Travel & Transportation,: 2013

Important notice for those who are traveling to their country of Ancestry.
File:Dual Citizenship, Two Passports.jpg

Beware that nationality laws of your old country might bring a nasty surprise to your visit.

For recent immigrants or those who's parents or even grandparents had immigrated. There comes a time when one want or need to return to the old country. While returning to old country might be a fun and educational experience one can also experience difficulties possibly while leaving the country. There are many people who think that they naturalized and became citizens in their new country they are relinquished from all duties of citizenship back in their old country. There are many who think people can only be citizens of one country. However the truth may surprise many. Nowadays many countries around the world allow and often require any citizens keep the responsibilities and benefits of citizenship regardless of whether they hold other citizenships or nationalities. This not only affect those who naturalize to another country's citizenship after immigration but also to those born in the other country as first or second generation immigrants all dependent on each country's nationality laws. This is what is called the Jus Sanguinus "right of the blood" rule. The most likely scenario one would face in this situation is the country might require its' "citizen" to depart the country using only the country's own travel documents. Many might not be aware of this requirement and try to use their other country's travel document to depart which can lead to not being able to depart the country and having to go through time consuming process. One example of this is Poland where tourists might fall into what is infamously known as the "Passport trap". This can catch unsuspecting tourists off guard who might not know they could be considered Polish solely because one of their grandparents had Polish citizenship as Polish Nationality laws grant citizenship by descent to an unlimited amount of generations unless one goes through the buracratic process of discontinuing the citizenship. There are also countries such as China that require citizens to obtain an exit permit to leave the country. According to Chinese Nationality laws which can be complicated in situations involving children and spouses and this can be quite a hassle to deal with. For example adult Chinese nationals who voluntarily naturalize and acquire citizenship from another country loses Chinese nationality under article 9 of Chinese nationality law however their children who were at dependent age who automatically became citizens of the other country when the parents acquired citizenship are not considered to have voluntarily acquired at own will under article 9 therefore the Chinese government does not recognize their foreign nationality and will require them to use Chinese travel documents and obtain exit permits to leave the country which can be a difficult process especially since the child is also considered a citizen of the other country(foreign citizenship/travel documents which China doesn't recognize for its nationals) they would no longer hold visas in their Chinese passports nor possess green cards either of which is often necessary in order to obtain an exit permit to leave China. The same goes for those who acquire nationality by descent or by marriage. Therefore its important for such affected individuals to visit the Chinese Embassy or Chinese consulate office abroad to obtain the proper documents before departing for China. Another more important issue to beware about is countries requiring compulsory military service such as Republic of Korea and Taiwan, ROC requires all male citizens to undergo military service. While those countries are relatively rare nowadays and usually exempt those living abroad from service, if one is a potentially affected male of these countries this includes those who were born to parents or even grandparents who were from these countries should contact the embassies or consulate offices to make sure and possibly to obtain documents that they are exempt from draft due to their overseas residence. It is also not wise to try to hide by using another passport as places like Taiwan would suspend the exemption if the male citizen of draft age does not use their ROC passports and detain such person in Taiwan until he completes his military service. For those with any possible ties to the Republic of Korea, there are also true stories that some people got drafted or had close calls due to their grandparents having Korean nationality. Usually what happens is when such persons happens to try to get long term visa's or to extend their visas in their non Korean passport during their extended visits only to get this nasty surprise draft notice which confused them as they might never had considered themselves Korean citizens nor held any Korean travel documents.

So for those who happens to be planning to travel to any country that one lived in before or suspect to have family ties to try to visit the local embassy or consulate office for advice before going.

Please take my information for only informational use. Please contact the appropriate officials such as embassy or consular offices for the most updated information regarding your status.

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