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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   8299 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 2026

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Do we…not?

I actually thought we required renouncing other citizenships before letting someone naturalize. This was based on an in-law who elected not to do so.

Turns out that might have been a requirement by the German side? They changed their laws in 2024 to allow Americans to become dual citizens, but I can’t find anything about the other direction.

Anyway, it seems like a reasonable requirement. Would probably have some knock-on effects against the people who pursue dual citizenship while staying in the home country; not sure how common they are, or how much they pay in taxes…

Do we…not?

I actually thought we required renouncing other citizenships before letting someone naturalize.

I think there are some words to that effect that you have to recite when getting the citizenship, but no, they're dead letter, and the U.S. is perfectly happy with dual citizenships, as far as I know.

Part of that is the lack of peer conflicts.

When I was reading up on this for an immigration thread, a lot of the citizenship cases were about the rights and obligations of dual citizens when at war with the second country. It was particularly contentious in the Civil War, since we initially flip-flopped on rebellion vs. war.

Yeah, US is weird. The oath is as follows:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

But legally, the US does not force you to give up your previous citizenship:

U.S. law does not require a U.S. citizen to choose between U.S. citizenship and another (foreign) nationality (or nationalities).

it's 100% fine to keep it, and indeed, as I understand it, you have to file formal paperwork and pay a fee to your prior country to de-citizen yourself there, after you've become a US citizen, if you so desire.

you have to file formal paperwork and pay a fee to your prior country to de-citizen yourself there, after you've become a US citizen, if you so desire

Most countries are actually fairly chill about this, and said fee is the usual price of pushing through the paperwork that you have to pay to get literally anything done. Ironically it's the US that's rather strict about it, and hits you with pretty heavy exit taxes, though more countries are starting to talk about implementing something similar.

Yeah -- I didn't mean to imply it was a significant fee, merely an added bit of inertia against denouncing citizenship.

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