Will our children have dual citizenship??

I asked this at the embassy. They told me that yes, they are dual citizens, although the US government does not recognize their Guatemalan citizenship. The woman suggested we keep his Guat passport current as proof of his Guat citizenship and suggested we contact the Guat consulate in NYC for assistance.

I most definitely want to maintain her duel citizenship given the way the current government is totally messing up our country. The one question I researched is that I intend to change her name here in the United States. If I want to get her a Guatemalan passport with her new name on it, I need to 1) get a new birth certificate with her new name on it from Guatemala 2) physically go to the consulate and present the new birth certificate (for me, Chicago). My attorney said to not worry about it, that no one was going to care that she had one name in one country and another one in another as long as I kept up her Guatemalan passport. I haven't yet decided whether or not I am going to pursue this. I will maintain her Guatemalan passport for sure but have not decided about the name change.

Guatemala is involved with a conflict (war) when my son is of age and I maintain his citizenship there? Would he be called to serve? It is scary enought to have him on the list for one country, much less, two!

i thought you had to surrender the Guatemalan passport in order to get a US one, i'm i totally wrong?

I did a google search, and website after website said that Guatemala is one of a number of countries who will, if you immigrate and become a citizen of the United States, recognizes your claims to dual citizenship. So at least in the eyes of Guatemala, the websites I've been reading saying your child would still be able to claim their Guatemalan citizenship if they wanted to. (Interesting note: I live here in Houston. We have a doctor at one of our hospitals here in town (who has lived here for 30+ years) that is running for vice president in Guatemala in their election this fall. Despite being a US citizen, I believe he has retained his ability to both vote, and evidently run for office in Guatemala.) However, none of the websites I read said whether the United States recognizes claims to dual citizenship after US citizenship is granted. It's an interesting question.

The US government does not formally recognize the dual citizenships, but it does not need to. It does not forbid it either. All the US needs to recognize is the US citizenship, and whenever travelling into the US, it is a requirement that the citizen enter on a US passport.

I was just thinking how cool duel citizenship would be untill I read this! Never thought about it before!! Too Scary....... I still have to say I LOVE the Duel Citizenship!!

I think you are forgetting something...if Guatemala is involved in a conflict and wanted to draft our boys, how would they ever find them??? And, Guatemala cannot extridite our boys, even if they could track them down.Frankly, I am more worried about the US trying to draft them into an unjust war and am relieved they could go to Guatemala!!!

He'sabanaba - I hadn't thought of the ability to go somewhere else because of a war that the United States was involved in but I haveto say that is another good reason to keep up Guatemalan citizenship. One thing that we had thought of was that since our daughter is from Guatemala, that we could apply for Guatemalan citizenship ourselves, just in case our government does the wacky and we would want to leave. Yes, dual citizenship can be a good thing for many reasons...

Wonk, another interesting thought!!!

I called the Guatemalan consulate in Chicago with this very question. Here's what I was told: * Guatemala will recognize our children as Guatemalan citizens for life. * You do not need to keep their Guatemalan passport current. (Just like in the US you don't have to have a passport to be a citizen and you don't lose your citizenship if your passport expires.) * However, if they want to claim their citizenship for any legal purposes as an adult they will have to return to Guatemala and "reactivate" their citizenship. I forget for certain where they said you do this -- I think it's at the Guatemalan immigration office. (Note: other Guatemalans who live abroad who maintain their citizenship do so by owning property, voting, and probably a dozen other ways.) Reactivation is not difficult and I was told there's no reason to be concerned about the request to reactivate being denied. The US, however, does not recognize their Guatemalan citizenship. We tend to be very finicky about dual citizenship (I'm not sure if we allow it with any countries anymore) whereas many other countries allow it without question. As for the question about surrounding your child's Guatemalan passport -- no, at no point do you have to surrender it. The US visa is stamped on it so you need to keep it for that reason until you get the certificate of citizenship because it's proof that your child has legal status here in the US. But at no point will they ask for you to surrender it. I hope this helps. Devora

Gee, I have never heard anything like this. Everyone I have discussed this with has told me that there is nothing in US law for recognizing or denying dual ciitzenship. There is a short discussion on the State Department site: [url=http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1753.html]US State Department Services Dual Nationality[/url]. I think the word someone at the Embassy used when I asked was that the US doesn't formally recognize dual nationality, but it "tolerates" it. It doesn't seem like the US is too concerned about the idea...other than while in the US, you are treated as a US citizen and the use of a US passport to enter and leave the US.

DH and I have jokingly wondered about this issue. If our son turns out to be an athletic prodigy, how cool would it be to represent his birth country in the Olympic games? Guess I'll have to educate myself on Olympic Committee regulations in addition to all of the other international laws and treaties I've learned about in the last year. :coffee: Sounds like Guatemala will always recognize people born there as citizens, but for US purposes he'll be considered American only.

Thanks for this question! This is one that I never thought about. Kris

Thanks everyone for your insight. It's nothing that's too pressing, but was just one of those Hmmm??? questions. :)