Any multiple citizens here?

[global gypsy]

I am curious to find out how many on this forum are multiple citizens, i.e. citizens of more than one country. I once sat next to someone on a flight who had 4 citizenships plus US green card!

I am an Aussie/Canadian who is currently on his way to UK residency.

[Wanderer]

I am curious to find out how many on this forum are multiple citizens, i.e. citizens of more than one country. I once sat next to someone on a flight who had 4 citizenships plus US green card!

I am an Aussie/Canadian who is currently on his way to UK residency.

For me, I could never do it, I'm a Brit and proud of it, even tho I hate it here in the UK and hate all the UK seems to stand for in policy and war.

Have said that I love being a European, but that's more an ineffectual thing, more a feeling than a citizenship.

I support Bolton Wanderers, my home town team. I could justifiably support Manchester United, 10 miles away, a much more prosperous and better country. I mean team. But I don't, I hope and prey for my team, and one day, maybe, I continue to live in hope and despair......

Again, for me, having multi-citizenship is like being a passport-pimp, no offence, you are not me, I would feel ashamed personally.

My gf is Russian, we've talked of moving there, I know it's not an easy place to live, but I love it there, but I could never be Russian, take Russian citizenship, take a Russian passport. She won't take a British one either when the time comes. We are both stupid I know.

My grandfather was Irish, I can take Irish citizenship, but I won't. For one I can't find any proof my gramps even existed, and I just don't feel comfortable with it, despite a deep love for Celtic Music...

Maybe this is because I'm looking from the lofty position of a 'decent' citizenship, but I dunno, I seem to be compelled to fight my way out of a difficult corner, maybe that's being 'British'?

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

My grandfather was Irish, I can take Irish citizenship, but I won't. For one I can't find any proof my gramps even existed, and I just don't feel comfortable with it, despite a deep love for Celtic Music...

Sorry to ruin your weekend, but you are most likely already an Irish citizen. You would have to actively renounce your Irish citizenship to avoid your present dual-citizenship. The passport is just the travel document that you could apply for or not as you wish.

Most people with multiple citizenship, like yourself, are born with it. I suspect if you have any children with your girlfriend, they will end up with two or three citizenships from the moment of birth.

It is also a little harsh to call every British citizen born in Northern Ireland before 2004 a "passport-pimp", just because they each have dual citizenship.

Don't feel ashamed! Appreciate the things your grandfather gave you, including Irish citizenship!

[a_bentz]

flying in to dublin just gets a wave through immigration on an irish and most institutions in the north appreciate a british passport more.

[Christophe]

Many, perhaps most, people with two or more citizenships were born with these citizenships, owing to of a combination of parentage/ancestry and place of birth.

And most of those who have acquired a second (or third, or fourth...) citizenship later in life have done so because they are living in a second (or third, of fourth...) country. A desire to integrate as fully as possible into the society of a new country that one is living in does not necessariy mean that one is any less proud of one's heritage. (And I don't think that citizenship can justly be compared to support of a sports team.)

It is rather harsh, I think, to speak of most of the people in either of these groups as "passport pimps". There are, no doubt, some such people, but I submit that they would be a tiny minority of the dual/multiple citizenship community.

(And having a passport doesn't make one a citizen. One is entitled to a passport because one is the citizen, not the other way round. Indeed, there are lots of people who have a second citizenship but do not have a second passport, either because they choose not to have one, or because they are unaware that they have a second citizenship)

[Wanderer]

To be fair to me, I think I said I would think of myself as a passport-pimp if I had multiple citizenships, although I phrased it quite badly. Blame the San Miguel..!

Apologies anyway if I offended!

I still feel the same tho, having another citizenship is like having another woman, nice and useful but immoral at the same time! That's me personally before I get accused of saying every dual-citizen is having it off with the wife's sister.....

I do feel it's a one or the other thing, in my book..

[SYH]

To be fair to me, I think I said I would think of myself as a passport-pimp if I had multiple citizenships, although I phrased it quite badly. Blame the San Miguel..!

Apologies anyway if I offended!

I still feel the same tho, having another citizenship is like having another woman, nice and useful but immoral at the same time! That's me personally before I get accused of saying every dual-citizen is having it off with the wife's sister.....

I do feel it's a one or the other thing, in my book..

More like a passport whore.

[smalldog]

My grandfather was Irish, I can take Irish citizenship, but I won't. For one I can't find any proof my gramps even existed, and I just don't feel comfortable with it, despite a deep love for Celtic Music...

Sorry to ruin your weekend, but you are most likely already an Irish citizen. You would have to actively renounce your Irish citizenship to avoid your present dual-citizenship.

Not true, actually. People with an Irish grandparent are entitled to register as citizens but they are not actually considered citizens until they are on the foreign births register. The practical result of this is that citizenship can only be passed on to great-grandchildren of Irish heritage if the grandchild registered citizenship before having the great-grandchild.

