Passports and Citizenship

[Guest Guest5035]

Just following on from the customs thread and people getting a Australian Passport and citizenship AND keeping there British ones, WHY ????? Don't give me the crap about, "oh its easier to get through customs'. Just cannot understand it, you come to start a new life for you and your families in a great country, you leave Britain because its crap, yet keep the passport.

 

stevo

[foxychick]

Stevo, its a personal choice, I agree the reasoning of being easier to get through customs is not a strong one, its only a queue.

 

Not everyone leaves Britain 'because it is crap' that is a very subjective opinion.

 

For me keeping both is a bit of a security blanket thing. I can and so I will cos it makes me more comfortable to do so.

[Guest Guest5035]

For me keeping both is a bit of a security blanket thing.

 

as in??

Just trying to see why people do it.

 

Stevo

[foxychick]

As in, it makes me feel more comfortable having both passports valid as you never know what changes the future will bring. But then I don't think I feel quite as Australian as you do.

[Rachiegarlo]

there is nothing wrong with acknowledging your heritage. There are many other people such as Italians and Greeks who keep both passports and travel between both countries using both. Just because you seek a better life somewhere else doesn't mean you have to turn your back on where you came from. Of course there are those who do or feel the need to embrace their new home in this way. Two of my children born here and brought up here ....so Aussie kids really, like their English heritage, like the fact that they can have dual citizenship and seeing where their parents came from. You are lucky that you get the choice. Some countries like Malaysia only allow you to have Malaysian citizenship and you automatically lose it if you take out citizenship of another country.

[Guest nishman]

But it is easier to get through customs! I had an unexpected work trip to Europe earlier in the year. I still have 18months left on my pommy passport and it was a breeze strolling through Heathrow flashing the burgandy passport instead of queuing with the thousand others without a EU passport. I then happily flashed the black passport at Adelaide (actually used the funky chip and scan lane) and came staight through when I returned home. I don't think that makes me un-Australian, any more than reading http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/default.stm on a lunchtime does!

OK - this was a lucky coincidence for me and I don't plan to renew my/our pommy passport(s), so chances are I'll be "true dinky-do" and queue with the rest of them should I have to return to blighty again. But if you can keep both, can afford both and need/intend to travel to Brtiain (or anywhere in the EU) frequently, why not I say!

[xzibit]

Not everyone runs away from the UK and thinks it's crap.

 

It's a personal choice. Many people may wonder why anyone would drive around in a 4x4 in the city, but it's all personal choice.

 

Don't get so upset about it. It doesn't affect your life in anyway if people do or don't??!!

[Guest Guest5035]

Not everyone runs away from the UK and thinks it's crap.QUOTE]

 

So why leave then?

 

stevo

[RockDr]

There are many reasons why people move around. In most cases it's because they've been offered a better job, have family in another country, or just want to experience something different.

I spent my childhood in France because my dad's company offered him to transfer over there, and my parents thought "why not go for something different for a couple of years?" We stayed ten.

I lived in New Zealand for a year between school and uni to get out and see something different.

I lived in Switzerland for three and a half years because I had a very good opportunity to do a good PhD project at a very good university.

Now I live in Adelaide because my partner already had a job here, and I could find work easily.

All the countries I've lived in have had some fantastic aspects, and some downsides, I have enjoyed living in each and every one of them.

Who knows where life will take me next?

 

When I become eligible for australian citizenship, then I will almost certainly get it, even if I'm not in Australia at the time. Both to facilitate visits to Australia in the future, or to make things simpler if ever the wind blows us back there. I will also maintain my UK passport, same as my partner maintains his Spanish one. It gives us choice, to live and work in either Australia, or Europe, with no hassles, should life take us in that direction.

[suzer]

...and of course so your children have a choice

[xzibit]

Not everyone runs away from the UK and thinks it's crap.QUOTE]

 

So why leave then?

 

stevo

 

To come and be nearer family that live here. I love the UK as well as Australia and could happily live in either country.

 

 

Not everyone is running from something.

[ian mc]

I have been here 14 years and have never taken out citizenship can't see much point in it unless you can give me a very good reason to have it.

