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?

For example to become a Dutch citizen you have to renounce your other citizenship

True that. Though there are exceptions. I.e. Moroccans are not allowed to renounce their Moroccan citizenship so they have double nationality living in NL.
To my knowledge.
I'm sure there's other countries too that apply the same.

I am dual Canadian/ UK. I have to enter Canada on a Canadian passport which is a pain as I have to keep both up to date but other than that it doesn’t really impact on me. DD also has both.

My DD’s are getting Irish passports

Recently read there's a 3-year backlog.

For the passport itself it's not that long, about 8 weeks.

If you need to get on the foreign births register, that's taking an age. 18 months to 2 years or so. My DD is 2, we're still waiting.

@gwenneh Because the U.K. has a much higher tax rate than the US and the US doesn't tax you on any money where you've already paid a higher rate of tax in your resident country. It IS a problem if you live in a place with very low income tax and you're a very high earner.

I have 3, wouldn’t want to give them up. If I had to give one up it would definitely be my British.

Ah, OK. We have income that falls outside the tax treaty rules so that's why our situation is slightly more complex. Makes sense!

@babyjellyfish, it has already been tested in the Shamima Begum case. She is not home.

That’s interesting
We are off to Germany soon and I am hoping to get waved through both entering and leaving by hanging onto my German passported family

Echoing others it depends on the country.

Any country in the EU would be beneficial alongside the UK.

I have British nationality but am resident in the Netherlands. The Netherlands officially doesn’t allow duel nationality (bizarrely I could retain British nationality if I married a Dutch person), if I were to apply for Dutch citizenship then I would have to renounce my British nationality (which I am loathed to do). For now I will remain a British national.

I've got dual UK/EU citizenship. The EU country doesn't recognise me as a UK citizen - it doesn't require me to renounce my UK citizenship, just doesn't recognise it - so I have to enter on my EU passport and if I got into any legal trouble there for any reason the British Embassy wouldn't help me.

I have to abide by all of that country's laws which until fairly recently included national service. I wouldn't be very surprised if they brought that back given the current Russia situation. I'm too old, but that would have implications for my sons.

No tax implications.

However, it does mean I go through the fast queues at the airport. Much more significantly, the company I work for has recently opened an office in the EU country and it will be way easier for me to go and work there than it would otherwise be.

I have to abide by all of that country's laws which until fairly recently included national service.

The world over you have to abide by "all of that country's laws". Whether a citizen or visitor.

Yep. NL still has national service. You just get an official letter at age 18. Men and women. there would be a riot on if they implemented it

If you mean specifically the US, it can get very costly because you have to file taxes in the US even if you are living/working in another country. I chose not to take US citizenship because I don’t plan on living here forever.

Why can't you?

I got mine and my children's second passport by becoming employable in the country I wanted to move to (all you have to do is look on their immigration website to see what jobs they will give out work visas for), saving loads of money and working really hard, being an involved member of the community I moved to, and then jumping through a shit load of expensive hoops in order to get in.

It was hard work but it was very worth it. Not everyone who has a second passport got handed one just because a parent or spouse helped them get a leg up. There are plenty of immigrants in this world who got passports with hard work and determination.

Citizenship in UK needs to come down on price. Talk about shrinkflation of a product😂
I believe it is the most expensive one in Europe? Even without the access to EU....

I have UK (through birth) and US citizenship (through Naturalisation). I also have Irish citizenship through my father but I’ve never applied for an Irish passport as I’ve never needed to. I don’t even consider that I’m an Irish citizen but that’s more because of how I don’t want any connection to my father.

I have no intention of leaving the US or owning property or bank accounts overseas do the tax issue doesn’t concern me. The threshold is reasonably high when MFJ anyway.

I don’t see any advantages or disadvantages.

You don’t “claim” US citizenship. Per US law, if you are a citizen at birth or become a citizen through the Naturalisation of your parent, then you are a US citizen automatically, whether you want to be or not. There’s no claiming involved. The only way to not be is to officially renounce. There’s no such thing as being “entitled” to US citizenship and not being a citizen. If you meet the requirements, you are a US citizen, it’s not optional.

You can be eligible for US citizenship but choose not to apply for it and just remain a GC holder for life (you have to be GC holder for a set period of time before you can naturalize).

It always annoys me when people gain citizenship (usually because their great something was from that country) just for the passport. More often than not they know NOTHING about the culture, don't even speak the language, and most definitely won't pay any taxes. They're basically fake citizens.

Obviously not including people who actually care about their roots and actually bother to learn the language and culture, but those are a tiny minority.

This is one reason I never want another citizenship, I'm happy with mine, I like our culture and our language (though I also speak other languages), and I'd feel like such a fraud if I had a passport from another country.

I could claim UK and Irish passports from birth, which is one of the few advantages of being from NI. I've held both at various times. My husband was born in Oz, although he also has an Irish passport, so I now also have an Aussie passport too I'd sell off the UK one if I could, after Brexit it's of no use to me. My son has triple citizenship too, which will be handy for him if he wants to work abroad.

I found out I might be eligible for Italian (EU) citizenship and was so excited. Unfortunately as my Italian grandfather died before I was born I didn't qualify.

I don't get this at all! Why would it concern you, let alone annoy you? Lots of people like this applying for Irish passports at the minute, to hang on to FOM. I say good luck to them! If you are keen enough to jump through the hoops to prove eligibility, good luck to you, it's no skin off my nose. I had to jump through a few hoops myself to get my Aussie citizenship (and spend a lot of cash!), and every Aussie I know was delighted for me when I got it. There are of course always a contingent of 'Fuck off we're full types', but I'm not friends with people like that.

ISAs and some other investments that are normal in the UK are not great if you’re a dual us citizen. There is a very long waiting list at the moment to relinquish US citizenship.

I recently gained dual citizenship of Italy/UK. Took 4 years but so far it's been only positive.

Don’t understand this either. I’ve lived in an EU country for twelve years. When Brexit happened, if I hadn’t applied for EU citizenship through my grandmother (of a country I’ve been to once and don’t speak the language) I would have had to apply for a visa and jump through all the other hoops that my British friends who live here are now having to do. The stress and hassle it has caused for them is huge. Why would I knowingly deny myself the opportunity and what difference does it make to anyone else? Nationality (unless you naturalise) is an accident of birth. I didnt choose to be British and I certainly didn’t vote for Brexit. I will fulfil the obligations of both my citizenships - so if there were obligations to pay tax, I would do it, although I don’t think many countries do this other than USA, plus I obviously pay tax in the country I live in (which I am not a citizen of). I am happy my children will be able to take advantage of the opportunities I had to live and work anywhere in the EU really easily and feel sad for those who don’t have this option anymore.