Nephew will be born a citizen of 3 countries. Help me keep it that way!
December 11, 2021 7:12 AM   Subscribe

When he's born next year my nephew will have the incredible fortune of being a citizen of the US, Croatia/EU, and Japan. Not all countries make it easy for kids born overseas to mixed-national parents unless certain criteria are met, particularly Japan. I want to help my brother plan ahead to maximize his son's chances of keeping all three passports for life. There must be some magic combination of place of birth + timing of birth registration at consulate/embassy + status of parent(s) to do this? How could I even begin to look into this? Any advice generally? Thanks!
posted by lecorbeau to Law & Government (15 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
All I can tell you, from experience, is that if one of the parents is an American citizen, there should be no problem as far as US citizenship is concerned. If the birth is outside the US, you simply contact the nearest consulate to enquire about the process and necessary documents. The fact that other citizenships are involved does not enter the equation.

As for Japan, it look like he might have to make a choice when he gets to be 22.
posted by bluefrog at 8:45 AM on December 11, 2021 [2 favorites]


All I can tell you, from experience, is that if one of the parents is an American citizen, there should be no problem as far as US citizenship is concerned.

Just having one US citizen parent alone is not necessarily sufficient for transmitting US citizenship to your nephew if he is to be born outside the US. There are residency requirements for the parents depending on whether one or both are US citizens and if they are married.

If born abroad to:
- Married parents, both US citizens: at least one parent needed to have a residence in the US/US possessions prior to the child's birth

- Married parents, 1 US citizen and 1 not: the US citizen parent needs to have been physically present in the US/US possessions for 5 years prior to the child's birth, of which at least 2 have to have been after age 14

- Unmarried parents: requirements vary depending on whether the father, the mother, or both are US citizens, but in all cases there is at least a residency requirement

Of course, if your nephew is to be born in the US, all the above is irrelevant because he will be entitled to US citizenship automatically via birth.

I concur that if the child is entitled to US citizenship at birth, there are no requirements in the US to decide between multiple citizenships, reaffirm citizenship, or anything like that. For the purposes of your question, from an American perspective it's sufficient to ensure that the child will be born with US citizenship in order to have that for life.

(Whether your nephew himself would be able to transmit said US citizenship to any potential children is a different subject, but that's probably not what you're worried about right now!)
posted by andrewesque at 9:39 AM on December 11, 2021 [4 favorites]


My (half) sister is a citizen of Croatia, Germany, and the United States. If you'd like, I can ask my stepmom how it all worked. Sister is 7, so it wasn't so long ago that it would be totally irrelevant.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 9:50 AM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]


I want to reiterate above, my friend's children all had to choose between Japan and US after 21. There is no way around this at this point unfortunately.
posted by stormygrey at 9:53 AM on December 11, 2021 [4 favorites]


for little lurk's two (not Japan) non-US citizenships through their mother little lurk's mama dealt, from the US, with the countries' consulates in the US. there was quite a bit of paperwork, some consents/attestations and notaries from the US-only-national parent, but it worked out without undue, or particularly stressful, complication. (for dealing with national bureaucracies concerning citizenship levels of undue complication). one country didn't like, say, that little lurk's surname is both their parents' surnames separated with a space and no hyphen. complication overcome. (it might be worthwhile to add that little lurk's mother can be quite ... forceful: i did not witness any occasions of forceful persuasion to resolve such trivial bureaucratic complications as the state presuming to circumscribe the proper form of a surname that may have occurred, but observe so to suggest that there may be points when tenacious argumentation will carry the day).
posted by 20 year lurk at 10:44 AM on December 11, 2021


I came in here to say the same thing about Japanese nationality, but I also found this 2016 article:

Although the Nationality Law says all dual nationals must choose to be either Japanese or foreign at 22, and that those who continue to hold dual nationality risk losing their Japanese citizenship, that threat has never been carried out: No dual national has ever been stripped of their Japanese citizenship for not renouncing another status before the age of 22.

