Doesn’t the FOIA info show she kept renewing her US passport from the 1960s to the 1980s?
If she had naturalized as an Indonesian citizen wouldn’t she lose the US passport?
Correct.
But that is why I say she kept her dual citizenship gig going.
People often say - she was not an Indonesian citizen. Oh yes she was - according to Indonesian law. From the time of marriage you have one year to formally declare yourself an Indonesian citizen OR your spouse can ex-patriot themselves from Indonesian citizenship in that same one year. But after one year the couple (as an entire family unit) are either Indonesian citizens or they are not - according to Indonesian law. The marriage was in March 1965. So as of March 1966 the family unit would have been Indonesian citizens under Indonesia law. But - the marriage was in the US. Was it registered with the Indonesian authorities in 1965, or 1966 or early 1967? Maybe not. So the clock may have started ticking until the entire family unit was in Indonesia - in mid-1967. If that was the case then the SAD passport update, whose sole purpose was to remove Obama from SAD’s US passport, in mid-1968 makes sense. The year was up and it was time to live legally as 100% Indonesian citizens in Indonesia.
It would be interesting to know if Indonesia issued minors separate passports from parents. Obama II being on a stand alone passport would explain how he traveled ‘alone’ in 1970 or 1971 without mom. When mom showed in October of 1971 her US passport had expired - I think for about a year.
“Doesn’t the FOIA info show she kept renewing her US passport from the 1960s to the 1980s?
If she had naturalized as an Indonesian citizen wouldn’t she lose the US passport?”
Issuance of a Certificate of Loss of Nationality for a U.S. Citizen is discretionary and based on 2 criteria: 1) is there evidence the renunciant will not be stateless if the CLN is issued and 2) has a voluntary expatriating act taken place and can it be proven by a preponderance of the evidence.
SAD Soetoro was required to inform the State Department if she had naturalized in a foreign state or if a family member had naturalized in a foreign state each time she renewed her passport. Also, she was asked to declare how long she planned to stay out of the U.S. and what her purpose was for leaving the U.S. These are not questions of idle curiosity. The State Department is building a case for issuing a CLN.
Obama was issued a CLN after his mother amended her passport to remove him from it because he had naturalized in Indonesian. Furthermore, she declared she did not plan to return to the U.S. on her 1968 renewal passport. The typed, red corrections on the renewal are indicative of corrections made by a State Department official after interviewing SAD Soetoro to establish evidence for issuing a CLN.
This is all the information the State Department needed to issue a CLN to Obama. Any one of any age can be issued a CLN. Minors, who have been issued CLNs, have the option to return to the U.S. before the age of majority (18 for Obama) and recapture their U.S. Citizenship with a written statement declaring their intent to maintain their U.S. Citizenship and stating Oath of Allegiance before a consular or diplomatic officer.
However, in Fox v. Clinton (2012), the Court of Appeals was critical of the State Department’s application of the INA as it pertained to the issuance of CLNs. The Court remanded the District Court to instruct the State Department to reconsider it decision making and issue CLNs to U.S. Citizens who moved out of the U.S., naturalized in a foreign state and declared an intention to surrender their U.S. Citizenship without submitting to a formal renunciation process. The Appeals Court, in no uncertain terms, remanded the District Court to instruct the State Department to recognize the intent of the INA is the give U.S. Citizens the freedom to surrender their citizenship if they move out of the country and declare they do not plan to return to the U.S.