Posted on 06/04/2024 10:46:16 PM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007
Message for U.S. Citizens: Elimination of “Residence Abroad” Exception to Dual Citizen Departure Date: June 4, 2024 Location: Ukraine (countrywide)
Event: The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv understands that, effective June 1, Ukraine has eliminated a “residence abroad” exception that previously allowed certain Ukrainian males aged 18 to 60 to depart the country. After this change, U.S.-Ukrainian dual citizens, including those who live in the United States, may no longer be able to depart the country.
Ukrainian law does not recognize dual citizenship. U.S.-Ukrainian dual citizens are therefore treated solely as Ukrainian citizens while in Ukraine and are subject to the rights and obligations of Ukrainian citizens. Under Ukraine’s martial law, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not permitted to leave the country. Previously, dual U.S.-Ukrainian citizens in this group could enter and then depart Ukraine if they had deregistered their Ukrainian residency and registered their U.S. residency. According to our information, this exception was revoked as of June 1.
The U.S. Embassy is limited in our ability to influence Ukrainian law, including the application of martial law and the mobilization law to Ukrainian citizens. If you are in Ukraine and cannot leave the country, shelter in place and obey all local orders. If you are not currently in Ukraine, we strongly recommend against all travel to Ukraine by U.S. citizen males aged 18 to 60 who also have Ukrainian citizenship or a claim to Ukrainian citizenship and who do not wish to stay in Ukraine indefinitely. There is an extremely high risk you will not be allowed to depart, even with a U.S. passport.
We remind all Americans of the State Department’s Level 4: Do Not Travel warning for Ukraine. For further information, see State Department websites for what you should know as a dual citizen traveler, and what we can and cannot do during a crisis.
The Zelensky regime is now refusing to recognize American residency and is press-ganging American-Ukrainian dual citizens for his war against Russia.
This is the way it usually works. A person with dual citizenship owes total and complete allegiance to the state of nationality he is in. If it were someone they really want, and he flies into the airspace without intending to land in his second state of nationality, they could force the plane to land and drag him off. If the plane were forced to make an emergency landing, they could take him away. In the Steinkauler case, a German-American dual citizen in Germany could not get American assistance to avoid military service in Germany. Reviewed in Perkins v. Elg, 307 U.S. 325 (1939); Supreme Court.
This principle was clearly stated by Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont in his letter of advice to the Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish, in Steinkauler's Case, 15 Op. Attys. Gen'l, 15 (1875). The facts were these: One Steinkauler, a Prussian subject by birth, emigrated to the United States in 1848, was naturalized in 1854, and in the following year had a son who was born in St. Louis. Four years later Steinkauler returned to Germany taking this child and became domiciled at Wiesbaden where they continuously resided. When the son reached the age of twenty years the German Government called upon him to report for military duty and his father then invoked the intervention of the American Legation on the ground that his son was a native citizen of the United States. To an inquiry by our Minister, the father declined to give an assurance that the son would return to this country within a reasonable time. On reviewing the pertinent points in the case, including the Naturalization Treaty of 1868 with North Germany, the Attorney General reached the following conclusion:"Young Steinkauler is a native-born American citizen. There is no law of the United States under which his father or any other person can deprive him of his birthright. He can return to America at the age of twenty-one, and in due time, if the people elect, he can become President of the United States; but the father, in accordance with the treaty and the laws, has renounced his American citizenship and his American allegiance and has acquired for himself and his son German citizenship and the rights which it carries, and he must take the burdens as well as the advantages. The son being domiciled with the father and subject to him under the law during his minority, and receiving the German protection where he has acquired nationality and declining to give any assurance of ever returning to the United States and claiming his American nationality by residence here, I am of opinion that he cannot rightly invoke the aid of the Government of the United States to relieve him from military duty in Germany during his minority. But I am of opinion that when he reaches the age of twenty-one years he can then elect whether he will return and take the nationality of his birth, with its duties and privileges, or retain the nationality acquired by the act of his father. This seems to me to be 'right reason', and I think it is law."
That already is the law in the USA. The issue here is about people traveling to other countries. If you are a US citizen then you are still subject to the laws of other countries if you visit those countries. You aren’t forced to visit those countries.
You can renounce your other citizenship if you dont wish to have the rights and obligations of a citizen in your other country. If you dont, you shouldn’t be surprised when you get treated like a citizen in that country. Why would you deserve exemption from such responsibilities when you are using it to derive the benefits of citizenship? Renounce or stfu.
Unless under active military service or a formal mobilization order, all Russian citizens have the explicit constitution right to come and go as they please.
The US protects its citizens abroad. It is the duty of our embassies abroad to insure their welfare under existing international law and norms. However, dual nationals limit what can be done for them in their “home countries.”
Dual Nationality
Section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) states that “the term ‘national of the United States’ means (A) a citizen of the United States, or (B) a person who, though not a citizen of the United States, owes permanent allegiance to the United States.” Therefore, U.S. citizens are also U.S. nationals. Non-citizen nationality status refers only individuals who were born either in American Samoa or on Swains Island to parents who are not citizens of the United States. The concept of dual nationality means that a person is a national of two countries at the same time. Each country has its own nationality laws based on its own policy. Persons may have dual nationality by automatic operation of different laws rather than by choice. For example, a child born in a foreign country to U.S. national parents may be both a U.S. national and a national of the country of birth. Or, an individual having one nationality at birth may naturalize at a later date in another country and become a dual national.
U.S. law does not impede its citizens’ acquisition of foreign citizenship whether by birth, descent, naturalization or other form of acquisition, by imposing requirements of permission from U.S. courts or any governmental agency. If a foreign country’s law permits parents to apply for citizenship on behalf of minor children, nothing in U.S. law impedes U.S. citizen parents from doing so.
U.S. law does not require a U.S. citizen to choose between U.S. citizenship and another (foreign) nationality (or nationalities). A U.S. citizen may naturalize in a foreign state without any risk to their U.S. citizenship.
U.S. dual nationals owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country (or countries, if they are nationals of more than one). They are required to obey the laws of both countries, and either country has the right to enforce its laws. Claims of other countries upon U.S. dual-nationals may result in conflicting obligations under the laws of each country. U.S. dual nationals may also face restrictions in the U.S. consular protections available to U.S. nationals abroad, particularly in the country of their other nationality.
U.S. nationals, including U.S. dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. U.S. dual nationals may also be required by the country of their foreign nationality to use that country’s passport to enter and leave that country. Use of the foreign passport to travel to or from a country other than the United States is not inconsistent with U.S. law.
There have been many claims and media statements about "U.S. citizens" who were victims of the attacks, some of whom are still considered hostages.
Apparently the U.S. State Department treats "dual citizens" differently, depending on the circumstances of their residency and their travel. If you are a dual USA-Ukraine citizen and a U.S. resident, and you happen to be traveling in Ukraine for vacation or a short-term work assignment, then the U.S. government considers you an "American" and will exercise whatever diplomatic and even military options are deemed necessary for your protection. But if you are a dual USA-Ukraine citizen and you live permanently in Ukraine, you are considered something along the lines of a "U.S. citizen on paper only," and they basically consider you a Ukrainian for all intents and purposes.
This is really why the U.S. government doesn't care much about the so-called "Americans" who may still be held hostage in Gaza.
When being sworn in as a citizen a few years ago, the new citizen had to renounce his/her former citizenship and then swear allegiance to the USA.
That must have changed to accommodate dual citizenship. I wonder what else has changed??
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