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A noncommercial collection of information about citizenship, dual citizenship and multiple citizenship
 
     

How to Find More Information About Dual and Multiple Citizenship


Directly from the government

Embassy/Consulate
If you are located outside of a country and want specific information about the citizenship laws of that country, the "Consular Services" or "Citizen Services" section of the country's embassy or consulate can be very helpful. They are typically a small well informed group and are experienced in dealing with citizenship and multiple citizenship questions related to that country. They can refer you to other departments of the government and can sometimes answer specific questions about your situation. Check their web site for written material. Be friendly to them and they can provide you with a lot of assistance!

The responsible government department
When you are already in a country, it can be a bit difficult to know exactly who within the government can give you solid answers about citizenship or multiple citizenship. Different countries handle this in different departments. In the US, the task appears to fall mostly to the “State Department”, though the INS seems to be sometimes involved.In Canada it is handled by “Citizenship and Immigration Canada”. You will likely have to search around to find the right people. (Suggestion: If you can't find clear information within a country, consider calling one of their embassies in a neighboring country).

From a citizenship lawyer

A good lawyer can be very helpful about the citizenship laws of that particular country. It can sometimes be difficult is to find local lawyers who knows something worthwhile about the citizenship laws of another country.

The Internet

The Country Name List provides the alternative & local spellings of most country names, as well as top level internet domains. This information can be very helpful when searching the internet.

A good one-page guide to searching the internet for specific information has been put together by UC Berkeley: Recommended Search Strategy: Analyze your topic & Search with peripheral vision

You can find lots of information on the Internet using search engines. Some of the material is of very high quality and some is not so good. Some is even quite funny. Useful search engines include: Google, Altavista, MSN and Yahoo

The following are some example searches using Google. You can click on these and then edit the resulting search to fit your requirements (e.g. replacing Italy with Peru).

Look for information on a particular country by name
        Google: ("multiple citizenship" OR "dual citizenship") italy
        This finds pages which contain the world "italy" and either the phrase "multiple citizenship" or the phrase "dual citizenship"

Narrow the focus on a particular set of web sites
        Google: site:.gov "multiple citizenship" OR "dual citizenship"
        This searches only sites whose domain name ends in ".gov". This will find information at state.gov, for example, but will include none of the information from this web site.

Note about domain names: Some but not all US government sites have domain names that end with “.gov”. Some but not all Canadian government web siteshave domain names that end with “.gc.ca”. And so on... Many government-run embassy web sites have very good information but do not use the standard national top-level domain. For example the Italian consulate in New York is www.italconsulnyc.org

The automatic web page translation services provided by Google language tools, and Altavista Babelfish can be very helpful. You can use them, for example, to roughly translate a German language web page to English or this page into French.

There is also an excellent searchable UNHCR database of citizenship and immigration laws. For example, to find information about German citizenship laws and decisions, you can search for
     Country: Germany
     Text search: citizenship

From a local help organization

In many countries there exist local nonprofit organizations, who will help you sort through citizenship problems. They typically work with immigrants or refugees to the country. These groups may be able to assist you in finding answers to your questions.


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