Foreign citizenship questions

[Humey]

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?

Israel

 

[kpdad2023]

I thought that was maybe the case becasue of friends I have from Israel. His oldest son returned to live in Israel and is now serving in their military. His youngest is still in the United States. I'm dealing with Mexico where my wife/his mom was born, but she is now a naturalized citizen of the U.S. When our son was not yet one year old my wife got him an Mexican passport which is now expired. He has never lived in Mexico, but only visited on vacations. I always thought he was just a dual nationality and not dual citizen, but unclear of the differences. My son never thought of himself as anything other than just having U.S. Citizenship. He sent an e-mail to the Academy today asking for guidance. Seems this dual nationality/citizenship can happen under other nation's laws without you even realizing it becasue of your parent's nation of birth. He is very willing to turn over to the Academy his expired passport. Further reseach show teh United states doesn't even formally recognize dual nationality/citizenship.

 

[BackgdInvestigator]

Citizenship laws are complex. You need to do research for the country in question.
-
Many Americans think they are dual citizens when they are not, and some are dual citizens but don't realize it. This does cause complications with your security clearance.
-
Status of Forces Agreements with various allied countries help clarify the citizenship status of children born to US only parents (one of whom is military) in their country. For instance, I've had many Air Force personnel believe their child is a citizen of both the US and the UK, when in fact the child is only a US citizen (neither parent are UK citizens).
-
Dual citizen/foreign national family members have to be reported as such during the security clearance process.
-
The Office of Personnel Management published a document titled "Citizenship Laws of the World", IS-01, available free from the internet as a PDF document. Unfortunately, the document is about 18 years old and not updated to my knowledge (this is the document I carry to my Subject interviews when discussing foreign citizenship). This document, along with googling the foreign country's laws, might be a good place to start.

 

[Humey]

I thought that was maybe the case becasue of friends I have from Israel. His oldest son returned to live in Israel and is now serving in their military. His youngest is still in the United States. I'm dealing with Mexico where my wife/his mom was born, but she is now a naturalized citizen of the U.S. When our son was not yet one year old my wife got him an Mexican passport which is now expired. He has never lived in Mexico, but only visited on vacations. I always thought he was just a dual nationality and not dual citizen, but unclear of the differences. My son never thought of himself as anything other than just having U.S. Citizenship. He sent an e-mail to the Academy today asking for guidance. Seems this dual nationality/citizenship can happen under other nation's laws without you even realizing it becasue of your parent's nation of birth. He is very willing to turn over to the Academy his expired passport. Further reseach show teh United states doesn't even formally recognize dual nationality/citizenship.

We visited Israel with him when he was 2 years old. We were told by the Israeli consulate he needed an Israeli passport. I really didnt want to because i knew that would complicate things later in life (never imagining it would be a US military thing) so I called some US government agency about this and I was told we needed to follow Israeli rules. Here is the kicker, he has gone twice to Israel, once when he was 2 and once when he was 19 for Birthright. Both times he flew with US and Israeli passports and both times, we only handed them the US passport and neither time did they ask for an Israeli passport. Having said that my wife has an friend (US born with Israeli parents in her mid 50s) who has flown to Israel many many times and has always used her US passport. Last time she was there, they stopped her from leaving Israel because she didnt have an Israeli passport. They eventually did after several hours of waiting and was told if she is too come back, she better get an Israeli passport.

 

[kpdad2023]

The national laws on dual citizenship are all over the place depending upon the country. I don't believe there are any internal laws that govern it.

 

[Humey]

The national laws on dual citizenship are all over the place depending upon the country. I don't believe there are any internal laws that govern it.

Thats why i think what the foreign nation thinks isnt relevant. If you get the foreign passport, then you sort of activated your dual citizenship. If you dont get their passport, then I dont think you have dual citizenship

 

[sunny_dreamer]

I thought that was maybe the case becasue of friends I have from Israel. His oldest son returned to live in Israel and is now serving in their military. His youngest is still in the United States. I'm dealing with Mexico where my wife/his mom was born, but she is now a naturalized citizen of the U.S. When our son was not yet one year old my wife got him an Mexican passport which is now expired. He has never lived in Mexico, but only visited on vacations. I always thought he was just a dual nationality and not dual citizen, but unclear of the differences. My son never thought of himself as anything other than just having U.S. Citizenship. He sent an e-mail to the Academy today asking for guidance. Seems this dual nationality/citizenship can happen under other nation's laws without you even realizing it becasue of your parent's nation of birth. He is very willing to turn over to the Academy his expired passport. Further reseach show teh United states doesn't even formally recognize dual nationality/citizenship.

@kpdad2023 What was the response from the academy? Will your son formally denounce his Mexican citizenship at the academy or he needs to go to a Mexican consulate or fill out a form?

 

[kpdad2023]

I thought that was maybe the case becasue of friends I have from Israel. His oldest son returned to live in Israel and is now serving in their military. His youngest is still in the United States. I'm dealing with Mexico where my wife/his mom was born, but she is now a naturalized citizen of the U.S. When our son was not yet one year old my wife got him an Mexican passport which is now expired. He has never lived in Mexico, but only visited on vacations. I always thought he was just a dual nationality and not dual citizen, but unclear of the differences. My son never thought of himself as anything other than just having U.S. Citizenship. He sent an e-mail to the Academy today asking for guidance. Seems this dual nationality/citizenship can happen under other nation's laws without you even realizing it becasue of your parent's nation of birth. He is very willing to turn over to the Academy his expired passport. Further reseach show teh United states doesn't even formally recognize dual nationality/citizenship.

@kpdad2023 What was the response from the academy? Will your son formally denounce his Mexican citizenship at the academy or he needs to go to a Mexican consulate or fill out a form?

No response yet so I don't know. I did send a formal letter to LT Hardy and waiting to hear back.

 

[sunny_dreamer]

simply stating in the security clearance questionnaire that your son hasn't exercised his citizenship and that if there is a need he will denounce it might suffice. In addition, I don't think Mexico has a formal process of denouncing their citizenship. You can only claim it before you turn 23 years if I am not mistaken. Otherwise you cannot change the fact that someone was born in Mexico.
There is another route - someone in the academy with dual citizenship can chime in. I am pretty sure that there are current plebes or midshipman with dual citizenship.