oath of allegiance to USA and dual citizenship

[NIW_Engineer]

Reading Article 663, "Strengthening American Citizenship" and its simplified new Oath of Allegiance ... Clearly, the USA still do not recognize "officially and formally" dual citizenship, ie, you must renounce your previous/original citizenship ... even though some (and more and more by now) Western European countries do not allow its citizens to abandon anymore their original citizenship (by their Nationality Laws or by the revocation of Article 1 of the 1963 Council of Europe's Treaty of Reduction of Multiple Nationality); eg, France, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, UK, Ireland, Portugal, five months ago, Belgium ... I believe there's other countries in the world with the same kind of Nationality Laws.

In addition, the State Department somehow recognizes and even accepts the concept of dual citizenship: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1753.html , which is furthemore (indirectly) recognized by the US Supreme Court, eg, Secretary of State vs. Terrazas, Appeal, 1980: http://web.archive.org/web/20010702134034/caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=444&invol=252
or, Afroyim vs. Secretary of State, 1967: http://web.archive.org/web/20010702135504/caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=387&invol=253

Then, why, oh why, the Oath of Allegiance still creates an inner-contradiction against dual citizenship. Moreover, I am wondering how does that work practically ... I mean you swear Allegiance to the USA (with the old or new Oath) but keep anyway your former citizenship (which seems to go against the Oath). This is rather strange and can be confusing indeed.

Interestingly enough, with the new Oath of Allegiance, the USA will now notify the embassy that one of its citizen has just renounced its citizenship to the USA; Yet, what can an embassy do it if its citizens cannot abandon -by laws- their citizenship ... I am unclear.

I am wondering whether any among us know someone who is in this rather odd situation, a newly acquired US-citizenship and, nevertheless, an "unofficial" citizenship from the initial country of birth ...

New proposed Oath:
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I take this oath solemnly, freely, and without any mental reservation.
I absolutely and entirely renounce any allegiance to any foreign state or power of which I have been a subject or citizen. My fidelity and allegiance from this day forward are to the United States of America.
I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and will support and defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
I will bear arms, or perform noncombatant military or civilian service, on behalf of the United States when required by law.
This I do solemnly swear, so help me God."

Current Oath (from UCIS.gov):
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"I hereby declare, on oath,
that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;
that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law;
that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law;
that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion;
so help me God."


Thanks!

[Ron Gotcher]

The official position of the United States is that when you naturalize, you give up all claim to your previous nationality. At the same time, the US recognizes that many countries do not accept renunciation of citizenship and you will remain a citizen of your former country.

In the past, the laws were pretty strict in this regard and many who attempted to assert dual citizenship were considered to have expatriated themselves and lost their US citizenship. In the 1970s, the Supreme Court began cutting back on the grounds for expatriation. It has not reached the point where neither the CIS nor the State Department will consider US citizenship lost unless the citizen goes before a US consular officer abroad and signs an oath of expatriation.

There is considerable interest in Congress, however, to re-impose expatriation standards in the law and we may well see this within the next ten years.

[JoeF]

Some countries, e.g., Germany, require proof of having given up your previous citizenship before they allow people to take their citizenship.
At this point, the US does not require that, and even if they inform embassies of other countries that a person from their country has taken up US citizenship, that other country may not care. As far as I know, the UK and Canada, for example, require that their citizenship is given up in front of their officials. Informing foreign embassies would only matter in cases where the foreign country doesn't allow dual citizenship, and the person still using his or her old passport.