Posted on 06/23/2017 2:47:12 AM PDT by Chickensoup
If any US citizen becomes, say, a British Subject, do they lose any US benefits? Social Security? Medicare? Since the other country does not notify the US, the individual can maintain two passports, and does continue to own property in both countries.
Is there any downside to taking on another citizenship?
Is there any downside to taking on another citizenship?
If a person is retired military, he will forfeit his retired status (DoD FMR Vol 7:
060101. Overview
The right to retired pay based on years of active service or disability for Regular or Reserve officers and Regular enlisted personnel, is generally contingent upon the continuation of their military status.
A. Article I, section 9, clause 8 of the Constitution of the United States prohibits any person "holding any Office of Profit or Trust" under the United States from accepting any present, emolument, office or title, "of any kind whatever," from a foreign government without the consent of Congress. This provision prohibits employment by a foreign government of retired personnel with a continuing military status, including Fleet Reserve or Fleet Marine Corps Reserve, unless prior congressional consent is granted. Without prior congressional consent, it also subjects such persons to withholding of their retired pay in an amount equal to the amounts received from the foreign government. This constitutional provision also considers retired regular officer and enlisted members of regular components to hold an office under the U.S. military.
B. While receiving retired pay, a retiree remains subject to rules, regulations, and recall to active duty as required. A retired member of the Armed Forces who becomes a citizen of a foreign country by naturalization and who voluntarily renounces his or her U.S. citizenship loses the right to retired pay when entitlement to the retired pay depends upon the retiree’s continued military status.
C. The effect of a member’s loss of U.S. citizenship upon payment of retired pay must be determined by reviewing each case according to individual circumstances, governing laws and regulations.
As far as social security and medicare, the biggest question becomes one of residence rather than citizenship. Receiving social security is dependent upon whether you made the necessary 40 quarters of FICA "contributions", so unless you move to a country where the US is prohibited from having financial relationships -- like North Korea or Iran -- there shouldn't be an issue (and even if you do, if you were to have your check deposited in a bank in a country where we do have a relationship, there should still be no issue).
On the other hand, Medicare would be considerably more complicated. If you hypothetically renounced your US citizenship and then turned around and got a residence visa or green card, you'd still be able to use Medicare (as, so far as I know, is based upon whether you made the necessary "contributions" or not). However, so far as I know, Medicare doesn't cover hospital or doctor visits outside the US, so whether you're a citizen or not, you'd be SOL if you are overseas.
As far as other Federal benefits, I would refer you to 8 U.S. Code Chapter 14 Subchapter I - ELIGIBILITY FOR FEDERAL BENEFITS. Having said that, unless the plan would be to renounce your citizenship and then turn around and apply for a residence visa or Green Card, the point would be moot, as most of those benefits are contingent upon residence vice citizenship.
BTW, all of the above is my opinion. I am neither an attorney nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. Therefore, those opinions plus about $5 will get you a cup of coffee.
this is a childhood friend.
She is not a current friend
she has no loyalty, hates us as a matter of fact
I don’t think she needs a green card to have Medicare. As far as Medicare is concerned she is a citizen.
She uses Medicare in the US on one of her frequent visits.
You can not serve two masters.
It’s almost Biblical.
Foreign nationals w/ legal immigration status can enlist in the US military ( if otherwise admin qualified), but officers must be US citizens.
Actually, that is a pretty common situation.
Turkish Nationality Law (Interesting point of trivia -- a common situation is for Turkish guest workers in European countries is to return to Turkey for a year to complete the requirement for them to do a year of military service needed to retain their citizenship and then, once that is done, to go back to their foreign "home" -- that resulted in a lot of Turkish conscripts who barely speak Turkish)
looks like she is getting served.
I happen to know 2 retired military who live overseas and hold dual citizenship. I’m fairly certain both collect their military pension. One was elisted, the other a Col. Given their respective ages ( 67 & 72 ), I’m guessing they are no longer counted in the ready reserve. :)
If you get citizenship automatically, as in marriage to a UK citizen, or by birth, no problem. But if you apply, you have to denounce US citizenship. when we returned to the Philippines, as a returning citizen he was automatically given his Philippine citizenship back but kept his US citizenship. Since only locals can own land etc that left him own our house. However, I am ineligible for Philippine citizenship unless I give up my US passport. it varies from country to country, and children of US citizens born overseas often end up dual citizens automaticaĺy.
