American citizens can have dual citizenship, but if an American citizen who has renounced his or her citizenship (even though the person was originally an American citizen), then what is a way of obtaining it again? Can an American citizen without dual citizenship (only an American citizen), renounce his or her citizenship?
asked Jan 10, 2018 at 12:21
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3Once they renounce their citizenship, seems to me they don't have an American citizenship to get "back". They should start where any other non-citizen does.– cHaoCommented Jan 10, 2018 at 13:20
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Was this a voluntary renouncement ir involuntary (required by another government)?– user6726Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 16:09
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These are two distinct questions. The second may already have an answer here.– user4657Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 21:37
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1 Answer
American citizens can have dual citizenship , but if an american citizen who has his/her citizenship renounced (even though the person was originally an american citizen) , then what is a way of obtaining the citizenship back?
Possibly, by the same means that a non-citizen could be naturalized. But, immigration and nationality officials have broad discretion and would probably refuse to grant citizenship to someone who had previously renounced it.
And can an american citizen without dual citizenship (Meaning that he is only an american citizen), renounce his/her citizenship?
Yes. For example, Prince Harry's financee plans to renounce her U.S. citizenship and contemporaneously be granted U.K. citizenship (the paperwork goes through really easily when the Queen is your grandmother in law). Renunciation of citizenship is not necessarily tied to gaining a new citizenship, but leaving yourself stateless would be a foolish thing to do.
answered Jan 11, 2018 at 11:18
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1There's a guy living stateless in one of the former Czechoslovak republics who did just that. He seems to have done fairly well for himself, but I guess he got lucky. Or maybe he got the residence permit before renouncing instead of after.– phoogCommented Jan 12, 2018 at 1:03
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"would probably refuse to grant citizenship to someone who had previously renounced it": I imagine this would depend on the reason for the renunciation and for the change of heart. One ground of inadmissibility, however, is being a former US citizen who renounced to avoid income tax, and none of the many waivers authorized in 8 USC 1182 seems to apply to this ground, so there would be less discretion in such a case (the AG has discretion to find that the renunciation was not to avoid tax, but facts could make that difficult, e.g. if the person were on the record saying that was the reason).– phoogCommented Jan 14, 2022 at 12:17