I am a British citizen and have my US citizenship interview at the end of June 2007 in San Francisco and the BCIS help line has told me that at the citizenship ceremony I will need to surrender my British passport. I am eligible for US citizenship through marriage to a US citizen.

However, our long term plans are to return to Britain in a few years with my wife so how do I retain my British passport or do I have to surrender it at the citizenship ceremony and then apply for another? If the latter, can I apply from the US or would I need to be in the UK? Can I be honest and tell the UK passport people that I surrendered my passport to the US authorities as described above or would I have to tell them that my British passport was lost/stolen?

With thanks for any help on this.

 

Since making the original post, I contacted the BCIS on their regular helpline as out of coincidence I am travelling to the UK on the day of my citizenship interview and would thus need my passport. The woman I spoke to was as sure that I would not have to surreneder my passport as the first one was as sure that I would! This would have been at the ceremony which may take place on the same day as my interview, English test, civics test etc.

Additionally, I know someone who, when she had her ceremony, had to surrender her passport but a friend she went with didn't!

So in terms of answering anyone's question this part of the post is about as useless as it is contradictory so sorry for that, but that's just the way it is. My understanding of dual citizenship in the U.S. is that the American authorities do not allow it but the British ones have no problem. No country can remove the citizenship granted to someone from another and I am not sure if surrendering a passport from one country can be a condition of getting citizenship in another, hence my original post.

My interview and possibly my ceremony, take place towards the end of June and I will definitely post the results regarding my passport then. But here's some irrelevant but useful information: the BCIS help line (1 800 375 5283) has made it a lot harder to access a real person. The key sequence you need for an English operator is 1-2-1-1-3 (I think you change the first 1 to a 2 for Spanish).

Sorry I couldn't be of any more help, but wait until the end of June!

 

Thanks for the links. I haven't had time to look at them yet but I'll check them out.

Surrendering your passport is not surrendering your citizenship it just means you don't have a passport! I don't know what the best/most legal way to get a replacement would be as this question was part of what started this thread!

 

Well, today I had my citizenship test which consisted of 10 questions from the booklet you get when you go to give your fingerprints. I won't list what they were as they are a random ten with each piece of paper having a different ten questions but if you read the booklet just referred to, it'll be a breeze.

I cannot provide a definitive answer to the question that I asked to start this thread as I did not have my swearing in ceremony (this will be on July 24th) but I asked the interviewer if I would need to bring my passport and though he said that I would, this would be because I would have traveled outside the US between taking my test and going to the ceremony (I have a two week vacation in the UK starting today, the same day as my citizenship interview) and would need to show the relevant passport stamps.

His implication was that this was the only reason I would need it, and that I would not have to surrender it but I'll let you know for sure after the 24th July.

 

Had the swearing in ceremony

Well, I have now had the swearing in ceremony which was held in San Francisco with a total of 1,415 people from 94 countries, I was asked if I had been outside of the US since going for the citizenship test to which I replied Yes, for two weeks in the UK, but that was it. No-one wanted to see my passport let alone take it so I'll end up with two passports.

After the citizenship test I was given a passport application form which I handed in after the ceremony. Be sure to have all the correct stuff for this because no-one actually takes a look at it to check that you have enclosed everything you need. This would be impossible with so many applicants but may happen at smaller ceremonies. You don't have to apply there and then - you could still do it by post later on but you have to include your certificate of citizenship with the application and I felt happier actually handing this to someone as opposed to trusting the postal service.

As regards traveling with dual citizenship, it wouldn't matter what passport you used if you weren't intending to overstay the period relevant to the visa you had or in the case of traveling to the UK, the period allowed under the visa waiver program which I think is six months. If you intending to stay longer my suggestion would be to use the passport of the country whose border you are crossing e.g. use your US one when leaving the US and your UK one when arriving in the UK. Similarly, use your UK one when leaving the UK and your US one when returning to the US. None of this is based on experience, it's just my suggestion.

Hope all goes well for anyone going for US citizenship!

Mr Pogle.