If you want to get citizenship in another country, you generally have five ways in: you were born there, you have an ancestor from there, you live there long enough to naturalize, you marry a citizen, or you invest a qualifying amount of money. Which route is open to you depends on the country’s own laws, because every nation sets its own rules for who counts as a citizen.1League of Nations – Treaty Series. Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws For Americans, the choice also carries consequences that follow you home, including tax filings you can’t escape and, in narrow cases, the risk of losing your U.S. citizenship.
Citizenship Through Ancestry
If a parent or grandparent came from another country, you may already qualify for citizenship there without ever having lived abroad. Ancestry-based claims are the fastest legitimate path for most Americans because they skip residency entirely.
Italy was long the most generous example, but a 2025 decree-law tightened the rules significantly. Claims by descent are now limited to cases where a parent was born in Italy, a parent resided in Italy for at least two consecutive years before the child’s birth, or a grandparent was born in Italy. Claims through earlier generations are no longer recognized. Female-line claims for ancestors born before January 1, 1948, still require a court petition in Italy.2Consolato Generale d’Italia a Los Angeles. Citizenship by Descent “Jure Sanguinis”
Ireland allows citizenship through a grandparent via the Foreign Births Register. The process requires submitting original civil documents spanning three generations and takes roughly twelve months after a complete application reaches Dublin.3Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – Ireland. Citizenship Poland, Hungary, Greece, and several Latin American countries offer their own ancestry programs, each with its own generational limits and paperwork.
Naturalization Through Residency
If you don’t qualify by bloodline, the standard route is living in the country long enough to apply. Requirements run from as few as three years in Canada and Israel to ten or more in Switzerland and Austria. The United States, by way of comparison, requires five years of continuous residence as a lawful permanent resident under the general provision.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Volume 12 – Part D – Chapter 3
Residency means physical presence, not just holding a visa. Countries count your days, and spending too much time outside during the qualifying period can reset or extend it. U.S. rules, for instance, treat any absence longer than six months as potentially breaking continuous residence.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Continuous Residence and Physical Presence Requirements for Naturalization Most other countries enforce similar limits, and some are stricter. Plan on documenting your presence with leases, utility bills, tax returns, and employment records.
Citizenship Through Marriage
Marrying a citizen rarely delivers automatic citizenship, but it usually shortens the road. In the U.S. system, the spouse of a citizen can naturalize after three years of permanent residence instead of five, provided the couple has lived in marital union for that whole period and the American spouse has held citizenship the entire time.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I am Married to a U.S. Citizen Many European and Latin American countries offer comparable reductions, typically requiring two to four years of marriage plus a shorter residency.
Officials scrutinize these applications closely. Expect interviews with detailed questions about your daily life together, and be ready to show shared financial accounts, a joint lease, photographs, and correspondence. A marriage entered into for immigration benefits alone is fraud almost everywhere, and the consequences include denial, deportation, and criminal charges.
Citizenship by Investment
A handful of countries sell direct citizenship in exchange for a qualifying financial contribution. Dominica requires a $200,000 non-refundable contribution to its Economic Development Fund for a single applicant. St. Kitts and Nevis starts at $250,000, and Antigua and Barbuda at $230,000. Real estate options in these programs typically start higher. Processing runs a few months, and the resulting passport often provides visa-free access to well over 100 countries.
European programs are different. Portugal’s golden visa grants residency, not immediate citizenship, through investments starting at €250,000 for cultural contributions or €500,000 for venture capital funds; real estate no longer qualifies. Italy’s investor visa runs from €250,000 for startup investments to €2 million for government bonds. In both cases you still have to maintain residency for years before you can apply for citizenship, so these are residency-by-investment programs that lead to naturalization on the usual timelines.
The U.S. EB-5 program follows the same residency-first model at higher thresholds: $900,000 in a targeted employment area or $1.8 million in a standard area, both leading to a green card rather than direct citizenship.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
Will You Keep Your U.S. Citizenship
For most Americans, this is the decisive question. Whether a second passport costs you your first depends on both countries’ rules on dual nationality, and on what you actually do to obtain it.
Many nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and most of the EU, permit dual citizenship without restriction. Others do not. China, Japan, India, Singapore, and most Gulf states either prohibit dual nationality outright or require you to choose one by a certain age. Austria and the Netherlands allow it only in narrow circumstances such as birth or marriage.
On the U.S. side, federal law lists acts that can cause loss of nationality, including voluntarily obtaining citizenship in another country, swearing allegiance to a foreign state, and serving as an officer in a foreign military.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1481 – Loss of Nationality by Native-Born or Naturalized Citizen The operative word is “voluntarily.” Since 1990, the State Department has applied a presumption that Americans who naturalize elsewhere do not intend to give up U.S. citizenship unless they explicitly say so. In practice, most Americans who obtain a second passport keep both. The risk isn’t zero: signing an explicit renunciation abroad, or serving in a foreign military engaged in hostilities against the United States, still carries automatic consequences.
If you decide to formally renounce, the process involves appearing before a consular officer abroad. As of 2026, the State Department charges $450 to process the Certificate of Loss of Nationality.9Federal Register. Schedule of Fees for Consular Services – Fee for Administrative Processing of Request for Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States
Tax and Financial Reporting Don’t Go Away
This is where people get blindsided. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income no matter where they live. A second passport and a move abroad do not end your obligation to file a U.S. return every year. Only formal renunciation stops the filing requirement, and even then, you may face an exit tax on unrealized gains.
