This video is supported by viewers like you. If you want to help me make more things like this,
consider supporting me on Patreon. Thank you. How do you get rid of your citizenship?
Bit of a weird question, I know. Usually, it's all about how to get citizenship; which
conditions to meet, which hoops to jump through. Acquiring citizenship is hard. But it
can be just as hard to get rid of it. We're talking requirements, fees, bureaucratic
hurdles and so on. And even if you're doing everything to the letter, it's still
possible your country just won't let you go. Ideally, citizenship renunciation goes like
so: You go take all necessary documents to a government office, say you'd like to renounce
your citizenship, human behind desk says okay, gives you a piece of paper confirming said
renunciation and you're done. Ideally. In reality, every country can design this
process as it wants, though. There is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, saying that
everyone has a right to change their nationality, meaning citizenship, but it's not quite that easy.
In practice, you don't *change* your citizenship, but acquire one, and, shortly before or after
that, drop the other one. So, you can't just show up and ask a civil servant to swap your
French citizenship for a Micronesian one. Citizenship switching service would
be pretty nice, doesn't exist, though. But before we go deeper into the renunciation
jungle, a quick word about ethnicity, nationality, and citizenship. Ethnicity
means: There's a people, and through language, descent, culture, personal preference,
and so on, you're a part of it. No written confirmation or documentation needed.
Citizenship, on the other hand, is only given out by states, and confirmed in official records
and documents. In a nation state, most citizens have the same ethnicity; for example, Austrian
citizens also being part of the Austrian people. Doesn't have to be that way, though. You can
just as well be an Austrian citizen of Croatian, Catalonian, or Kurdish ethnicity.
Nationality lies somewhere between ethnicity and citizenship, because it's
sometimes used synonymously with the one, then the other, and sometimes
as a kind of citizenship light, with only part of the rights and duties of full
citizenship. US Nationals, for example, when they are not also US citizens, can vote in local, but
not state or federal elections. The point being: "Nationality" is really imprecise, so let's just
use "citizenship", so we're all on the same page. Now we know what citizenship
means, but how do we get rid of it? As easy as possible is the process in
Tonga. Only one condition required. You need a foreign citizenship. As soon as
you do, you can waltz right in, present your foreign passport and you're already ... Tonga does not have a legal process for renouncing your citizenship, but they do have an absolute ban on dual citizenship without exceptions. Acquiring any other citizenship
immediately invalidates your Tongan one. Such an auto-renunciation,
though usually not as strict, can be found in lots of countries without
fully accepted dual citizenship, like Austria. If you have Austrian citizenship, but
get any other, you lose it automatically, just like in Tonga. But what's different, is
that in Austria, exceptions for dual citizenship can be made, for example for children with
only one parent with Austrian citizenship, or when it's approved because of personal or
family circumstances. But since you can't use that mighty auto-renunciation move anymore,
except if you get a third citizenship, there needs to be a separate way to get rid of it. And
for that, you do have to tick a few more boxes. Beside having another citizenship, you also need
to have completed the military or civil service, if a man between 16 and 36, and can't have
committed any crimes punishable by more than six months. Except if you've been living out
of country for more than five years at a time. Then, those two conditions fall through.
Finally, you pay 50 to 100 Euros in fees and your renunciation's all done.
If you're now asking: then I say: 1, that's a highly idiotic thing
to do, and 2, no, you need to have another citizenship always. Otherwise, you'd be stateless,
meaning: no valid passport and no diplomatic protection. In short: Very bad. That's why you
need one to lose the other. Safety glass over the self-destruct button, if you will. A great
many countries have those, but not all. The US, for example, does not "force" you to get a new
citizenship before dropping theirs. They point out what a grandly stupid idea it would be to press
the button, but if you really really want to ... Instead, they have all kinds of other
requirements, though. It's not enough to just get another citizenship and you're done. There
are two ways of getting rid of US citizenship: Relinquishing and renouncing.
It is not, but good question. Relinquishing works by acquiring another
citizenship, pledging allegiance to another country, or crazy things like serving in
an enemy military, or treason. But for the relinquishment to be valid, you have to do it
with the intention of losing citizenship. If you're doing one of those things without wanting
to give it up, your citizenship stays right as it were. And that intention you gotta prove.
So you file a request, everything is checked, and if they believe you, you're rid of your
citizenship. If not, all stays the same. Because of that, it makes much
more sense to not relinquish, but renounce your citizenship. For that, you
officially declare your intention to do so, make an appointment for it, all documents
are checked, and if everything's fine, you personally declare your renunciation,
and get a piece of paper confirming it. The thing that's making that process a smidgen
harder than in Austria, is that, in the USA, no matter if you're relinquishing or renouncing,
whether your application goes through or not, you must pay a fee of 2350 dollars American.
