As a seasoned traveller and expat living abroad I was kinda shocked about your guys lack of knowledge about passports... but I guess if you've never needed one so why be informed, right? TSA George, though well meaning, doesn' t know what he's talking about... obtaining another country's passport? Maybe it was a joke... The only people able to have another passport are those with dual nationality... like my kids who have one parent of each country and even then, not all countries allow it. In some cases the US makes you give up one of the two. So Ian, let's say one of your parents are or were from Country X - hopefully they'd have registered you at that country's consulate when you were born so getting a passport would be easy. If not, you would have to take in that parent's birth certificate and other docs first and then apply for yours providing you are allowed to have a dual nationality. In some places dual nationality for a male means having to do military service - so watch out! LOL AND you don't have to go to NY city for God Sakes,,,,most State capitals have all of the major consulates.. I know it's a pain and I also hate having to bend over and crack my ankles for OUR MASTERS but for now we have to play their game ....
so get out your wallet, birth cert, pictures prepare to SUBMIT! LOL Luv u Guys!
Love this post. Especially this part...
The only people able to have another passport are those with dual nationality... like my kids who have one parent of each country and even then, not all countries allow it. In some cases the US makes you give up one of the two.
The US does NOT like dual citizenship. It tolerates dual citizenship if you are a citizen of, say, Canada, and then become an American holding Dual Citizenship. You have to go through the whole bullshit, which is pretty long.
..But if you try to do it the other way, they REALLY dislike that.
Like, if you were a citizen of the US, and then tried to get dual citizenship in Costa Rica, Costa Rica would probably grant it, bit the US considers that like a slap in the face.
NO US citizen should ask for dual nationality.
That is where the whole expat hoopla comes from. Giving up your US citizenship is like cutting your wrists, you'll never get it back. Ever. If you accept citizenship in any other country, and renounce your US citizenship, in favor of another country, you become Persona non grata. You can get turned away trying to enter US soil, with a perfectly valid foreign citizenship.
By doing that, you forfeit a whole bunch of rights. Possibly forfeit owned property, monies entitled to you in a will.
You can even become the so-called "man without a country", and that can be pretty troublesome. Foreign consulates won't deal with you, at all. Its the ex-pat nightmare.
Famously, there was some guy who was tangled up in the terrorist bullshit, about ten years ago. Nobody would "claim" him, and he was basically fucked. I think he spent time in prison in Syria, or Abu Dabi, claiming to be a Palestinian of Jordanian descent.
I have no idea what happened to him, but if he was US, he'd probably be extradited through the system and eventually go through the "US Justice system", which is probably better than Syria's.
(not saying I like the idea of being "guantanimo'd", but permanently cutting your ties to the USA is kinda sketchy. It freaks me out a little. I guess it's supposed to.)