4 ms·
This is not true. Many of these accidental Americans really weren't aware of this. Why would they? They never received a US passport or any other official US do
by mcv 6y ago
This is not true. Many of these accidental Americans really weren't aware of this. Why would they? They never received a US passport or any other official US documents, never lived there, didn't go to school, and had no reason to be aware of their unintended dual citizenship until the US started bugging them for taxes.
Also, renouncing this accidental citizenship is far from trivial. That requires jumping through a lot of bureaucratic hoops. They never received any benefit from it, and if they knew at all, they ignored it.
And they have no problem paying taxes, they just pay their taxes in the country in which they live and work. They don't want to have to fill in tax forms for every random country that chooses to bestow unwanted citizenship on them.
Make no mistake, the only reason this is an issue at all, is because the US is too powerful to ignore. No other country does this (except maybe Ethiopia or Eritrea, I think), and no other country would get away with this. Only the US does.
It's rather odd that for a country where so many people question Obama's citizenship, the country is so eager to claim ownership over people who don't want it.
- bloodorange 6y agoWhile I don't like that warmongering nation any more than you do, in this case, it is not a secret that people's citizenship can be affected by where they are born, their parents' citizenship etc. So, if anything, their parents are to blame and not these folks who had no choice in the matter.
- hef19898 6y agoWell, regarding the French citizenship, as long as the parents aren't registering their children born abroad at a French consulate the kids are not French citizens. Easy enough yo do all that later. And that part of citizenship is different from requesting passports. Source: My own children, both dual citizenship, different names on each passport due different naming legislation for unmarried parents, one with two passports, the other currently only with one.
- mcv 6y agoThe US is really the only country in the world that's this aggressive about their citizenship. A few others come close (I believe Turkey doesn't allow you to revoke Turkish citizenship and claims children of Turks born abroad as citizens, or something like that), but most western countries determine citizenship based on where and how you register your child's birth. It's quite unreasonable to expect all non-Americans to be aware of all these little exceptions in US law.