Yep, you read the title correctly. Did you know that it is possible to obtain Philippine Citizenship through legislation?
How? Why? Who can get it?
Well, the truth is, if you are a foreigner and have made some contribution to the country, or done something that has brought honor or other good things for the Philippines, it is possible that the Legislature of the Philippines may honor you by bestowing upon you Philippine Citizenship.
As has been pointed out here on the site, generally, in order to become a naturalized citizen of the Philippines, you must renounce your US Citizenship, or the Citizenship of whatever country you are a citizen of. However, if you were to gain your Philippine Citizenship through the legislative process, renunciation of your previous citizenship is not necessary.
Philippine Congress Hearing
The only problem, or downside is that very few people are able to be recognized as a citizen through legislation. You must have provided some extraordinary service or act to the Philippines for that to happen. Last year, to my knowledge, only one person became a Philippine Citizen through legislation, and he was a famous Basketball player in the Philippines (an imported American talent who came here to play in the Philippine Basketball Association).
So, what about you, are you willing to renounce your previous citizenship in order to become a Philippine Citizen? Or do you think you may have a chance for citizenship through the legislative process?
Bob, there is no way yo get dual citizenship in the Philippines?
Rick
Hi Rick – It depends on your heritage. If you are a former Philippine Citizen who has been naturalized in another country, then you can get dual citizenship in the Philippines. If you are a foreigner like me, then no, there is no path to dual citizenship. Under Philippine law you must renounce your former Citizenship if you want to be a Philippine Citizen.
All nations require renunciation of your nationality for naturalization. Including the USA. But are there no dual nationals in the USA? Of course there are. The Philippines only requires you to renounce your nationality verbally for ceremony only. They will not haul you down to the US embassy to file citizenship renunciation forms and make you burn your US passport. lol
I am sorry, Chuck, but you are incorrect. There are many countries who do not require renunciation in order to naturalize.
Hi Bob, if I’m willing to renounce my former citizenship in order to become a Filipino citizen, then what is the procedure, how do I start?
Thanks.
Hi Yaz – If you have decided to naturalize in the Philippines, your first step should be to get an attorney, and he can help you with the procedure. You will need to have an attorney for all of the court hearings.
Hello Bob, thanks for your reply..I will do that, do i still need to live in the Philippines for years first before I naturalize??
Hi Yaz – If you have a Philippine spouse, then you must live here for 5 years before beginning the process of naturalization. IF you are not married to a Filipino, you cannot start for 10 years.
Hey Bob…
Under Australian law if you renounce your Aussie citizenship, you can reclaim it at any time pretty much just for the asking (assuming you haven’t turned into a drug dealer/mass murderer etc in the meantime). So what happens if I renounce my Aussie citizenship, gain Filipino citizenship, then reclaim my Aussie one? Do I automatically lose the Filipino one? Or is that a sneaky way to dual citizenship?
Matt
Hi Matt – Firstly, I am not a lawyer, so this is only my opinion… but I believe that with the way Australia handles it, you could indeed be a dual citizen.
I’m surprised. I known for years that the Philippines offer dual citizenship. However, I never knew that a foreigner must renounce his citizenship to become a Philippine citizen. I’m a filipino by birth and I believe that is unfair for them. They stayed more than 10 years continuously, adopted the culture, learned the language, and been a good law abiding resident of the country. I believe that foreigners should not renounce their other citizenship if Filipinos by birth or blood can obtain other citizenships.
Hi Leandro – Many countries are the same. For example, if a Filipino becomes naturalized in the USA, they must renounce their Philippine Citizenship too. So, I guess it’s quite reciprocal.
Hi Bob:
Filipinos are not required to renounce their Philippine citizenship once they are naturalized as US citizens. Under Philippine law, however, they automatically lose their Philippine citizenship once they are naturalized of citizens of another country.
The Philippines, though, cannot track all Filipinos who have renounced their citizenships unless a person goes to the Consulate and actually informs them that they are now naturalized citizens of the country they adopt.
There are instances where Filipinos, who are now US citizens, visit the Consulate to renounce their Philippine citizenship (expressly) as a requirements for their jobs that require single allegiance, ie. military, FBI, CIA, federal clearance requirements, etc.
