There’s a good chance I can apply for dual nationality, in fact I think I already may have done so some 30yrs ago. My wife is asking me to look into it less so for us more-so for the kids in the future.

Has anyone done so recently or is considering it? Any cons I may be missing? There doesn’t seem to be any that I can see.

it depends, I am a UK/Irish dual, and there aren’t any issues. However I believe if one of your claims is French you need to do national service? US comes with tax liabilities. Do your homework.

It’d be German and from what I’ve read there are no issues holding two passports. But I will look a bit deeper at other less apparent ramifications. Certainly not wanting to volunteer the kids up for national service!

I plan on applying for Swedish citizenship this year and, as far as I can tell, there is no risk. I work here, I’m taxed here, I own property here, all things I don’t do in the U.K. I can hold two passports and using the Swedish one is far more useful (hello schengen).

If I do get called for any type of national service, I’ll let my employer fight that out with them.

I’m applying for an Irish passport shortly (my UK one runs out soon).

My sister’s have done it for their kids, all went ok AFAIK.

I think if you have the nationality then you can have the passport – I don’t think there’s any limits otherwise.

I have British and German Dual nationality and had it from birth (parents from each country).

As far as I can see no downsides to gaining it this way, although I haven’t actually used my German passport yet. Anyone know if you can use different passports at outbound/incoming airports to avoid lengthy queues without issues?

Last time I checked (pre brexit implementation) Germany expect you to drop your other nationality if you become a German National. They have an exception for other EU countries, but I would assume that doesn’t include the UK any more. This doesn’t apply if you have nationality by birth though.

Anyone know if you can use different passports at outbound/incoming airports to avoid lengthy queues without issues?

I’ve done that (dual UK and Canadian citizen).

Ironically, when I last flew into Heathrow, they had just introduced new tech using iris recognition to check against passport and the queue for UK passport holders was waaaay longer than the queue for non-UK nationals.

I’ve got two, you just need to enter the country of issue (ooo-er) with the right one

Junior, French by birth, has never had to do national service because there isn’t any at present.

Having a French passport has enabled junior to spend time in places Brits can’t, Iran for example.

My British nationality is as far as I can work out of no use to me because I’m not resident and if you aren’t resident nothing works. My national insurance number gets me nowhere. My voting rights expired in the 90s.

On British soil I lose the French consular protection I have anywhere else in the world and as of Brexit the protection of the ECJ.

Some advantages of dual nationality remain; some bilateral agreements remain in place such as not being taxed on the same thing by both countries.

Family members who have British-Spanish dual nationality have to be careful at borders because you’re not supposed to have both.

I travel on a French passport and ironically the only place this sometimes causes delay is at the UK borders where they try to work out which of the 50 odd UK nationals I could be I am. I’m expecting the first post Brexit crossing to result in some delay.

My advice: if you can, do it, you never know what’s around the corner.

As far as I can see no downsides to gaining it this way, although I haven’t actually used my German passport yet. Anyone know if you can use different passports at outbound/incoming airports to avoid lengthy queues without issues?

My daughter (Spanish mother) always flies to the UK on her British passport, and flies back to Spain using her Spanish ID card.

Thanks for confirming I won’t get hassle for using different passports at either end. Always good to know before I get red flagged!

@YoKaiser are you willing to share how you are entitled to it and whether you think you have been registered before? That may help clear up whether you would have to potentially drop British citizenship if you’re not already German.

I’ve found this page useful as I’m about to register my son, as soon as I’ve done the UK registrar bit: https://uk.diplo.de/uk-en/02/citizenship/acquiring-citizenship

I was applying for a job in defence once that required me to only hold a British passport. I was told I would have to give up my Irish one.

I’m so glad I never got the job as I’m well past 90 days in Europe with no intention of going back to UK.

Me, the wife and kids are now dual British/Australian nationals – complete with 8 passports between us.

There are a number of implications associated with becoming a Australian citizen – tax, pension, compulsory voting, but no deal breakers. No issues from the UK side.

Anyone know if you can use different passports at outbound/incoming airports to avoid lengthy queues without issues?

I once spent 3.5hrs waiting for a colleague to make it our of US immigration after he did this clumsily – I’m not sure exactly what he did wrong, but I think he booked the flight with one and used the other at passport control and when he tried to explain to the border control guy he got taken to an interview room. He was quite an argumentative know it all though so probably didn’t help his case!

I’m dual US/UK. Book flights and travel out of US and back in on the US passport. So the flight matches that passport. I enter the UK and leave the UK on the UK passport. I’ve been doing this for years with no issues.

Edit. You have to use the passport you booked the flight on when you leave somewhere.

Franco-British since 2012 here. The last generation of French chaps to do military service is now 49 years old, I was chatting to one a couple of weeks ago.
I do swap passports for Eurostar but not flights. I’ve done it by accident but the officials are often tracing stamps and if they can’t find an exit stamp from the last country they’ll ask. I did have two jumbo UK and a single French but I’m down to one of each nation now, UK one needs renewing this year (note to self!). Travelling on an ID card is a bit rubbish if they’re not biometric.
I only got my French passport, rather than nationality, because where I work in Myanmar, kinda sorta representing the French state, they just didn’t understand the concept of dual nationality. I’m not sure they’re wrong…

are you willing to share how you are entitled to it and whether you think you have been registered before?

