chinese citizenship. I don't think you can get a British passport, at least not one valid for residence in the U.K., because Hong Kong citizenship and passports didn't provide that right. If your parents were British, that would undoubtedly be different, given the racist nature of Blighty's immigration policies. (Not that we haven't had a touch of that ourselves in the U.S. over the years.) If you want to sort it all out, I'd suggest starting by asking someone at the respective consulates. You might need local immigration lawyers in Hong Kong and the U.K. to straighten everything out if you want to go ahead. Who knows, you may end up being a triple-national (U.S., China, Britain).

 

BTW: If you have dual nationality and travel on both passports, be sure you use your British passport (for example) when entering and leaving Britain (because in most countries you have to be stamped in AND out), and your American passport when you return to the U.S. That way, when you're in Britain, you're there as a citizen and resident, not a visitor. And likewise when you return to the U.S. However, if the country of your second passport exposes you to potential ickiness, like penalties for unfulfilled military service or tax obligations, it's probably better to enter and leave that country as a tourist on your American passport. Comprende? Now I'll stop practicing immigration law without a license! :-)

[Guest DCeBOY]

SO not true, tri-f.

 

http://travel.state.gov/dualnationality.html