Linus Torvalds becomes US Citizen

Typical mailing list interaction. Short and unrevealing. I wonder if he is a dual citizen or only a US citizen?

None of my business of course.

Now the IRS will never leave him alone.

He would only be a dual citizen if Finland allows it. I know the U.S. does but some countries do not.

He may not have a choice. I am a dual national. Israel considers me a citizen simply because my father was Israeli. I might possibly could renounce if I wanted a security clearance but I don't believe Israel would recognize that either.

I believe you CAN renounce Israeli citizenship. I recall a physics major student of my father's had to renouce his Israeli citizenship or serve his compulsory military service. He renounced, rather than serve.

I also believe that it used to be part of the naturalization process that you HAD to renounce your former citizenship in order to be sworn in as a US citizen. That may have changed, or only applied to certain "hostile" nationalities (like the Soviet Union during the cold war), though.

In my case I was born with both citizenships so there was no naturalization process. The U.S. most certainly does not require renunciation in order to become a citizen, at least from friendly countries. My parents became citizens in the 1960s and neither had to give up their previous citizenship. Considering how Zionistic my family is I doubt anyone would voluntarily surrender Israeli citizenship.

The US does not require renunciation. It just does not consider valid any documents issued by another country that treat you as a citizen of that country. You could not, for instance, use a passport issued by another country for any official purposes in the US.

Did Tove also get her citizenship, or is she still strictly Swedish?

Morocco forbids to renounce citizenship.

Now some David J. Horowitz-funded politician over here wants to forbid dual citizenship, leading to a clash.

Interesting to say the least...

I am a Scot currently living in the USA as the spouse of an American citizen and therefore have full residency status, in 2011 i become eligible to apply for citizenship so i have done a large amount of research into the subject .

The current US immigration laws allow for dual citizenship but as @bigg mentions you are not allowed to use any passport other than a US passport to enter/leave or traverse US territories this is an important detail as you can still use your UK passport outside of USA territories although you wont be entitled to use US Embassy facilities abroad.

If you use a non USA issued passport as a US citizen entering or leaving USA then US immigration can actually recommend that your citizenship be terminated they can also prevent you from boarding a plane if traveling to the USA while using a non USA passport see here for a funny well known example of this happening to a British politician http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jul/05/johnsonf... , I believe he had to renounce his US citizenship to be able to travel on his British passport its silly but thats Boris for ya.

As to whether i decide to become an American citizen, well im still weighing up the pro's and cons, my 2.5yr old son was born here in the US and is effectively a dual citizen, at the moment im leaning towards the wont bother with it as i can see myself returning to my native Scotland permanently at a later date.