Being a duel citizen...

[Truestar8]

Is being a dual citizen a position or a negative. For example, holding a British passport and a American passport? I'm thinking being a dual citizen would give more opportunities and choices in life.

What are your thoughts?

With the state of the country (UK) atm I could only see it as a positive

I'm glad of mine.

Only downside is if one of your citizenships is somewhere with a dubious human rights record (e.g. Iran) or somewhere that operates conscription, which includes some countries in Europe. But otherwise I'd go for it.

DH and the DC have UK/EU dual nationality and it’s nothing but a positive.
It will save us money, hassle and ensure the DC can work, travel and study like we did if they want to

Being a dual national of the UK and an EU country is really quite useful.

Generally it would be helpful allowing easy access to other countries/regions.

Only having a UK passport is not as good as it used to be

I (very expensively) ditched my US nationality a few years ago. It was an absolute pain and cost me cold hard cash in terms of tax returns etc. Be careful which nationality…

Which other citizenship are you netitled to OP? Some carry some negatives as pp pointed out

Depends on the country.
If you are British and apply to be an American citizen I believe that wherever you are resident you may then need to pay American tax
some countries don’t allow it. For example to become a Dutch citizen you have to renounce your other citizenship

my df has british and Irish citizenship (lives in UK). No cons of which we’re aware, obvious pro is that he gets to go through the EU lane at EU airports

It depends on countries - what kind of regime are they, what rules do they have and what their relationships with each other.

I'm dual UK/US/ROI.

Having US citizenship is expensive -- you have to pay tax on your income no matter where you are in the world. There is an exemption of $112,000 per person, but with the exchange rate it's easy to go over that.

I'm also limited on what types of investments I can have overseas; banks will not allow US citizens to open certain types of account or invest in certain ways due to FATCA compliance. I had accounts closed after FATCA came into effect.

Being a dual national with Ireland means I've retained EU rights, that's a positive for me.

As per PP - it depends on the country.
I wouldn't want to be a dual citizen US/UK - if you reside outside the US but are a US citizen you still have to pay taxes in the US. No thank you.

I'm an EU citizen and since last year also have UK citizenship; DD is also a dual national. Very grateful for that; if one of us ever wants to move abroad it's a lot easier, also for DD to study abroad/do work experience abroad, if we want to buy a second home abroad (one can dream), etc.

A friend of mine recently managed to get EU citizenship through Austria; he's Jewish and his grandmother had fled nazi-occupied Austria at the start of WW2. As he's a direct descendent he was able to get citizenship for himself and his DD.

Generally I’m glad of mine and I would never ever give it up, but right now it’s a bit of a pain. I’m dual German/British, and as my other citizenship is EU, I, up until recently (thank you Brexit!) obviously automatically had the right to live here and, due to this, I’ve only ever held a German passport, even though I’ve lived in the UK since I was 10; there was never really any need to apply for a British passport so I didn’t. Now, my German passport no longer counts for anything. I can’t prove right of residency, right to work, anything. I recently started a new job and getting that paperwork proved was a nightmare. I even got declined from student finance as I can’t prove legal residency-I’ve lived here 32 years! Everyone says to apply for a EU residency number but as I’m British I can’t. I’m now hurriedly applying for a British passport so I’ve got sucked into that quagmire…
So, yeah, most of the time dual citizenship is a good thing, but not always.

Oh, and if you are a US citizen you are required to enter the US on a valid US passport only. It is a pain, because it means having to keep that up to date.

A minor inconvenience compared to the tax implications, but still one that just cost us over $400 to sort.

My husband is a dual citizen, he holds a British and a Swedish (so EU passport) as will our daughter. Very handy. In the future we’re thinking about him adopting my son, one of the many reasons we are considering it is the fact that my son would then be entitled to an EU passport.

I used to be a dual citizen, well, for about six weeks, as soon as I gaines British citizenship I took steps to get rid of my old one. I’ll never go there again and it isn’t a place I want anything to do with.

Our whole family are Dual US/UK I've never paid extra tax to the US when we do our US taxes, doing taxes joint as a married couple the threshold is very high and unless you earn way above normal for UK you won't meet that threshold. Grown kids are single and good earners and never paid either.

@PattyMelt beware ever selling a house…you don’t get tax relief on any gain in the US so (because there’s relief on the gain in the U.K.) you get to pay US tax on that…I know several people who’ve had to pay fairly eye watering sums that way.

I have U.S. and British citizenship and have never had a problem with either. I don’t earn enough to pay American taxes, although I file a tax return every year just so the IRS don’t come knocking on my door. I use my American passport for travel to the U.S and my British passport for everything else.

Don’t you need to pay taxes in the US if you are a citizen even if you do not work there? Wasn’t that the reason Boris had so many problems with the American taxman?

Crossposted

I have two nationalities and they are both useful

You can be a dual Dutch & British passport holder in some circumstances like mine. it’s called the option procedure. Born to Dutch mother and British father in UK. Hoop jumping exercise though and not cheap.

I know a few US/UK duals and they just pay tax in the UK.

My DD’s are getting Irish passports when their British ones come up for renewal.

Living in NI affords you this opportunity - for British and Irish. I personally find it useful and am really pleased we opted for an Irish passport (we can hold either/both).

Pick another country other than USA for the dual citizenship. With usa citizenship you’re obligated to file various financial reporting for every single bank account you have or are signatory to; you must file tax return every year and include all funds no matter where in the world ; May be subject to double taxation, particularly regarding property sale/purchase no matter where in the world.

Two arms of my dad's family have uk/Australian dual citizenship(nationality?) and a few have opted to live there, seems to be good for them judging by their Facebook photos 😁