[RockDr]

ian, only reason I could see would be if you were leaving the country to work abroad for a few years, with a view to returning to Australia in the future. Would save you the hassle of maintaining substantial ties to Australia in the meantime to get an RRV. (This is why I'll probably take it out once I'm eligible)

 

Or if there was actually someone in the elections worth voting for.

[xzibit]

I have been here 14 years and have never taken out citizenship can't see much point in it unless you can give me a very good reason to have it.

 

Having to vote and do jury duty.

 

Oh sorry, you said good reasons didn't you lol.

[Guest SusieOR]

I'm not in Oz & dont have citizenship etc... but

 

I am English & I now live in Republic of Ireland & therefore, since I married an Irish man, am entitled to an Irish passport!!!

 

However, although I dont live in UK I am still English & that will never change... it will make no difference where I choose to live, I was still born in a hospital in Leeds!!! My children have Irish passports cause they were born here in Ireland.

 

When i get citizenship in Oz... to get an Australian passport means I can get in & out of Oz without hassles of having to apply for a 176 visa again!!! but i will still be an English person so am likely to keep my English passport too???

 

I love to experience new things & am excited to teach my children that anything is possible & the world is their oyster... I am really looking forward to moving to Australia as I love the country... but that doesnt mean to say I will stay there for the rest of my life, who knows what will happen in the future!

 

As previously mentioned by someone... it is personal choice... I dont have anything against the UK... I just choose not to live there!!!

[Guest cornish Busdriver]

I think its a matter of personal choice

For me im Cornish and never will be english , i was brought up speaking Kernewek before learning to speak english, my flag is the St Piran, Kernow will always be my true home and always will in my heart be BUT i am in Australia now and intergrating and contributing into Australia and the Australian way of life.

Australia has given me my visa and a chance to do something with it, to me the only true way and the final step of fully intergating is to gain citizen ship and hold an Australian passport which then i may or may not keep my british passport.

Even if i do surrender my britsh passport i will still be Cornish and thats something i dont need a passport to prove.

[xzibit]

I think its a matter of personal choice

For me im Cornish and never will be english , i was brought up speaking Kernewek before learning to speak english, my flag is the St Piran, Kernow will always be my true home and always will in my heart be BUT i am in Australia now and intergrating and contributing into Australia and the Australian way of life.

Australia has given me my visa and a chance to do something with it, to me the only true way and the final step of fully intergating is to gain citizen ship and hold an Australian passport which then i may or may not keep my british passport.

Even if i do surrender my britsh passport i will still be Cornish and thats something i dont need a passport to prove.

 

Rofl. I'm Dorsetnish. Not British.

[tean]

Not sure if NSW is any different to SA, but my neice was not entitled to the HEX for university, as they haven't got citizenship yet and are still on permanent residency status. They had to pay full University fees as a result. If they had waited a year when they had citizenship, they would of saved thousands!!

[AussieRob]

I will keep both my Aussie and British passport, I think it's pretty cool to have dual citizenship.

 

One of best friends here is Danish and he would have to relinquish his Danish citizenship to become an Aussie, and he has no intentions of doing that. Whilst it's a tough stance, I have respect for his decision. I wonder how many of us would choose to stay as a PR rather than give up British Citizenship. Even though my partner is Australian and I have no intention of moving back, I'm not sure I could do it.

[RockDr]

Not sure if NSW is any different to SA, but my neice was not entitled to the HEX for university, as they haven't got citizenship yet and are still on permanent residency status. They had to pay full University fees as a result. If they had waited a year when they had citizenship, they would of saved thousands!!

 

I think thet's fairly universal in all the states. PR students pay local fees rather than international ones, but they have to pay them upfront rather than taking out the hex loan.

 

So your niece wouldn't have saved thousands, she'd still have had to pay them, just not upfront. (as far as I understand the system)

[Lazy Cow]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if you want to keep both, that's totally your call.

 

But...it seems almost as though people want to retain their UK passport almost as a kind of lucky 'touch wood' thing. You know, just in case they want to return to the UK. If that were the case though, couldn't you go back on either passport, or just apply for one when you need it?