For what it's worth.
posted by goodbyewaffles at 10:46 AM on December 11, 2021 [2 favorites]


I do know that for a child with one Japanese parent, the child must be registered within a few weeks of birth with the Japanese government, or they lose the possibility of being a dual national. I know a Japanese and American couple where they neglected to so with their first child in time, but made sure they did so in time with their second child. At least that was the case ~18 years ago.
posted by ShooBoo at 12:01 PM on December 11, 2021


One thing to consider is that the US is one of the only countries that requires all citizens to pay taxes regardless of where they live. So, while a US citizenship has a lot of benefits, it also comes with disadvantages if there's a reasonable likelihood that they'll want to live outside the US permanently. If you are born to a US citizen, you can get US citizenship via your parents at any time before you turn 18, so it's possible to defer citizenship somewhat, although I don't know the details of this — it's possible it becomes more logistically difficult later.
posted by wesleyac at 2:08 PM on December 11, 2021 [3 favorites]


My understanding of the Japanese dual citizenship issue is that yes you are supposed to choose a nationality at 21 but many people don't and no one tries to look too hard to find out if you have given up your other nationalities or not.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:37 PM on December 11, 2021


If you are born to a US citizen, you can get US citizenship via your parents at any time before you turn 18, so it's possible to defer citizenship somewhat

In most cases, the child acquires US citizenship at birth. This can't be deferred, but they don't have to do anything about it. My friend was born a US citizen (in the US to foreign parents) and grew up in their country. They never considered US taxes, etc, until they decided to move here in their twenties, at which point they filed tax returns for the past few years, all of which showed no taxes owed because of the foreign earned income exclusion/credit.
posted by bashing rocks together at 5:45 PM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]


If the child does not live in the US, set a calendar reminder in 18 years.

The tax problems start when the citizen starts earning money and buying assets. Once that happens at a significant scale, it'll be a few thousand dollars to the lawyer and the accountant and the IRS just to get square with Uncle Sam.
posted by dum spiro spero at 10:06 PM on December 11, 2021


Double check that they will be entitled to all of these citizenships at birth. These are all taken from the relevant Wikipedia pages, which are usually pretty accurate, but need checking with actual immigration law in the relevant languages. I'll assume that both parents have a citizenship somewhere.

You are a citizen of Croatia from birth if:
  • you are born in Croatia and one of your parents is a Croatian citizen
  • you are born outside Croatia and both of your parents are Croatian citizens
You are a citizen of the United States from birth if:
  • you are born in the US
  • you are born outside of the US and one of your parents is a US citizen who meets the substantial presence test
You are a citizen of Japan from birth if:
  • you are born in Japan and one of your parents is a Japanese citizen
  • you are born outside Japan and one of your parents is a Japanese citizen
By my reading, the main way someone could realistically have all three from birth is if they are born in Croatia AND one of their parents is a Japanese citizen AND the other parent is a dual US/Croatian citizen who has lived in the US for 5 years with at least 2 years over age 14.

Both US and Croatian citizenships acquired at birth seem to allow for dual (or triple) nationality. Japan doesn't but if you forget to make a declaration of choice at age 22, then you will probably get away with it as per other comments.

Register the birth in the country of birth, maybe register it with the consulates of each of the other countries, and apply for as many passports as entitled to.
posted by plonkee at 6:01 AM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]


The Croatian rules seem the most likely to result in various odd situations so I would really urge you to refer back to the original Croatian to see what the rules are for a child born outside Croatia.
posted by plonkee at 6:06 AM on December 12, 2021


This is the original Croatian law on citizenship. The latest changes are from January 2020. As I read it (not a lawyer, but a native speaker of Croatian), a child can get Croatian citizenship if one of the parents is a Croatian citizen and the parents "register" the child as a Croatian citizen in a Croatian embassy or registrar's office by the child's 21st birthday. I'm Croatian, I have two kids born outside Croatia, the other parent is not Croatian, the kids both have Croatian citizenship.

IIRC I sent some papers (I think my Croatian birth certificate, the kid's foreign birth certificate, possibly something else too?) to the Croatian registrar's office in the town where I was born, and I received the kid's Croatian citizenship certificate back. Sorry I'm fuzzy on the details, it was during the newborn months when my brain was mush.

For citizenship acquired by birth, Croatia doesn't care if you have more than one citizenship. In case of naturalization, there are extra hoops to jump and having more than one citizenship may not be possible.
posted by gakiko at 7:51 AM on December 12, 2021


To clarify the above statement about US tax liability: US citizens living abroad are required to FILE their taxes, but shouldn't have to pay any US taxes unless their income is above a fairly high level ($122,000 in 2022, and going upward in regular increments)
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 5:32 PM on December 12, 2021


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