Citizenship - Dual or not?

[Fish]

You can have as many nationalities as you like from the australian govts point of view - I collect them - but not sure about those over govts...

Edited March 5, 2015 by Fish

[HansaPlease]

Louise as far as I know if you want the Aussie citizenship you will need to give up one of your other nationalities. My OH has investigated this and you cannot have 3 nationalities, sorry you need to choose. Keep in mind you will always be a South African, keep your green barcoded ID book and birth certificates and if you want to come back you just apply for permanent residency in SA.

Not true. I have three - Austrailian, British and South African. All of them are current. As long as all of the countries involved allow you to have multiple, then it's not an issue. Australia does not make you give up any of your other citizenships.

There are countries that do not allow dual, but both SA and Aus are not one of them.

[21yearsoutofrsa]

Dual citizenship in the Australian Nationality Act is defined as "more than one", not two.

There are a number of countries that do not allow you to have another nationality, Germany and Singapore are two that I can think of.

[EDurand]

My understanding is that the British only allow two, is this true or does someone have 3 with one being British?

[HansaPlease]

My understanding is that the British only allow two, is this true or does someone have 3 with one being British?

I've got 3, including British. Unless they have recently changed their laws?

[EDurand]

Thank Hansa will investigate

[rozellem]

We have RSA, UK and Aus. Easy peasy as long as you tell RSA what you are doing, before you do it.

[SurferMan]

LOL, so amazed at all the options out there. Me, happy to be an Aussie, and post SA their little green ID back fro resale to the next crook.

[Mara]

Surferman, sometimes you honestly "crack me up"

[SurferMan]

LOl, I do have a bit of a warped sense of humour don't I?

[Mara]

Nah not warped, sometimes totally off the planet

[OubaasDik]

Well, I was the unwilling subject of research into what and how with bank accounts.

My father died and there are policies of which the "wicked stepmother"^* and I are beneficiaries> Insurance company says "send ID proving that you are who we want to talk to and bank account details", which I do. Days later I get "Hau, we only deposit into SA banks" - why didn't they say so?

So I start looking to open a bank account in SA - bloody hell - weeks of sukkeling - at last I found (well my wife did) my ID book - barcoded nogal and got the account opened.

Hopefully the end of weeping stepmothers for a while - next week I start filling in forms to formally emigrate .... I think I'll give up the SA citizenship then - don't disrupt the paperwork.

* - she's not a bad old bat, but as those who rad Brothers Grimm know all stepmothers are wicked

[Riekie]

Good day,

The time has come at last for us to apply for Citizenship

Now we are contemplating if we should go for dual citizenship or not. Can anyone please advise me on the advantages and disadvantages to have dual citizenship?

Any advice would be appreciated

The disatvantage you have is that when you travel to South Africa, you have to use your South African passport and will enter South Africa as a South African citizen, thus for the time you are in South Africa, the Australian government can not "protect" or "rescue" you. Your South African citizenship supercedes your Australian citizenship while you are in South Africa.

Personally, I have no plans of ever going to South Africa, but if I ever should, I'd much rather do so under the protection of Australia.

[SurferMan]

I would do the same Riekie, at least they would pitch up eventually, and it wont be to rob you!

[Mally]

Could some one help me with this query please? I have been trying to contact the High Commission to ask the question, but it seems too difficult to do. The phone just rings and the emails bounce! Anybody home?!

I took out dual SA Aussie Citizenship since 2003. The Exemption letter t expired in 2008 (5 years later). Does this mean that my SA Citizenship has automatically been relinquished?

I have subsequently entered and left SA on two occasions using my Aussie passport, but on leaving the second time I was issued with a warning (written into my Aussie passport) that I have to use my SA Passport (which has expired), and if I do it again, I will be in strife with the law!

My question is this: Do I have to formally renounce my SA Citizenship to be able to freely use my Aussie Passport to enter and exit SA? I was going on the assumption that I automatically lost my SA Citizenship when the exemption expired in 2008.

I need to sort this out, because with ageing parents I may need to travel to SA at short notice. I do not want to chance my arm with the warning in my passport.

[Nev]

I cant comment on the exemption expiring, from what i understood once you have applied for the exemption you are sorted for good,

On a separate note, it is the RSA passport holders responsibility to get a letter stating they no longer hold RSA citizenship, you then need to carry that with you when you enter and leave RSA on your Auz passport for if they ask.

Assuming that you have lost it will just get you into trouble, this also applies to people that didnt apply for dual citizenship status when they became auzzies, if you dont have a letter they will expect you to enter and leave on your RSA passport

[Mally]

Thanks Nev. I have read somewhere that the expiry (5 years in my case) no longer applies - unsure about this.

I think I will go ahead and fill in the forms to renounce my citizenship. I was trying to avoid all the hassle and save time.

[rozellem]

I'm not aware of the exemption expiring, never heard of that. We recently downloaded the new passport forms from their website, but waited 10 days for them to email us the fingerprint form details. Ring early in the morn. Later in the day it just rings or they actually put the phone down in your ear. (Happened to me last week).