Two separate reporting rules apply on top of income tax. If the combined value of your foreign accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point during the year, you must file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) with FinCEN by April 15.10FinCEN.gov. Report Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Under FATCA, you also file Form 8938 with your tax return if your foreign financial assets exceed $50,000 at year-end (or $75,000 at any point) as a single filer living in the U.S. Those thresholds rise to $200,000 and $300,000 for Americans living abroad.11Internal Revenue Service. Do I Need to File Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets
The penalties are disproportionate to the paperwork. Non-willful FBAR violations carry penalties up to $10,000 per account per year, adjusted for inflation, and willful violations can reach 50% of the account balance. Opening a bank account in your new country of citizenship counts. Build these filings into your plan from day one.
Traveling and Living as a Dual Citizen
Two passports create specific obligations. U.S. law requires American citizens to enter and leave the United States on their U.S. passport, and many other countries impose the same rule for their own citizens.12Travel.State.gov. Dual Nationality Dual citizens often carry both and present the correct one at each border.
Under the master nationality rule, if you’re a citizen of two countries, neither is obligated to provide diplomatic protection while you’re in the other. The State Department states plainly that a dual national in trouble in their other country of citizenship may or may not receive American consular assistance from local authorities.13U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual. 7 FAM 080 Dual Nationality You’re largely on your own in that scenario.
Some countries also enforce military service on their citizens. South Korea, Israel, and Turkey may require dual citizens who are male and of military age to complete service before allowing departure, and failing to appear can result in arrest at the border on a future visit.
Documents You’ll Need
Every country asks for a similar documentary backbone. Expect to gather at a minimum:
- Your current national passport, typically with at least six months of validity remaining.14U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Six-Month Validity Update
- Civil status documents: birth certificates, marriage certificates, and divorce decrees as originals or certified copies from the issuing government.
- Police clearance certificates from every country where you’ve lived six months or longer, generally covering the past ten years.15Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Express Entry – Police Certificates
- Proof of financial standing: tax returns, bank statements, employment contracts.
- Proof of residency: utility bills, lease agreements, or property deeds covering the qualifying period.
- Language proficiency certificate from an accredited testing center.
Ancestry claims add a detailed family tree with birth, marriage, and death certificates for each link in the chain. Italy’s revised rules, for example, require a birth certificate originally issued by an Italian municipality for the qualifying ancestor.2Consolato Generale d’Italia a Los Angeles. Citizenship by Descent “Jure Sanguinis”
Translation and Authentication
Any document not in the destination country’s official language will need a certified translation. In the U.S. system, the translator signs a statement certifying fluency in both languages and that the translation is complete and accurate.16U.S. Department of State. Information about Translating Foreign Documents Most countries impose similar requirements. Professional certified legal translations typically cost $20 to $125 per page depending on the language pair.
Documents also need authentication for cross-border use. Countries that are parties to the Hague Apostille Convention accept a standardized apostille stamp from the issuing country’s designated authority, usually the secretary of state’s office in the U.S. For countries outside the convention, you’ll need full consular legalization, which is slower and more expensive. U.S. apostille fees typically run $2 to $20 per document; the real cost is the time spent tracking down each certificate from the right issuing authority.
The Application, Interview, and Oath
Once your file is assembled, you submit it through the country’s designated channel: an online portal, a mailed package to a consulate, or an in-person appointment at an immigration office. Fees vary widely. U.S. naturalization, for context, costs $710 online or $760 by paper, with biometrics included.17U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. N-400, Application for Naturalization Other programs run from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.
Most countries schedule a biometrics appointment for fingerprints and a photograph, which are checked against international security databases.18U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Preparing for Your Biometric Services Appointment Then comes a formal interview: verification of the application, a language check, and questions about the country’s history and government. Officers have seen every coached answer, so genuine preparation outperforms rehearsal. Some jurisdictions offer language exemptions for older applicants or those with disabilities; U.S. naturalization, for instance, exempts applicants who are 50 or older with 20 years of permanent residence, or 55 or older with 15 years, and has a medical disability exception on Form N-648.19U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Exceptions and Accommodations
After background checks clear, the government issues an approval, and the final step is a ceremony where you swear an oath of allegiance and receive a certificate of naturalization. That certificate is your legal proof of citizenship and the basis for applying for your new passport.20U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. New U.S. Citizens
If You’re Denied
A denial isn’t necessarily the end, but appeal windows are short and worth knowing before you apply. In the U.S. system, a denied naturalization applicant has 30 days from receiving the decision to request a hearing.21eCFR. 8 CFR Part 336 – Hearings on Denials of Applications for Naturalization If the administrative hearing fails, you can seek judicial review in federal district court. Other countries have their own appeal structures through administrative tribunals or immigration courts. The common thread is that deadlines are firm and missing them forfeits your right to appeal, so open any denial letter immediately.
Citizenship Can Be Taken Back
Naturalized citizenship is not unconditional. Governments can revoke it if they later discover fraud. In the United States, citizenship can be canceled if naturalization was illegally procured, obtained by concealing a material fact, or obtained through willful misrepresentation.22Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1451 – Revocation of Naturalization Joining a prohibited organization within five years of naturalization is treated as presumptive evidence that the oath wasn’t genuine.
The Department of Justice files denaturalization cases in federal court, and has brought them against individuals who concealed criminal histories, terrorist affiliations, war crimes, and other disqualifying facts during the application process.23United States Department of Justice. Justice Department Moves to Denaturalize 12 Individuals for Concealing Terrorist Support, War Crimes, Espionage, Sexual Abuse, and More Other countries have comparable provisions. Answer every question on the application honestly. A minor past incident disclosed upfront is almost always less damaging than the same incident discovered later as a concealed one.