Benefits of dual citizenship?

Depending on where you travel for vacation, a European passport may be safer than a USA passport these days.

 

You can't get deported from two different countries.

 

Get your Portuguese citizenship. The benefits outweight the negatives by far. It helps you in buying property, inheritances (land and money), and in living there. Also, it gets you into the EU, which means you can travel, work, study in Europe with a lot less hassles and usually at lower costs Basically, you inheret all the benefits of a Portuguese citizen (and EU benefits) without having to give up anything.

Also, your spouse can get citizenship after 3 years of marriage and your children can also be Portuguese. The process is fairly easy and painless, and very cheap. Contact Cristina Machado at the Portuguese Embassy in D.C. with any questions. Her number is 202.350.5400. Their website doesn't have much info on that: http://www.portugal.org/index.shtml

The process requires that you get a Portuguese birth certificate, from which then you can get your ID card and passport. The first part can take a while. For the ID card and passport, I would suggest once you have your birth certificate to go do it in person in Portugal. You can do it in DC, but they have to mail it off and it takes forever and things tend to "get lost".

My birth certificate took almost 2 years to process because I was a "special case". My mother is Portuguese, but my father is American, and the old dictator had a law about Portuguese women leaving with foreign men would automatically lose their citizenship. Of course, she never lost her citizenship but the law stated she had...even though she still had all her papers and they always renewed her ID and passport. Very odd. The law was ended in 1984...but they didn't push back the timeline. So, since I was born before 1984 I didn't qualify..only if I was born after 1984. Anyway, they squared it away and now I have my papers. But, since both your parents are Portuguese you shouldn't have any trouble.

 

This is good information. Anybody born in Canada get their dual citenship? If so, what was the process? I am interested since I travel a lot to Europe..

 

Sorry, I don't know what the rules in Canada are concerning dual citizenship. I'm certain there is a Portuguese Embassy you can contact and they'll fill you in. I assume you can get your citizenship if at least one of your parents is Portuguese. If so, all you do is fill out some forms, send in the required documents and pay a processing/translation fee. The biggest pain in the ass is getting your parent's birth certificate...that part is a scam. They require a dated birth certificate of your Portuguese parent from within 2 or 3 months of your application...which means you have to send for one or get on in Portugal and they run about $20 euro. Lucky for me, my mom goes there quite often and picked one up. These things expire after 3 months.

 

Please tell me why.

 

I have US and Portuguese citizenship. Its great to have both, but as per you concern a Portugal Citizenship would grant you EU citizenship, meaning that you can live legally in any of the EU nations if you ever would like to do so.

 

This to me is a great advantage. It is difficult to find jobs in Portugal coming from the US. But a lot of companies have branches in other EU countries. My plan in the next 2 years is to get a job, with my company, in the EU. It probably won't be Portugal because their operations are small there...but it would be cool if I could.

 

Some places in the world are just more friendly towards EU than towards USA. That is not a shot at USA, it is just how things are.

 

That sounds amazing !!! Good luck bud.

 

Hey...so if I end up marrying marina rodrigues

That means I can become a Portuguese citizen within 3 years?

Sounds good. I'll have that

 

Bud, you marry here, you wont care where the ******** you live.

 

[Figopimp looks to see if wife is around.]

I'll have some of that too.

 

the laws for becoming a dual portuguese citizen in canada are the same as in the US. All we have to do is contact our local consulate. both my parents are portuguese citizens. All I require is a long form of my birth certificate, and those of my parents and I need to fill out forms at the consulate and voila...

 

I didnt think it was a shot, I just wanted to see what your opinion was. When I arrive in Porto or Lisboa, I show my EU passport because the lines are quicker, when I arrive here I show the US. I thinkI know where you are talking about. That place in the Middle East where the US will turn into a parking lot.

 

Not that I want a dual citizenship, but in my case only my mother was born in Portugal with my dad (a portuguese-american) born in the US...

 

I guess I'm the opposite case. I was born there and when I came to Canada I got my citizenship and now also have a Canadian passport. When travelling to a place like Spain for example, I plan on taking my Canadian passport. Does anyone recommend that I take my Portuguese one instead?

 

Just use the Canadian one. Less hassles.

I too have dual citizenship. i was born in Portugal. I used to have the portuguese passport but it's a freaking hassle. Especially when you go to the states or go to the portuguese conslate to renew your passport. Also, you don't need to renew your bilhete de identidade.

Either way, Canada and Portugal aren't hated countries so you can't go wrong with either choice. and you can go to Cuba as many times as you want

 

Actually in EU countries you only need o "bilhete de identidade", but use your Canadian too.

 

Well, I'm even "less" Portuguese than you. My mother was born in Portugal, my father was born here (USA, first generation) and his parents were fresh off the boats from Scotland and Sweden .

As I said, there are a lot of benefits with really no drawbacks to dual citizenship. They did tell me that if I was ever taken hostage that the USA could claim I wasn't American because I had an EU passport as well...but I doubt that would happen as was evident in the recent evacuations in Lebanon. I think they were just trying to scare me.

 

Either one. However, sometimes the EU passport line is much shorter than the non-EU lines. You can take both with you, that is usually not against the law if both countries allow dual citizenship. Don't show both at customs/immigration because they will ask questions.

 

Th'as BS. There is no teir system for citizenship. You either are american or you aren't. Just don't go into any of war torn countries and Colombia and you shouldn't even have to worry about that

 

I keep telling my cousins from Mass. to use their portuguese passports and go to Cuba, but they are too scared to go. they say someone will find out their
american and rat them out...hahaha