Dual citizenship

[Diane]

Just wondering how many on the forum are dual citizens already, or planning to be dual citizens when they can?

[adaminoz]

Yep - I will this coming January.

[Diane]

One of my daughter's friends is off to do a semester in Europe in July and was stressing big time about all the visa questions she needed to ask. I suggested she apply for British citizenship (her mother was born in Wales) and she did, just got her UK passport back (within less than two weeks - great service) and now doesn't need any visas to live or work in the UK or Europe while she is there. Got us talking in the family about the benefits of dual nationality, that's all.

Edited June 27, 2015 by MaggieMay24
Editing out comments to other poster

[NickyNook]

Changed my mind. :cool:

Edited June 27, 2015 by NickyNook

[rammygirl]

Maybe add another question. To cover "I cannot become a dual citizen. "Not everyone can. A friend of mine has German citizenship and cannot keep it if he takes Australian citizenship. A much harder decision. I'm not sure I would give up my British citizenship to take Australian. At least it s easy for us to have both.

[Suzukiscottie]

We will be applying for Aus citizenship at the end of July.

[Rossmoyne]

My offspring and I all have dual citizenship. It was a conscious decision I made when we first came to Australia in 1991 because I wanted them to have the option of being able to go back to UK and live/work when they were adults, if that is what they chose. My youngest - son of 29 - is currently back in Sussex visiting his father and looking at the possibility of living there for a few years, so it was a decision well made as he has the passport that allows him to do so.

[HelensvaleHoward]

I got my Aus citizenship via decent as my Dad was born here

 

Pam, Becki and Luke got theirs a few months back

[loula5]

I'm a dual citizen, as are my children, though I'm Australian and recently acquired British citizenship. My children are British by birth, and Australian by descent.

 

My husband is British and we're kicking ourselves for not getting his citizenship before we returned to the UK, so he is definitely planning to get Australian citizenship asap!!

Edited June 27, 2015 by loula5
adding hubs!

[srh82]

British national applying for Australian Citizenship in January

[wattsy1982]

We probably will. But also we will probably move back to the UK after getting it.

 

my main reason for getting it is If the kids decide to move out here when we are....older we can just follow them without any silly visa stuff.

[ali]

Australian Citizen, children consider themselves as British born Australians. To be honest I've never considered that I've had duel citizenship, uk passports have expired (only have an Australian one).

[MARYROSE02]

I've been a dual citizen since 1983, although I have allowed my UK passport to expire. One of my brothers is a triple citizen, holding UK/Australian/US citizenship.

[Atlas]

intend to apply for oz citizenship when the time comes, though that is quite a while away yet

[Diane]

Maybe add another question. To cover "I cannot become a dual citizen. "Not everyone can. A friend of mine has German citizenship and cannot keep it if he takes Australian citizenship. A much harder decision. I'm not sure I would give up my British citizenship to take Australian. At least it s easy for us to have both.

 

I thought I'd covered that with option 3, as I know some countries don't allow their citizens to take another citizenship without renouncing the one they have first.

 

On the subject of letting your British passport expire, we were teasing my daughter (who considers herself British first, Australian second having lived to the age of 9 in Britain, but whose UK passport has expired) that her friend - who has never set foot on British soil is now actually more British than she is!

[Diane]

I'm surprised some people (@Parleycross for instance) haven't answered No3 - I thought by the tones of his answers/teams he supports/dislike for the thought of England sporting teams/paid-up membership of Team Australia would have definitely preferred to be just Australian without any British taint muddying the waters! :-P

[rammygirl]

I just thought option three looked more like a choice. Some people don't have that choice, but I know what you mean

[silencio]

One of us will renounce former citizenship, the other half will remain on a German passport, as our country doesn't allow dual citizenship in general (only for obtaining citizenship within the European Union + Switzerland dual citizenship is allowed).

 

The process of getting a special permission of becoming a dual national is far too complicated, costs heaps of money and more importantly is ignominious and intimidating due to some facts that the application of staying German can be refused easily and the Authorities are also demanding fees for unsuccessful applications + the whole application process has to start from giving evidence from birth (a full and complete resume is required with every single stage of your entire life not only your professional life, in addition to that a requirement is also giving details of your private life, divorce etc.) and is inconvenient as in case you leave any gaps in your work history/living history unknowingly the special permission can be revoked after becoming Australian (never heard that it will be revoked but I've heard it's likely to be refused in the first instance).

[rammygirl]

That sounds like a good solution. MyGerman friend is married to an Indonesian. Not sure if she can get dual citizenship but he doesn't want to give his German citizenship up, even though he grew up in South Africa.

Seems more people are multinational. His son can speak English, German, Indonesian, Afrikaans and Mandarin ( he has a Chinese Grandma).

i struggle with Australian sometimes!

[dmjg]

Me Aussie first, UK second.

 

OH, Uk first, Aussie second.

 

7yo Uk first, Aussie by descent

 

4yo Aussie first, Uk by descent.

 

 

 

So if 7yo has a kid in Aus he can pass on his british citizenship by descent and the kid would be Aussie by birth, but if child born in UK, it couldn't get Aussie citizenship as he cant pass on citizenship by descent.

 

4yo vice versa.

 

But thats for them to decide, we've done our bit!

[Parley]

Me Aussie first, UK second.

 

OH, Uk first, Aussie second.

 

7yo Uk first, Aussie by descent

 

4yo Aussie first, Uk by descent.

 

 

 

So if 7yo has a kid in Aus he can pass on his british citizenship by descent and the kid would be Aussie by birth, but if child born in UK, it couldn't get Aussie citizenship as he cant pass on citizenship by descent.

 

4yo vice versa.

 

But thats for them to decide, we've done our bit!

 

I think both will be able to pass their Australian citizenship to a child of theirs born overseas.

As long as your children have spent a reasonable number of years living in Australia their kids will qualify to get citizenship by descent.

[annagilda]

Dutch citizen who would be required to renounce my citizenship if I ever decided to take Australian.

 

Makes the whole thing quite hard to figure out. I don't want to renounce my Dutch citizenship because I am very proud. I also couldn't imagine having to apply for a visa to go home! :unsure:

 

Having said that, I am actually also entitled to Irish citizenship. I'm considering going for that and renouncing my Dutch, before I apply for any sort of Australian visa, because as an Irish citizen, you can have dual. Also, that way I wouldn't have to apply for a visa every time I wanted to come home to Europe.

 

ARRGRHHH, I can't decide what to do. I wish Dutch people could have dual citizenship. It's kind of upsetting that your government doesn't want you, once you've gone away to try and better yourself. :-(

[starlight7]

British citizenship lapsed about 10 years ago and I won't renew it- always use Australian passport. When I think about it it was more like 20 years ago. Time flies.

[rammygirl]

British citizenship doesn't lapse. I assume you just mean you didn't renew your passport. You are still a British citizen.

[Diane]

One of our neighbours has lived here for something like 30/40 years and still doesn't have Australian citizenship - he's as Aussie as you come, but has just 'never got around to it'!