Foreign citizenship questions

sa_applicant2023

USNA 2023
Joined
Dec 19, 2017
Messages
102
I was going over a few things that I am anticipating to do, since I am accepting my appointment to USNA.

I spoke with my parents, and an issue regarding foreign citizenship came up. They are not fully knowing whether I have a foreign citizenship, but my mom knows for sure 100% that I do not have a passport from that country.

Would I have to do further research on whether I have a citizenship in that country and how to renounce it, or should I just move on because I do not even have a passport from them?

PS - I am already an American citizen and have a US passport.

Thank you!!!!
 
My brother was born in Japan on a military installation. At 18 he could petition Japan for citizenship (it wasn't automatic for him) or just renounce his right. He chose to renounce. I don't know if that is still something that is done. A call to the State Dept could answer your question.
 
The passport is evidence of citizenship. Absence of a passport does not prove your not a citizen.

My DS had a similar situation. Your best bet is to contact USNA. Be prepared to renounce a citizenship you are not aware you have. It’s really no big deal.
 
Thank you for this post. My husband was born and raised in Turkey. I looked up citizenship and by their standards when born to a turkish citizen the child is also a turkish citizen. I never would have thought to look into this.
 
I have a foreign passport as well with US Passport, my BGO told me that if I was accepted that I should just leave my passport at home and not take part in any elections in the country after, if you do that you should be fine, but contact admissions to find out more. My BGO did the same when he was accepted to the academy so I took his word for it.
 
One issue that could come up with dual Nationals of military age, is that if the other country has compulsory military service, that country can compel you to serve in their armed forces.
Dual Nationals are subject to the laws of each country in which they are considered a National, so they must abide by the laws of both countries when in either country, or abroad.

The U.S. State Department said:
Claims of other countries upon U.S. dual-nationals often place them in situations where their obligations to one country are in conflict with the laws of the other. In addition, their dual nationality may hamper efforts of the U.S. Government to provide consular protection to them when they are abroad, especially when they are in the country of their second nationality. U.S. nationals, including dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. Dual nationals may also be required by the foreign country to use its passport to enter and leave that country. Use of the foreign passport to travel to or from a country other than the United States is not inconsistent with U.S. law.
 
My son, AROTC, was born outside the US. He has an FS240 "State Department Birth Certificate". Citizen at birth,
Prior to contracting he had to surrender his passport to him PMS.
He also signed a statement that said he was renouncing his other citizenship would go through the formal process if required.
I don't think the statement was via official form, more of a personal statement.
For him the formal process would be a letter from the other country's consulate indicating when, where, and why he renounced his citizenship.
 
My brother was born in Japan on a military installation. At 18 he could petition Japan for citizenship (it wasn't automatic for him) or just renounce his right. He chose to renounce. I don't know if that is still something that is done. A call to the State Dept could answer your question.
Our oldest 2 were born in Japan, US bases are US government installations and they are not able to petition for Japanese citizenship, it is very difficult for anyone without a Japanese parent to be granted citizenship. Our third, however, was born in Spain, and that base is a Spanish base and we are guests there. We had to register him in town and sign the book at City Hall! Could he petition probably but why!
 
You have to renounce citizenship of another before enrolling which can take a long time to do. If you don’t you cannot enroll at USNA. Please check in with Japanese consulate ASAP and see if you have dual citizenship by birth because your mother is Japanese. Normally it is automatic by law even if your mother did not register you. More than likely you have to renounce citizenship at the Japanese consulate with your mom present. The consulate will give you paper work and receipt when this is done. This is pretty urgent! Otherwise you cannot pass the security clearance. This same question is asked again on the security clearance for you must sign as part of Permission to Report documentation. This will come up again after Plebe Summer and if they find out you didn’t complete renouncing citizenship of another country the Academy can ask you to leave. This happened to one West Point young man. After serving 6 years he was leaving Korea. Korean Immigration told him he was a dual citizen because he never renounced his citizenship. They told him he must serve 2 years in the Korean military. This was no joke. He was a US ARMY CPT a West Point grad. They didn’t care. He still had to serve as a Private in the Korean Army. His mother father were both Americans. Still didn’t matter. So renounce citizenship because if that’s the law of that country they will hold you back one day. And you broke American security law. In this guy’s case if you are ethnic Korean and parents were once korean citizens then you automatically got one when you were born. So do your homework and renounce before signing the paperwork with USNA. Same thing for ROTC enrollment and other Fed Academies. USCGA allows you to be dual citizen. It’s the only one.
 
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Hi all,

So i contacted USNA director of appointments. Posting the answer here in case somebody else is in the same position and needs the answer. :)

They said that I would have to renounce my foreign citizenship preferably, so that it doesent interfere with the security clearance you have to go through. However, it was also stated that if you cannot get the process of renouncing your foreign citizenship done by Iday, they could probably do it at USNA when you are there.
 
Hi all,

So i contacted USNA director of appointments. Posting the answer here in case somebody else is in the same position and needs the answer. :)

They said that I would have to renounce my foreign citizenship preferably, so that it doesent interfere with the security clearance you have to go through. However, it was also stated that if you cannot get the process of renouncing your foreign citizenship done by Iday, they could probably do it at USNA when you are there.

Thank you so much for the information!
 