To answer the original question, I have been through the Irish foreign birth registration process and am now a triple citizen of Ireland, the UK and the USA as well as a permanent resident of Singapore.

[Dawie]

The days of loyalty to your country and all that crap are over. I have dual citizenship as well with British and South African citizenship, and I can honestly say the main overriding reason I acquired British citizenship is for the ease of travel that a British passport affords me. Plain and simple. I don't feel loyalty to any country, to be honest. I am a citizen of the world.

Anyone who says that having more than one citizenship is immoral or wrong or disloyal or unpatriotic, etc is stuck in some kind of 50's timewarp.

The truth is that citizenship has become more of a bureaucratic convenience than an expression of your loyalty to your country. I'm surprised that Brits, cynical as they are, would attach any sort of patriotic meaning to citizenship.

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

having another citizenship is like having another woman, nice and useful but immoral at the same time!

Why do you think it is “immoralâ€

[AxeZ]

The days of loyalty to your country and all that crap are over. I have dual citizenship as well with British and South African citizenship, and I can honestly say the main overriding reason I acquired British citizenship is for the ease of travel that a British passport affords me. Plain and simple. I don't feel loyalty to any country, to be honest. I am a citizen of the world.

Anyone who says that having more than one citizenship is immoral or wrong or disloyal or unpatriotic, etc is stuck in some kind of 50's timewarp.

The truth is that citizenship has become more of a bureaucratic convenience than an expression of your loyalty to your country. I'm surprised that Brits, cynical as they are, would attach any sort of patriotic meaning to citizenship.

Exactly,
I am by some mistake born in former Yugoslavia and now currently hold serbian citizenship.
On the other hand, thru my grandparents and later on parents I am also citizen of Czech Republic and thus EU citizen.
With first, I am second grade european, can't move anywhere without visa, which requires tons of papers and effort to get.
With second I am free to move , work and live anywhere in Europe and most of the world.

And I am the same person with either passports.

So, I am really glad because of dual citizenship.
It makes my life easier and I don't have to get humiliated to visit another country.

EDIT: It is easy for someone to say that it is immoral to hold two citizenships if it have normal citizenship , but let me ask that person not to try to get EU citizenship if it has some third world country passport which couldn't get you anywhere without significant effort, time and expenses....and even then it will not be guaranteed to let you in to the EU?

[Richard66]

Well, I have three:

I am English through my father (British citizen, as it were), and this part of the family has been in England since Saxon times (and records exist). THe funny thing is my surname is very rare and it exists in the very same form and spelling in England, Australia, the US and... Germany! With it I now live in Italy very happily.

I am Amercan though my mother and this other part of the family has been in Maryland (yes, Catholics too!) since the XVII century. As I've never actually been to the US in all my life, I've only used the passport once, when my British one was in the Russian consulate in Rome and I needed to go to France. Only after did it occur to me that there's no entry stamp there, so... As an American I'm an illegal immigrant.

I am Brazilian, as I was born there. Here all duties and no advantages and I last used that passport when I was last there, maybe 6 years ago. Here I am, illegal immigrant again!

I am married to a Russian and live in Italy. To make life easier for my wife (through residence she'll need to wait 10 years to be able to apply for Italian citizenship, plus 2 or 3 years waiting and British citizenship is not acquired solely through marriage) I might need to apply for Italian citizenship, which I might do in 3 years' time. Would I naturalise because I'm a turncoat? No, simply because my wife's life would be easier. Then come children... As I'm British by descent, our children would not be British, as neither of us is Italian, they would not be Italian, as we're not both Russians and we don't live in Russia, they won't be Russians, as we don't live in the US they won't be Americans and as we have no plans to go to Brazil, they won't be Brazilians either. So there you have it, 4 nationalities between us and living in a fifth country with children with no nationality...

Because I'm not Russian and the UK is not a signatory to the visa-facilitation agreement between the EU and Russia going to Russia with my wife is a drag and I can only stay for 30 days, so, having a Russian passport would certainly make our life easier. Would I naturalise because I'm a turncoat? No, simply because my life would be easier.

At present we can't go to the UK (though I'm fighting that good fight), the US, Brazil or Russia without one of us needing to apply for a visa. The moment I become Italian and my wife with me... There! We will be able to go anywhere without any need for visas (Russia excepted, but with facilitated visa for me)!

This is to illustrate that having many citizenships is not a question of loyalty: it's a practical question.

[Christophe]

To be fair to me, I think I said I would think of myself as a passport-pimp if I had multiple citizenships, although I phrased it quite badly. Blame the San Miguel..!

Apologies anyway if I offended!