The issue with military pay (or anything else regarding my previous post) is renouncing US citizenship (for example, for tax purposes), not taking on another citizenship (for example in order to own property in another country).
Just from my own perspective as I am not a dual citizen I found that when I lived overseas I had to pay for workers comp and file for taxes in the USA but was unable to use any of the bennifits as they were of course Unavailable.
Being a foreign national there were no bennifits and quite a few additional costs from the places I stayed.
“Look at this poor kid who got snatched up in North Korea and killed. The the US Government do anything about that?”
It’s North Korea, dude. He was on his own...we don’t have jack there to help him. I’m not disputing you though - many non-government Americans think they have ‘diplomatic immunity’ just because they have a blue passport. Well, if you’re caught with drugs there, the embassy will meet with you, find you a local lawyer, and then say adios.
But believe it or not, it was worse, much worse. During the Depression THOUSANDS of Americans were lured to the Soviet Union, where, according to the father of fake news, Jimmy Durante of New York Times (...and the NY Times still refuses to apologize)...a ‘Workers’ Paradise’ existed.
It didn’t. The first thing that happened to these Americans was that the Soviets collected their passports. Initially we didn’t have an embassy there, but even after, OUR EMBASSY told the desperate Americans showing up at its gates that if they didn’t produce a passport, they were SOL. All but 5 or so of the thousands of Americans (including many wives and kids) ended up trapped there, got swept up in Stalin’s paranoia, off to the labor camps, and then died.
Not pretty.
When I was in the seminary (this was back in the early 70s) a classmate of mine got an official-looking letter from Italy. My friend was born in Queens New York and is an American citizen. His parents were naturalized Americans who had emigrated from Italy.
The letter was in Italian, and he only knew a bit of the language so he handed it to his father. It was a draft notice - he was being drafted into the Italian Army! The letter ordered him to report to such-and-such location in Caserta Province (where his parents were from) in a month, or face arrest.
Apparently, when they were naturalized, his parents (or someone in the US government) neglected to inform the Italian government of the family’s status. Thus, to Italy, everyone was still Italian citizens, and my friend was subject to the draft.
Several trips to the Italian Embassy eventually straightened things out (whether it helped that my friend was in the seminary, I don’t know).
The US recognizes dual nationality.
I do remember when there was no such thing as dual citizenship. I thought it would need Constitutional change for a US citizen to take on a second citizenship or visa versus. When did it change and why?
No, you do not lose anything - except being owned by one country.
Second citizenship provides a level of freedom of travel and opportunity you can not have with just one citizenship.
If your friend does not live in the U.K., he will not pay income taxes there (unlike citizens of the US and Eritrea - the two countries that require taxes regardless of residency).
A U.K. Passport is a valuable travel document and can be passed to the next generation in most cases when citizenship by descent is involved.
That person loses no benefit earned in the US, like Social Security.
Now that the US has given itself the power to deny free travel if you owe taxes or alimony or a growing list of other reasons, I would encourage your friend to get this citizenship/passport as “emergency equipment.”
Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
“A retired member of the Armed Forces who becomes a citizen of a foreign country by naturalization and who voluntarily renounces his or her U.S. citizenship loses the right to retired pay when entitlement to the retired pay depends upon the retiree’s continued military status.”
This involves *renouncing* US citizenship, which is not the case here.
In this case the person is becoming a dual citizen, retaining US citizenship, while adding U.K. Citizenship.
“Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967), is a major United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that citizens of the United States may not be deprived of their citizenship involuntarily. ... The Afroyim decision opened the way for a wider acceptance of dual (or multiple) citizenship in United States law.”
Afroyim v. Rusk - Wikipedia
Wikipedia › wiki › Afroyim_v
I know of a girl that has Tri-citizenship. Her dad was a dual citizen of US and another country, her mom was from a third country, and the girl was born in the Mom’s country.
So the girl has 3 passports (I have personally seen all 3).
Based on this case, I would guess it possible to have quad citizenship if both parents were dual citizens of different countries.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.