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Comment by Spooky23 | Hacker News Reader

Another avenue to consider is that Ireland allows citizenship by registration for anyone with a grandparent born in Ireland. It’s a pretty easy process if you qualify, and isn’t a visa, you are immediately recognized.

There are some gotchas. The US doesn’t acknowledge dual citizenship, and I believe you must travel in/out of the US with a US passport. If you have a US security clearance or wish to obtain one, you will have a problem as well.

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The main problem with maintaining US nationality is taxes. There are exemptions up to a certain limit, but you still have to file and potentially pay taxes to two countries.

Both Italy and Spain have the same regime. It can take a year or two to set everything up, but you get citizenship and a passport (not a temp visa)

Italy at least is much more lenient, allowing you to go back as many generations as you like to prove Italian ancestry.

>The US doesn’t acknowledge dual citizenship

From my understanding the US just pretends that you are only a US citizen. Which doesn't sound like a problem.

> I believe you must travel in/out of the US with a US passport

This is true for every country I've heard of (if you hold citizenship for that country you're supposed to use that passport)

Canadian dual citizens must travel to and from Canada using a Canadian passport.

>The US doesn’t acknowledge dual citizenship

How is that a gotcha?

If you’re in a field where future work may require a security clearance in the US, my understanding (which may be incorrect) is that you have to renounce the second citizenship. You may have other trouble if you travel to a place sanctioned by the US, but not by the second country.

There may be others — citizenship is a deeper commitment than a visa.

It used to be like that but these days it is possible to get a security clearance while retaining the second citizenship provided there is no "conflict of interest". Whether there is a conflict of interest or not will be determined by the government investigation of course.

Pre-2017 under the old guidance, taking action to acquire foreign citizenship or recognition of such was considered a disqualifying condition for a security clearance. However, answering that you were willing to renounce your foreign citizenship was considered a mitigating factor. Willing is the key word here--the government wouldn't actually ask you to do this in the course of the security clearance process because renounciation of citizenship is a counter-intelligence signal to foreign states, which could lead to them targeting you for information, which the US government does not want. Further, for many countries (eg UK) renounciation is not valid unless done before certain officials in some specific process, so any forced renunciation of UK citizenship by some other country generally isn't recognized, meaning you can just reapply for another passport. Under the old guidance, you would be required to surrender any foreign passports you held as another mitigating condition.

Post-2017 new guidance proclaimed that confiscated passports should be returned immediately, and this language was added:

> By itself, the fact that a U.S. citizen is also a citizen of another country is not disqualifying without an objective showing of such conflict or attempt at concealment. The same is true for a U.S. citizen’s exercise of any right or privilege of foreign citizenship and any action to acquire or obtain recognition of a foreign citizenship.

So generally speaking, it's not a disqualifying event to hold dual citizenship, so long as the foreign country is not "at conflict" with the US and some other conditions are met.

I'm not an expert, but this is my understanding of the current status.

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