Published on 12/28/2015
Hello, I’m Vaughan de Kirby. And today I’m going to talk about a concept that does sometimes come up in EB-5. And that’s the idea of holding citizenship in more than one country, or what we call dual citizenship.
Now people ask whether they’ll be forced when they naturalize to give up their citizenship in their home country. And the answer in the United States is no. The United States permits you to have dual citizenship. However, let me clarify that answer. That answer is based on US law, so that means you’re going to have to look to your home country’s law to make the determination. Some countries, upon naturalization as an American citizen, you automatically lose your home country’s citizenship, so that’s something you’ll have to explore on your own.
Now another factor, which comes up sometimes, is a child born in the United States to a foreign national. By the birth in the United States, the child is a US citizen. However, they also, depending on the law of the home country of the parent’s, will hold the citizenship of that country. So that child may in fact be someone who holds dual citizenship. So the bottom line on this is the US government permits it, but you’re going to have to look to your home country to find out if you can be a dual citizen.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us or call 415-221-2345.
