Which Countries Don't Allow Dual Citizenship?

Dual citizenship via wikipedia

In 2015, 20% more Americans renounced their citizenship than had done the year before. More than 4,200 individuals have thrown out their US Passport, and while many did so in order to avoid paying taxes in the US, others who hoped to gain nationality elsewhere may have been forced to dump their American citizenship. That’s because a large number of countries actually don’t allow their citizens to hold dual citizenship, so what are some of those countries?

Well, to clarify, a country cannot actually prevent you from holding citizenship elsewhere. Citizenship is basically a contract between you and a country’s government that allocates specific rights, duties, and benefits on both sides. Another government can’t just cancel that contract. But what they can do is keep you from gaining citizenship within their own country, or strip you of it if you try to gain citizenship elsewhere. Technically, a person can have as many citizenships as they can legally maneuver: someone can be born in one country, to parents from another country, marry someone from a third country, establish residency in a fourth country, while buying citizenship in a fifth, thereby potentially holding five citizenships at once.

But some countries are not comfortable with their citizens pledging allegiance to a foreign government. Among advanced economies, the most notable states which significantly limit dual citizenship for foreign nationals are Austria, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, and Spain. Note, however, that this list is incomplete and countries regularly change their nationality policies.

Currently, In Japan, a person can technically hold dual citizenship until the age of 22, after which point they must choose to drop their other nationality, or they are automatically disqualified from holding Japanese citizenship.

Norway, on the other hand, allows more leeway, and if you’re born to Norwegian parents but in a different country that guarantees citizenship by birth, you don’t actually have to abandon it. You’re also allowed dual citizenship if releasing from your other nationality is “unreasonably burdensome”. But in general, they don’t allow it.

Other countries only prohibit dual citizenship to certain other countries. Pakistan, for example, only allows dual citizenship with 18 countries. Additionally, more than a dozen, mostly Middle Eastern countries refuse admission at all to those holding Israeli passports, making dual citizenship nearly impossible for Israelis. Some countries will refuse entry if you’ve even visited Israel once.

Map of multiple citizenship (source)

But while some of these countries will strip you of your citizenship, and others won’t even allow you into the country, most nations banning dual citizenship are more apt to turn a blind eye to your second nationality. For example, Russia doesn’t actually prohibit dual citizenships, but it also does not recognize them. If you have a Russian passport, you are solely a Russian citizen, and you cannot legally use your other country’s passport within Russian borders.

Moreover, if you do have dual citizenship, you are not legally allowed to conceal the fact. Dual citizenship is a complicated topic and isn’t as simple as just allowing it or not. Some sources list the total number of countries that don’t allow dual citizenship at more than sixty, which would comprise roughly one in three countries. But for the most part, having multiple citizenships usually means that those countries can collect taxes from you, and for Americans that includes foreign income as well.

So without any particular political, religious, or ideological reasons for denying dual citizenship, it’s usually in both parties best interests to allow it. One way you can lose your citizenship in some countries is by trying to gain dual citizenship.

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