Hi Paul – I think there is a bit of confusion here.. this site is not about Filipinos getting US Citizenship, this site is about Foreigners (Americans, Europeans, etc) becoming citizens of the Philippines. Under Philippine law, you must indeed renounce your foreign citizenship.
Just a quick word, I took out Australian citizenship a few years ago and I simply kept my British citizenship and passport. Didn’t bother telling anyone and i just renew both passports when I need to
Congratulations on that, Pedro. I’m glad that it works for you. You should know, though, that you are committing Immigration Fraud by doing that, and you could face penalties if you are ever caught. The odds of being caught are small, but it is something to be aware of.
Hi Pedro
Australia allows dual citizenship, so you are ok.
http://www.citizenship.gov.au/current/dual_citizenship/
Bob, given the way things work today, for instance my automatic entry to any european country with my British passport, I am not so sure of the actual legal situations. I do know that I have used and presented BOTH passports at the customs/immigration counters of several countries and the agents have never batted an eyelid. I usually only use my Australian passport for entry/exit to Australia then present my British passport everywhere else.
I’m going to have to say I disagree with you Bob. The actual wording is here:
http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_778.html
Specifically … U.S. citizens are subject to loss of citizenship if they perform certain specified acts voluntarily and with the intention to relinquish U.S. citizenship. Briefly stated, these acts include: (one of which obtaining naturalization in a foreign state).
Ok, see the word “intention”? Regardless of what you say to be naturalized, if its not your intention to lose US citizenship then you don’t lose it. (see the voluntarily AND intention? Just because you did any of the below voluntarily, doesn’t mean it was your intention to lose citizenship … that’s why the “and” was put in there. They are implying that there are cases where it can be done voluntarily, but its not your intention to relinquish citizenship). At most that would get you in trouble with the Philippines (because you said it but you didn’t mean it) but that has nothing to do with the US.
Secondly, the U.S. goes further to explain (see here http://manila.usembassy.gov/service/dual-nationality.html) that …
“In order for loss of nationality to occur under Section 349 (a)(1), it must be established that the naturalization was obtained voluntarily by a person eighteen years of age or older with the intention of relinquishing U.S. citizenship. Such an intention may be shown by the person’s statements or conduct (Vance v. Terrazas, 444 U.S. 252, 1980), but as discussed below in most cases it is assumed that Americans who are naturalized in other countries intend to keep their U.S. citizenship. As a result, they have both nationalities.”
So lets say you go and get your dual citizenship, and during the process you renounce U.S citizenship. Point #1) intention (what is actually going on in your head), and Point #2) assumption (the U.S. assumes you mean to keep your U.S. citizenship).
And as a final point, if it isn’t abundantly clear … read point #6 “formally renouncing U.S. citizenship within the U.S. (but only under strict, narrow statutory conditions) (Sec. 349 (a) (6) INA);”. So, even while you’re in the U.S. and going about to formally renounce your citizenship, it will only be accepted under strict statutory conditions. If its that hard to renounce your citizenship when you’re doing it “formally” in the U.S., what makes anyone think its automatically done just by accepting naturalization in the Philippines?
Yes, I know all of this, Kevin, but thank you for sharing your thoughts.
My thinking on this goes like this… If you say “I hereby renounce my US citizenship,” that is not really renouncing your citizenship. As you say, the US govt does not accept that as having renounced your citizenship.
Philippine law says that you must renounce your former citizenship. It does not say that you have to do an act that does not renounce, it says you must renounce. So, if you truly want to be a Philippine Citizen, and be so in a legal fashion, you must go all the way and renounce your US citizenship.
Yes, by doing what you propose, you can keep both, but my view is that you are skirting Philippine law by doing so. I would not feel right about obtaining Philippine citizenship through an act that goes against Philippine law.
Good luck to you.