Hi all,

So i contacted USNA director of appointments. Posting the answer here in case somebody else is in the same position and needs the answer. :)

They said that I would have to renounce my foreign citizenship preferably, so that it doesent interfere with the security clearance you have to go through. However, it was also stated that if you cannot get the process of renouncing your foreign citizenship done by Iday, they could probably do it at USNA when you are there.

Thank you for this info--I have foreign citizenship as well. Congrats on your appointment!
 
What if you have dual nationality vs. dual citizenship? For example you are born in the United States to United States Citizens (one patent born in the U.S. and the other naturalized citizen of the United States). And when you were very young your naturalized parent got you dual nationality of that parent's birth country and passport of that country that is now expired. The other country's laws make a difference in nationality vs. citizenship. Having that country's nationality means you can inherent and own property in that county, but are not allowed to vote, serve in that country's military, etc. Is this an issue considering the passport is expired and you never lived in the other country, but only visited on vacations?
 
Get everything IN WRITING!
DO NOT count on anyone doing this for you.
DO NOT wait. Move on this now.
 
What if you have dual nationality vs. dual citizenship? For example you are born in the United States to United States Citizens (one patent born in the U.S. and the other naturalized citizen of the United States). And when you were very young your naturalized parent got you dual nationality of that parent's birth country and passport of that country that is now expired. The other country's laws make a difference in nationality vs. citizenship. Having that country's nationality means you can inherent and own property in that county, but are not allowed to vote, serve in that country's military, etc. Is this an issue considering the passport is expired and you never lived in the other country, but only visited on vacations?
My son has the same issue although his passport was still active. I cant swear by this but the moment you get a passport from the foreign nation, you are considered a dual national by both countries. It isnt relevant if the passport has expired or not because that is now just paperwork. If you dont get the passport then the US doesnt recognize as a dual citizen. I think someone posted earlier on that you are dual citizen regardless if you ever got a passport or not. I am not sure about that. My son had to renouce his foreign citiznenship although I have read that people who are like US-UK citizens dont have to bother with that. It kind of depends on who the other country is. To make it worse, when my AF son went through his interview for a top secret clearance, my younger son who also has a foreign passport, was considered a foreign national even though he was born in the US and only visited that other country once.
 
What was the process your son went through to denounce his dual nationality?
he went to the local consulate and had to fill out forms. We were told they typically dont allow men under 26 to renounce their citizenship because they have a draft and dont want people to renounce their citizenship so that they dont have to serve. However, since we told them that he was going into the US military, it sort of changed the dynamics. It took about three months for it to be formalized. My wife pushed a little and the people at the consulate were very helpful and it all got done. The paperwork starts here but had to be processed in the home country and you never how how a beaucracy is going to deal with this kind of thing. We also had a timing issue because we were getting close to when they would do his security clearance. Since he was studying in Indiana at the time, the closest consulate was in Chicago which although not very far from where he was living, it was still a hassle to get there. We did the paper work when he came home for the summer although it should have been done the year before. He was in AFRotc so it may be different from what the academies do although i have to imagine it has to be close. Again from what I read from other people on the internet, the dual citizenship problems isnt universal. At least it wasntbefore. They would ask some people if they were willing to give up their dual citizneship and of course they all said yes. However that is as far as it went because they wound up commissioning and no one ever requested they do so. Again, I think it depends where you are from. It doesnt however hurt to renounce the other citizenship just in case
 
Thanks for sharing. I'm still trying to understand if there is a difference in the case of dual nationality vs. dual citizenship in a case where the foreign natioanlity doesn't allow you to vote or require you to serve in the non U.S county's military, but only gives you the right to own property.
 
Thanks for sharing. I'm still trying to understand if there is a difference in the case of dual nationality vs. dual citizenship in a case where the foreign natioanlity doesn't allow you to vote or require you to serve in the non U.S county's military, but only gives you the right to own property.
This is my opinon so it may not be right, but, I think in both cases, if the person is US born and doesnt possess a foreign passport, that it makes no difference to the US. When I say doesnt have a passport, that doesnt mean, they had one and is no longer valid, I mean that person has never registered with any agency of that foreign country in regards to passports or anything else. What the foreign nation considers as the citizenship of a child born to one of their citizens in a foreign nation shouldnt matter. How would US born child even know they had citizenship in another country?
 
What was the process your son went through to denounce his dual nationality?
he went to the local consulate and had to fill out forms. We were told they typically dont allow men under 26 to renounce their citizenship because they have a draft and dont want people to renounce their citizenship so that they dont have to serve. However, since we told them that he was going into the US military, it sort of changed the dynamics. It took about three months for it to be formalized. My wife pushed a little and the people at the consulate were very helpful and it all got done. The paperwork starts here but had to be processed in the home country and you never how how a beaucracy is going to deal with this kind of thing. We also had a timing issue because we were getting close to when they would do his security clearance. Since he was studying in Indiana at the time, the closest consulate was in Chicago which although not very far from where he was living, it was still a hassle to get there. We did the paper work when he came home for the summer although it should have been done the year before. He was in AFRotc so it may be different from what the academies do although i have to imagine it has to be close. Again from what I read from other people on the internet, the dual citizenship problems isnt universal. At least it wasntbefore. They would ask some people if they were willing to give up their dual citizneship and of course they all said yes. However that is as far as it went because they wound up commissioning and no one ever requested they do so. Again, I think it depends where you are from. It doesnt however hurt to renounce the other citizenship just in case
Which country was he a dual citizen?
 
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