Dual citizenship?

contraband

I'll keep this short. My mother and father were both born in America. However, my mother has dual citizenship in both the US and Finland-both her parents were born in Finland, and she's 100% Finnish. That makes me 50% Finnish.

Can I apply for dual citizenship for the US and Finland? I'm 17.

I'm having difficulty finding the laws on my own. Kiitos.

scrivenerjones

contraband wrote:

I'll keep this short. My mother and father were both born in America. However, my mother has dual citizenship in both the US and Finland-both her parents were born in Finland, and she's 100% Finnish. That makes me 50% Finnish.

Can I apply for dual citizenship for the US and Finland? I'm 17.

I'm having difficulty finding the laws on my own. Kiitos.

[quote=wikipedia]
A child acquires Finnish citizenship at birth if

* the child's mother is a Finnish citizen;
--
With effect from 1 June 2003, a Finnish citizen acquiring a foreign citizenship does not lose Finnish citizenship.[/quote]
you're golden.

Thanatos

contraband wrote:

I'll keep this short. My mother and father were both born in America. However, my mother has dual citizenship in both the US and Finland-both her parents were born in Finland, and she's 100% Finnish. That makes me 50% Finnish.

Can I apply for dual citizenship for the US and Finland? I'm 17.

I'm having difficulty finding the laws on my own. Kiitos.

This is probably one of the most complicated areas of law that exists.

Odds are, since one of your parents is a Finnish citizen, you're probably automatically a Finnish citizen. However, if you're not, and you'd have to apply for Finnish citizenship, you might lose your American citizenship if you were to do that.

My best advice is to call the State Department and ask.

contraband

scrivenerjones wrote:

[quote=wikipedia]
A child acquires Finnish citizenship at birth if

* the child's mother is a Finnish citizen;
--
With effect from 1 June 2003, a Finnish citizen acquiring a foreign citizenship does not lose Finnish citizenship.

you're golden.[/quote]
Hooray!

So, I already have Dual Citizenship, then? That wasn't hard. I know that last time I visited, had to renew my Visa... Hm. I'll call the State Dept. some time this weekend.

yotes

Regarding the loss of your US citizenship:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1753.html
http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_778.html

Going by that, you wouldn't be expatriated unless you actually wanted to.

The wiki confused me, and may not be completely accurate, to be honest. My Finnish mother acquired Swiss citizenship in the 80's and didn't have to relinquish her Finnish passport.

Best to call the Finnish consulate and your local authorities to make, though, IANAImmigration law specialist.

Corvus

yotes wrote:

Best to call the Finnish consulate and your local authorities to make, though, IANAImmigration law specialist.

This is a good idea regardless, as you'll want to talk to them if you want to get your Finnish Passport for travel to the EU, etc.

Fawkes

I'm a US-British dual citizen, and afaik about my position:

US citizen at birth through mother.
British citizen through place of birth / father.
Had both passports since young age.
The US now (apparently) requires you to choose between the two on 18th / 21st birthday. This may just be for certain types of citizenship (born in country, born to parents, married to citizen etc), not sure. I was older than the said birthday when this came into force at the end of the 90s (again, apparently), so slipped through the loop & it has never been questioned.

"Sometimes a country may seek to restrict dual citizenship by requiring one of its citizens born with some other citizenship to renounce (give up) the other citizenship upon reaching adulthood. Newly naturalized citizens may similarly be required to renounce their previous citizenship(s); the US has such a requirement, for example, but Canada does not."

If that is the case for you (ie you are of adult age), and you already have the paperwork, you might want to be careful about talking to US State, as this is one of those things where you can get in under the radar if you don't bring it to their attention, but they may decide to force you to choose a citizenship if you do.

KMFurDM

US/British Citizen also. Born in the US, British father and 100 dollars spent, and bingo, a shiny maroon passport that says British Citizen inside is mine.

There was an enormous amount of paperwork that needed to be completed but flying through the EU citizen lines at immigration when I go to Europe, and being able to stay and find work should I so choose without worrying about visas and other nonsense is rather nice.

The guy we dealt with at the British consulate just said to keep it quiet and if some authority were to question me about it I am under no obligation to answer.

blincoln

KMFurDM wrote:

The guy we dealt with at the British consulate just said to keep it quiet and if some authority were to question me about it I am under no obligation to answer.

That's the advice I've always heard as well - if any American official asks what your citizenship is, tell them "American," which is true. "Dual" or "American/Anything" is sometimes okay, but often leads to long discussions about how the US doesn't recognize dual citizenship.