I am reading all these as they come through and I am starting to wonder at your angle Bob. You “would not feel right”, really? Well I have 2 points about this, the first is that one should more properly “not feel right” about what the Philippines does. It is displaying it’s mendicant ‘I want but I am not prepared to give’ mentality. It already trains its people to be servants and beggars now you say you support its’ two faced policy. The second point, because I know you will jump in with the ‘this is the Philippines and they can do what they want so you can go home if you don’t like it’ type statements, is the fact that the Philippines is a common law country i.e. based upon English case law (yeah, yeah, americans, americans but american law is also british based) and the Philippines is signatory to enough UN treaties to make their current espoused ‘citizenship’ laws actually illegal in the Philippines (note that, in the Philippines, not in somewhere else). By ‘enough’ I mean under any ONE of several UN treaties, which is probably why the Australian Philippines consulate conducts citizenship ceremonies in Australia that do NOT require renouncing other citizenships i.e. they are aware it is illegal to demand that you renounce your citizenship so they are not game to do so in Australia. It also doesn’t take umpty trumpty years to get it.
Pedro – I believe in following the law. It is up to Filipinos to decide what the laws are in their country.
BTW, when a person becomes a US citizen, that entails losing their previous citizenship, so what is the difference?
BTW, not all American law is British based. Louisiana law is French based.
Strange I could have sworn I replied to this earlier.
Louisiana uses the standard adversarial court system using case law precedents ipso facto it is British based irrespective of how it started way back when.
Not sure about US citizenship entailing loss of previous citizenship, how does one account for all the dual citizens there e.g. the Israel/american citizens in congress????
As to ‘following the law’ as I stated earlier I was afraid you would jump in with the knee jerk reaction, which is why, previously, I stated that asking anyone to renounce citizenship is against the UN treaties that the Philippines is a signatory to. IE it is against Filipino law to ask/demand that one renounces one’s prior citizenship. I also stated that the Filipino consulate in Australia conducts citizenship ceremonies THERE without a requirement to renounce, because they know that it would be against the law to do otherwise.
I will also reiterate that it is NOT ‘up to filipinos what they do’ irrespective of the legal requirements it is beholden upon everyone who lives here to help improve and develop the Philippines NOT to allow them to continue to wallow in the mendicant, begging and corruption riddled mentality that they currently insist upon.
Given the real situation on the ground AND the legal issues surrounding your ‘expert opinion’ I wonder if you may be inclined to revise your position.
Pedro – Not sure why you do it, but you do come off an being a real ass.
I don’t believe I have ever said that my opinion is an “expert opinion,” in fact, I go out of my way to point out that it is only a layman’s opinion.
Goodbye, Pedro.
Hi Bob,
Here’s my take on your problem:
1. Go through with the Philippine naturalization procedure.
Yes, part of the requirement is for you to renounce your American citizenship, and you can substantially comply with it —- with legal effect at that. (You are not required to submit some sort of certificate to prove that you are not a US citizen, issued by a US consular official.) In so doing, you will successfully comply with what is legally necessary in the Philippines to naturalize.
2. You do not automatically lose US citizenship.
As you have already explained exhaustively in your past articles (way back in 2010) US citizenship is quite ‘difficult’ to lose as it requires some deliberation on the part of the US authorities, which I would assume, would only happen if an interested/aggrieved party will initiate. (i.e. no complainant, no case to deliberate on).
You need not feel ‘guilty’ about the legality of your action(s) as it applies to Philippine law or US law, as it is my opinion that at the end of the day, should there be an issue pertaining to one’s citizenship, the facts would have to be proven in court.
Unless you would cause an investigation upon yourself as to your ‘doubtful’ US citizenship after having naturalized as a Philippine citizen, I feel you should not be so hard on yourself. Give your mind a break. You are not here on God’s earth simply to contemplate the facts of citizenship and what constitutes legality from a universal perspective all throughout the year. You’re here to live life also, no? Then let’s live life, following what your heart desires.
==========
Granting, that you do decide to naturalize as a Filipino, then you would have to consciously let your US passport expire. You decide whether it serves you a purpose by keeping it, or you feel Filipino enough that it does not matter whether you keep your expired US passport or not, knowing that your US citizenship, if at all challenged, is not dependent solely on the possession of a US passport.
If asked, “What is your citizenship?” You can then reply, “I am a naturalized Philippine citizen.”
When asked, “Are you a US citizen?” Well, you can probably reply in the affirmative as no US court has stripped you of your US citizenship.
(Which is probably why no US consular officer will issue any certification about a US-passport holder’s citizenship. They would advise the US-passport holder to just execute a sworn declaration about his/her citizenship, arguing that it is not within their authority to certify a person’s citizenship.)
Allegiance? Well, that’s an entirely different thing altogether. =)