 

Being a citizen can be more than just having a passport for sure. I believe people who migrated before 1984 were given just about all the rights and responsibilities of a citizen with regard to voting etc. So it's not just that cos even if they can vote, they couldn't hold an Australian passport. We have a friend who has lived here for some fifty+ years, he can vote but still has to use a British passport because he has never applied for citizenship. He doesn't care but neither would he consider himself British - it's just a way to travel, a means to an end.

 

For us, applying for citizenship was more than being able to have a HECS/HELP debt, although that is pretty helpful, it was a way of becoming part of our new country. We are all proud to be able to say we are citizens, people who want to stay and contribute to our new country. Our friends were very pro it as well. We got back from the UK today and one of our best friends came over to hug us and say it was good to have us home. And that felt good. Good because this is our home and good because our friends actually seem proud that we want to become a permanent part of their country. And when we travel abroad, I think our Australian passports show that.

 

That probably sounds like emotional claptrap lol but that's ok. None of us are likely to change our mind based on comments on here but it is nice to get an insight of why others feel differently. If that makes sense.

 

And finally, we didn't leave because where we lived was bad...we came because we could!

 

I think I'll go to bed now

 

:)LC

[chrisfen46]

i have had dual nat for the last 10 yrs i hold a british passport and maltese. kept both as it gave me the choice of where i wanted to live with all the benifits of being a citizen of that country. i know now that malta is in the eu so it doesnt make a diff but it did when it needed to. keeping both passports gives you options. once we do make the move to oz i will take citizenship dont plan on returning to uk will i keep uk passport dont know yet maybe maybe not..

[snifter]

Many people like the advantages duel citizenship brings. Many countries allow you to retain citizenship and therefore hold duel so why not. It can be useful when travelling, if needing/wanting to move between countries to save on visa applications, costs and so on. Also it has advantages in the future for your children should there be any.

 

I know for me I don't plan to give up my UK citizenship when we move to Aus and I am able to apply for Aussie citizenship. I don't see it as me being any less loyal to the country I would be living in, nor disloyal to the one I moved from. Its more a practical thing as I have a child and he was born here and holds duel nationality. If we ever decide we wish to return to the UK to live (or elsewhere in Europe) I don't want to have to jump through loads of hoops to do so. Having a UK passport and therefore an EU one is a good thing IMO. Many Europeans hold duel nationality and so do many Aussies.

 

If anything I'd say is was less common/usual for a person to give up their actual birth nationality and only have the nationality of their adopted country. I think in this day and age more and more people, even if they move overseas, its a transitional thing and they often return to their home country or move elsewhere again.

 

I'm moving to Aus as its my hubby's home. I love Adelaide and what I've seen of Aus overall so far but I don't see why I should give up my UK citizenship. Australia allows duel nationals so what a person choses to do with their passport(s) and citizenship is a matter of personal choice.

 

As has been said before, we are not leaving the UK because we feel its crap, gone to the dogs or anything like that. Not everyone leaves the UK (or their home country or adopted home country) because its a bad place to live. There are many other reasons people move around

[snifter]

i have had dual nat for the last 10 yrs i hold a british passport and maltese. kept both as it gave me the choice of where i wanted to live with all the benifits of being a citizen of that country. i know now that malta is in the eu so it doesnt make a diff but it did when it needed to. keeping both passports gives you options. once we do make the move to oz i will take citizenship dont plan on returning to uk will i keep uk passport dont know yet maybe maybe not..

 

I think you'd have to give up one of your passports, either the UK or Maltese one. I'd say the UK one is in practical terms probably the better one to keep. And if at any time you wished to reapply for the other (and give up one of the other ones) you'd be able to do so.

[chrisfen46]

I think you'd have to give up one of your passports, either the UK or Maltese one. I'd say the UK one is in practical terms probably the better one to keep. And if at any time you wished to reapply for the other (and give up one of the other ones) you'd be able to do so.

iam not bothered about the maltese passport any more it was an option to go live there but my wife doesnt like it there and nothing there for the kids...