Citizenship

Karen and Tom are both citizens, of the United States and of Ireland, and also of the European Union. We were both born in the U.S., so we have been American from birth.

Tom registered with the Irish Consulate in San Francisco on March 17, 1996 (!*), based on his grandfather's birth in Ireland, and received Irish citizenship on January 25, 1997, by the process of "foreign birth registration".

Karen applied for Irish citizenship three years later, which was the waiting period required for a spouse to qualify by "nuptial declaration". She received her Irish citizenship on October 25, 2000, retroactive to her date of application -- March 17, 2000. (Also !*)

THE PROCESS FOR A SPOUSE TO OBTAIN IRISH CITIZENSHIP BY "NUPTIAL DECLARATION" IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

Because of the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Amsterdam, citizens of Ireland are also citizens of the European Union; therefore we have that citizenship, too. Here is one reference to citizenship in the European Union.

Because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions and subsequent U.S. law on the subject, we could take on a second citizenship as long as we did so without the intention of giving up our U. S. citizenship (and needless to say, we intend to keep both!)

Here are some web sites giving both the Irish and American governments' take on all this:

The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs

The U. S. State Department's discussion on dual nationality

Click here to go back to our home page.

* - March 17 is Saint Patrick's Day, just in case you didn't know....

Copyright © 2004, 2008, Thomas H. and Karen E. Mitchell. Needless to say, we disavow any responsibility for content on anyone else's websites, for example, those links shown above. Not only that, every day we thank God that we aren't lawyers, so none of the above should be considered legal advice.

Last revised 2008-02-19