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Comment by hippich | Hacker News Reader

From what I read so far it looks like while you can obtain US citizenship while holding another one already, it is strictly prohibited to get new citizenship without renouncing US one. If this is correct, does it mean Peter is not US citizen anymore?

Edit: just one link i found right away - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal-considerati...:

  Potentially Expatriating Acts:
  1. obtaining naturalization in a foreign state upon one's own application after the age of 18 (Sec. 349 (a) (1) INA);

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I am a US citizen who has immigrated to New Zealand and hold citizenship here. It is my understanding that I have to apply (and pay) to relinquish my US citizenship, which might be declined.

US simply doesn't recognize any other citizenships but it doesn't care what other passports you hold.

This is correct. I know several people that have US + Italian, and I've been considering it myself, although Italy doesn't seem like much of an "escape pod" (per another comment) at the moment, the way things are going there.

What do you mean "doesn't recognize other citizenships"? Dual citizenship is legal.

You still have to bring your US passport to pass the customs. That is not the case for other counties that would recognize any valid passport.

Countries are free to define their own travel requirements for their citizens, which they do for security reasons. What you describe is a very obtuse definition of "does not recognize other passports."

I do not know if that is true or not, but if it is true then his campaign donations are going to be a bit tricky.

[edit] Quick research turned up a bunch of low key contradictions. There are a number of pieces of legislation that assume us-citizen and foreign national are mutually exclusive. Some other bits take dual citizenship into account.

In theory there are a bunch of points where it could be argued that you cannot hold dual citizenship but in practice it doesn't seem to be an issue.

On the other hand it seems fairy clear that some positions, and security clearances require absence of foreign national status (Even then with a little wiggle room, If you've never asked-for or made-use-of foreign national status you can pretend it didn't happen)

No, I don't think that is correct. The US is silent on dual citizenship but I believe that it's only if you pledge your allegiance to another country (e.g. to defend that country in a war) that you are deemed by the US to have revoked your citizenship. I'm guessing that didn't happen in Thiel's case.

EDIT: to address your edit - you need to look at the wording of the relevant INA section which includes "with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality". That's the key part, you have to have the intent to abandon your US citizenship. I know plenty of US-born people who hold dual citizenship so it is definitely possible.

It also notes on that page:

> if they perform certain specified acts voluntarily and with the intention to relinquish U.S. nationality

It looks like intent to renounce US needs to be explicit, not just implicitly inferred by performing the act.

That's not correct. I'm a dual citizen (one of them is US) and the gov'ts stance is that it is allowed.

This is incorrect.

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