Not offended at all (speaking personally), but while your views are your views and you can of course hold them about yourself - that is your prerogative - I don't think that you can necessarily imply that those views are right for other people, each of whose personal circumstances is, ultimately, unique. (I know that you didn't actually say you were doing that, but it was perhaps implied, albeit perhaps unintentionally.)

That's all I meant.

[yankeegirl]

Well, I only hold US citizenship, but my daughter has 3, US, British and Irish.

This is to illustrate that having many citizenships is not a question of loyalty: it's a practical question.

That's how I see it. The world is so much smaller, and if you are going to be living abroad, it just makes sense to me. I plan to apply for Irish citizenship as soon as I'm eligible to do so.

We plan on staying in Europe permanently, but my daughter may want to spend time in the US once she's an adult, and I think she's pretty fortunate that she will have the US and the whole of the EU open to her and never have to worry about visas!

[SMOOTH OPERATOR]

guys im a bit confused haw many nationality is one allowed to have according to the british immigration or nationality law.

secondly, is it wrong to be in possesion of more than 1 nationality passport when travelling as long as they are all rightfully urs

Thanks for ur time guys

[Dawie]

guys im a bit confused haw many nationality is one allowed to have according to the british immigration or nationality law.

secondly, is it wrong to be in possesion of more than 1 nationality passport when travelling as long as they are all righfilly urs

Thanks for ur time guys

The British government places no restrictions on how many other citizenships you may hold. However other governments can and do place restrictions.

[SMOOTH OPERATOR]

thanks for that Dawie

[Christophe]

guys im a bit confused haw many nationality is one allowed to have according to the british immigration or nationality law.

secondly, is it wrong to be in possesion of more than 1 nationality passport when travelling as long as they are all righfilly urs

Thanks for ur time guys

There is no restriction in British nationality law on the number of citizenships a British citizen my hold. (There are separate requirements for some of the other other classes of British national.) The laws of some other countries (but not all by any means) seek to minimise dual/multiple citizenship in some or all circumstances.

Likewise, the number of citizenships a person holds is entirely irrelevant in terms of British immigration law, although if you have more than citizenship and you are in the UK and subject to immigration control it obviously makes everything much easier if you always deal with the British immigration authorities using the same passport.

It is not wrong to be in possession of more than one passport while travelling provided, as you say, that you are legally entitled to hold them.

[global gypsy]

Useful wiki writeup on this topic...
Multiple_citizenship

The section titled 'Appearance of foreign allegiance' is especially relevant to some of the comments made in this thread.

Is there a list of countries that allow dual/multiple citizenship?
Nationality_laws mentions the laws for a specific subset of countries.
Swiss citizenship seems to be the hardest to acquire.

[JAJ]

. As I'm British by descent, our children would not be British

Have you ever lived in the United Kingdom or a British overseas territory?

as we don't live in the US they won't be Americans

Not true. If you have spent 5 years in the U.S., including 2 years after the age of 14, then they will be Americans too.

If you don't meet this requirement, there are still two ways to get them American citizenship: (if under 18).

- expeditious naturalization based on American grandparents, or
- sponsor them to immigrate to the U.S. and they immediately become Americans on arrival.

[global gypsy]

Interesting posting on triple_citizenship

[Christophe]

Interesting posting on triple_citizenship

A propos that post and one of its main points, nationality and citizenship matters are determined by individual EU countries, so in general as long as both/all of the EU countries involved allow dual/multiple citizenship there is no reason why a person cannot be a citizen of more than one EU country. (Some countries in the EU do, or did, have laws restricting joint citizenship with each other, but that is, or was, a separate matter from their EU membership. And of course some EU countries have laws that aim to restrict dual citizenship as much as possible - for example, Denmark.)

[JAJ]

A propos that post and one of its main points, nationality and citizenship matters are determined by individual EU countries, so in general as long as both/all of the EU countries involved allow dual/multiple citizenship there is no reason why a person cannot be a citizen of more than one EU country. (Some countries in the EU do, or did, have laws restricting joint citizenship with each other, but that is, or was, a separate matter from their EU membership. And of course some EU countries have laws that aim to restrict dual citizenship as much as possible - for example, Denmark.)

Even Denmark doesn't go quite as far as it could do. For example, children born dual Danish/other at birth (eg some children born to Danish parents in the United Kingdom are dual Danish/British) there is no requirement on the child to renounce British citizenship to keep Danish citizenship as an adult.

The child may lose Danish citizenship if the parents do (depending on what Danish law says) but that is another issue.

Germany, interestingly, has more relaxed rules about dual citizenship for other EU states compared to other countries.

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

I know somebody who is pregnant now whose child will end up with British, Italian and USA at birth. And another child who has four citizenships.

[global gypsy]

Interesting site: Dual_citizenship
They haven't included a few countries, e.g. Australia, in this listing.

This site also includes the following ranking: Visa_restrictions_ranking
Finland, Denmark & the US top the list.