Kiev Travel Forum

I have both american and ukrainian passports.Does anybody else ?Which one is better to enter and exit the Ukraine?Oh,yeah,and i don't have Permanent Resident stamp in my Ukr.doc.

If you have too much electronics with you (laptop, cameras), American passport is better - to avoid unnecessary questioning "what you bought abroad".

Also going back you will need to show American passport at the airport anyway, otherwise they won't let you on the airplane.

It is illegal, by the way, as Ukraine does not allow double citizenship. I agree - use the US passport.

Do the US allow double citizenship?

1) From Ukraina point of view it is not illegal. The law is (probably) that every involved country regards the individual as own citizen only. Aquiring an other citizenship is not an offense in Ukraina and no one may force to resign an Ukrainian citizen. There are thousands of children of "mixed" families living in former countries of East Block (now EU) and they have multiple passports.

2) USA standpoint: you can have as many citizenships as it is reasonable from your curriculum. For instance, someone of Russian father, Romanian mother who is ethnic Hungarian but immigrated to Israel as "Jew" first before going to USA may have or even aquire Russian, Romanian, Israeli citizenships additionally to the U.S. citizenship without jeopradise the U.S. citizenship. Same individual could have a chance to lose U.S. citizenship if he would buy a, say, citizenship of Belize or Paulau with the goal to escape taxes or have other advantages. But if he decided to move to Belize for family reason than h would not lose automatically. So as long as there are multiple citizenships in the family, it is tolerated by U.S. government.

oops, in my theoretical sample the individual would have Russian, Romanian, Israeli and Hungarian citizenship (plus the U.S.), so one more.

Also, in USA the citizenship is "by birth". So if, say, a German couple would go to the U.S. and she is in last period of her pregnancy - and give birth a child in the U.S., the child would not just become automatically a U.S. citizen, but (s)he could become a president. That does not apply to me, for instance because I was naturalized based on work visa + later "green card". Hence my carrier as president of USA is over before it even begun.

Having a U.S. citizen child, however, does not mean the German couple could stay in the U.S. more than what it's allowed in their visa. They have to leave... and U.S. citizens do not have the right to reside in their own country, and the minor children cannot sponsor their parents! This is very different in Europe (say, Somalian parents of a German citizen who are "illegal" or "abgelehnte Asylbewerber" in Germany won't be ever thrown out of Germany because their child would have the right to live in Germany regardless, and he cannot be separated from his parents).

Gyuri, it is illegal in Ukraine to have double citizenship. The fact that many people don't care and the authorities don't care does not make this legal. And yes, you can be deprived of the Ukrainian citizenship if proved that you have another passport. This is the law at least. I have not heard that the law has been applied even once, but I believe they are introducing some international system where this will be easier to track.

Sure. You ahev a good chance to be imprisoned. Double citizenship is forbidden in Ukraine. Wish you lucky travel!