Note to Mods: I am not sure if this is the correct forum for posting this, so please feel free to move this to wherever you felel appropriate, thanks!
Somebody told me that as of Jan 26th (Republic Day in India) NRIs may apply for dual citizenship; i.e. be able to hold Indian Citizenship whilst continuing to be citizens of USA/Canada/UK etc. Does anyone have any further info on this? What is the eligibility criterion? Procedure? Timescales? Any Links?
I am aware of the PIO (Person of Indian Origin) card scheme, but this is different.
Also, is there a similar scheme available from the Pakistan government to NPRs?
Such as the USA. But a friend of mine has both a valid US passport and a valid Pakistani passport, though the US authorities have no record of his Pakistani citizenship (he was born a US citizen and received Pakistani citizenship later)
Yep i had to make a choice between German and Pakistani citizenship as Germany doesn’t allow dual Citizenship … I had to renunciate (right spelling ???) my Pakistani Citizenship
US does allow dual citizenship with certain countries and recently added Pakistan to the list. What they don't allow is obtaining a second citizenship.
For example, if a person was born in US (thus a US citizen) but happen to be of parents who hold Pakistani Passports (thus considered a Pakistani citizen) then he can have best of both worlds. Now, if he decides to go on and apply for a Canadian citizenship, then his US citizenship is revoked (that is if they find out about it).
For example, if you are just a British citizen, and you get into trouble with the law in any foreign country, the UK Consulate will provide you full legal help and appoint lawyers for you. If you are a dual citizen, neither country will do jack for you, as you are no one's responsibility.
Thanks Faisal, that’s a damn good example! I’ll take note and be aware (though for the moment it will not affect me since I haven’t as yet applied for Dual citizenship… was just trying to gather some info, hence this thread).
quite untrue, you just have to go to one country for help to avoid confusion between 2 countries on who is doing what. Its not that you are no one’s responsibility, you are the responsibility of both, but they need toknow who is doing what. The issue arises if you are a dual citizen and are in UK and do something whic gets you in trouble, the fact that you are a UK citizen also limits what US embassy can do for you.
My parents have dual Pak/Uk citizenships and back in the nineties when the situation in Pakistan was pretty bad, the embassy had told them that it will help them evacuate the country if things go bad.
They were also in Nigeria during civil war where both UK and Pakistan had come to their rescue to leave the country.