That's the highest renunciation fee in the world. Next highest are Jamaica, 1010$,
Egypt, 800$, and Sierra Leone, 663$. But whatever's the reason you're trying to
drop your citizenship, one word of warning: It won't help you get out of criminal prosecution,
military duty, or tax debt. If you forget paying your taxes for a few years and then try jumping
ship to save yourself ... not the best idea. And taxes, in the US, quite a topic in
itself. Because they, together with Myanmar, Hungary, and Eritrea, form the small group
of countries taxing people by citizenship, no matter where they live or work. Thanks to a
bunch of bilateral agreements, double taxation is often prevented, but US expats still
have to submit a US tax return every year. What's that got to do with citizenship
renunciation? The following: If you renounce your citizenship and are of considerable means - over
2 millions in total capital or an average of 100 000 in annual income tax - you also get to - as
a parting gift - pay capital gains tax on all your assets. So when you're renouncing -
doesn't matter if you reach that amount or not - you must have filed tax returns for the
last five years and a separate expatriation tax document. If you have not, you get a notice
and a penalty of 10 000$ on top of that. In the US, renunciation is possible, but
complicated and expensive. But it gets even better in Iran. That starts with the fact that
you have to be 25 to even be able to renounce. In most countries, you simply have to reach the
age of majority, that's 18 in Iran. Still, you can only renounce at 25. Second, you must have already
completed the compulsory 18 to 24 months of military service if a man of military age. Third,
you have to give up all real estate in Iran and entitlements to such. If you own a beet field in
Iran, you won't get rid of that citizenship. All of that is already pretty annoying, but then you
have to also, four, ask the council of ministers for permission to renounce. And ... who knows how
interested the Iranian council of ministers is in the renunciation wishes of its subjects. In
any case, the council can, without stating any reason and without any form of legal recourse,
just say no. That's bad luck for you, then. says the Iranian embassy in the Netherlands.
Well, if they state it like that, it must be true. The cherry on top is: If you, despite the
unlikelihood of a permission to renounce, try to get that whole process into motion
by downloading the renunciation form, the "404 - not found" on the Iranian ministry of
foreign affairs website will have you reconsider. Here's the question, though: Why would a country
not permit its citizens to renounce? What's the use in forcing citizenship on people? Well,
with every citizenship come rights and duties. The rights, you usually experience much more,
but duties of allegiance, military service, jury functions, and voting are, depending on
the country, in force also. But most of all, citizenship means that a country has
diplomatic power over your affairs. Let's say you have citizenships of countries A
and B. The B one, you've been wanting to drop for years, but they won't let you. If you're
now imprisoned in country B for ... espionage, let's say, diplomats from A don't
have a great argument against that, because B maintains you are their citizen,
so they're responsible for you. A can of course try whatever they want, but
as long as you're a citizen of B, it's hard to argue it's not their call.
Then, there's one more, less practical, but highly emotional reason to
deny renunciation: Short and bad: We have had: Automatic renunciation, renunciation under conditions with low
and high fees, and theoretically possible, but practically impossible renunciation. But,
I've got one more. Namely, countries where you can simply not renounce your citizenship at
all. Not hard to do, not unlikely, but simply impossible. That's how it is in Argentina. If
you've had Argentine citizenship since birth, like the ultimate gum on your shoe, you cannot,
in no single case, without exception, without any loopholes, never ever get rid of it. The
reason for that is ... pretty weak on its legs: The state must not deprive its subjects of
their citizenship, so losing citizenship is made impossible in general. Even if you ask for
it, no chance. It gets especially interesting when you're obligated to give up your old citizenship
to acquire a new one. In that case ... you still can't, but at least they hand you a document
assuring everyone that renunciation is, for realz, never a possibility. Whether the other country
accepts that is another question altogether. One possible solution would be a kind
of citizenship zero, which lets you stay Argentine on paper, but frees you from
all citizenship-related rights and duties. But that also is not possible, because Argentina
has not just the most clingy citizenship there is, but also mandatory voting. And since citizens
have to vote, a zero version would break the law once again. So, no matter what, Argentina's
citizenship and all the things that come with it stick with you forever. But to be fair,
Argentina isn't alone in that. Costa Rica, Uruguay, Libya, and a few other countries
also have no possibility of renunciation. The reason Argentina and others are so darn
scared of citizenships being revoked that they make even renouncing them impossible, can
be seen in Malawi, where the minister in charge can take away people's citizenships on
a whim. They don't need a reason for it, and you can't fight the decision in court. And
revoking someone's citizenship, obviously a pretty big deal, as rights to residence, voting, and so
on are tied to it. In Malawi, one cannot become stateless by losing their citizenship, so it only
applies to dual citizens, but still not cool. No matter how you turn it, when a country
forces you to keep your citizenship, that's a big problem. Citizenship should
reflect a certain connection to a country; ideally a voluntary one. If that connection isn't
there anymore, why should you be obligated to keep your citizenship? And it's not like it's
just on paper. Retained citizenships can cause major problems. You go on holiday
to the old homeland to visit the family, but because you've not completed military
service, you're jailed for desertion. It gets even more pressing when you're
in line to acquire another citizenship, but are rejected because you cannot renounce your
old one. That way, a foreign country indirectly denies you citizenship with all rights and duties
in your new home country. If you've built yourself a life in a place, you live and work there,
but the old country forces you and possibly even your children to keep its citizenship,
that's no less than arbitrary state despotism.