My father was German and when I was 16 or so I recall my mother asking me if I wanted dual nationality. I said yes at the time but never really paid much attention or thought about what it would entail. According to a site my wife has visited, even if I never got it way back I’d be in the first tier of applying for it. Kids next and wife after that.

I have German and British dual nationality. I took German citizenship to protect against Brexit.
As said above, there was an exemption for this within the EU states. Now the deal has been done, I’m expecting a letter asking me to choose between them now.
No national service required, although the system here wasn’t just military based. You could join the fire service, be a carer in a Pflegeheim, lots of options supporting the local community. You can guess the rest of the thinking, I’m becoming my dad.

British Australian dual national here and my wife’s Australian American dual.
Australia has a few things I need to keep tabs on, mostly updating non resident tax status etc.

From what I can US is a bit of a pain as the tax return process is a bit complicated. Though we did get one of trump’s stimulus cheques!
She wasn’t born in the US so we can’t pass that one to any kids without us moving there which is unlikely.

We are working towards the wife getting British but possibly giving up the US.

Only time it requires a bit of thought is for pre arranged visas. Best to make sure you apply for the visa in the passport you leave the airport on and can cause a bit of confusion.

British German here – through my dad. No issues. I just needed to provide a couple of pieces of ID for my dad, my UK birth certificate and my parents’ marriage certificate.

My mum lives in Germany and took additional German nationality because of Brexit (before it happened). No expectation that she will have to choose @elbows. Also no downside.

@willard twas a big day here when I got my Swedish passport. Quite and odd feeling but I was also very proud, i think is the right word. Good luck with the application!

Tack. April should be the month I can start the application. Residency permit was applied for in December, but I am still waiting for that.

Not so much an issue for Germany but one issue is you will be tried as native for any crimes (real or made up for political reasons). More of an issue for places like Iran and China.

@YoKaiser You should be entitled to it then. But I would check carefully, those only becoming German citizens now Brexit has happened may be expected to rescind British citizenship.

@elbows I don’t think they will be asking those that took it pre Brexit to rescind now Brexit has been done. Just those applying from now.

British-Canadian here. It is now a legal requirement for dual nationals to enter into Canada on their Canadian passport. So on the rare occasion I have gone, I always have to carry two.

And now with our new ‘blue’ British passports, they both look the same. Except that the Canadian has French language on the front, ironically making it the more European-looking of the two.

I’ve never applied for my dual nationality option.
I’m not sure I’m going to get much benefit to also holding an Indian passport.

It’s always a pain at UK renewal time trying to explain why I have (triplicate, natch) Indian birth certificate, a British High commission registration from a month later with my DOB a day wrong, and a proper birth certificate issued later but with correct DOB on but place of birth spelled incorrectly….

The rule of thumb … collect as many nationalities or passports as you can.

Forget about what others say just get them if you are qualified.

I would check carefully, those only becoming German citizens now Brexit has happened may be expected to rescind British citizenship.

That’s a German thing, not an EU policy. Spain allows some people from some countries to maintain dual nationality (mostly their ex-colonies in South America), while EU citizens couldn’t. I’m hoping with Brexit they’ll lift that restriction, but if push comes to shove I won’t be too concerned if I have to give up British nationality.

Some countries don’t allow you to have 2 passports (not sure if that extends to 2 nationalities too).

I remember the company I worked for a few years ago having to pay a significant sum of money in bribes for the release of a colleague in Nigeria. He’d entered the country on one passport and had tried to leave on another.

Good luck and be patient Willard, it took 24 months to get my Swedish citizenship a couple years back even after living here for more than 10 years! I got the feeling my application was very low priority, even if super simply to process, so the harder to process applicants took priority given some of them might be coming from war torn lands etc.

So since a couple of years I’m now Swedish and British, however if I wanted I could also be American given my father is and NZlander given my mother is. But apart from Jason Bourne who actually needs that many lol.

The main benefit is multiple driving licenses 😉

@mogrim I think Spanish dual nationality is a bit more nuanced. They require you to forego your British citizenship when you become a Spanish citizen, so in effect in Spain you are always Spanish, but you can keep your British passport and be British everywhere else in the world, should you so wish.

I’ve got 3…..

Two British ones, for the allowing travel and visas from bickering countries, and a new shiny Irish EU one.

He’d entered the country on one passport and had tried to leave on another.

Yeah, I almost did myself with that travelling to India. Visa under one passport number and took the other one. Oops. Just blagged it and got away with it!

Seemed like a no brainer under the current conditions to get an EU one. My kids also qualify but have to go through registering as a foreign birth first. This is may take some time as they are British passport holders born in the Middle East. Gonna be a lot of paper. Also has to be done solely face to face on consular visits by a roving diplomat. The joys!

My son has both British and German and my wife has just applied for her British passport. After living here for 25 years. (“But you’re alright luv…you can stay”….) – Didn’t want to take any chances with regards to future rights.

I’m now the only one in the family who can’t spend more than 90 days in the EU within a 180 day period.

Germany aren’t making you handover the German passport to do so…which was her worry.

I know someone with 3 nationalities – British, American and German … no problem whatsoever.