One Passport

The statute makes a national and citizen of the United States at birth A PERSON BORN IN THE UNITED STATES, AND SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION THEREOF. Nothing about the parents' nationality or immigration status changes that for an ordinary birth here — the child is American from the moment of birth, and no application creates it. That is the fact everything else on this page follows from, because it is what collides with the Indian rule below.

The Indian High Commission states it plainly: THE INDIAN CITIZENSHIP ACT DOES NOT PERMIT DUAL CITIZENSHIP AND ANY VOLUNTARY ACT OF ACQUIRING CITIZENSHIP OF ANOTHER COUNTRY WOULD LEAD TO TERMINATION OF CITIZENSHIP OF INDIA. The termination happens on acquisition, by operation of the statute. It is not a consequence of renouncing, it does not wait for a form to be filed, and it does not wait for anybody to notice. Somebody who naturalised years ago and never renounced did not stay Indian in the meantime.

The same page states: THE FACT THAT A CITIZEN OF INDIA HAS OBTAINED ON ANY DATE A PASSPORT FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF ANY OTHER COUNTRY SHALL BE CONCLUSIVE PROOF OF HIS HAVING VOLUNTARILY ACQUIRED THE CITIZENSHIP OF THAT COUNTRY. This is the sentence that closes off the argument people reach for. Intention does not survive it, and neither does not having meant it that way: the document is the evidence, and it is conclusive rather than merely persuasive. Anyone holding both passports is not in a grey area — they are holding the proof of one having ended the other.

The mission states that once the applicant ceases to be a citizen of India following acceptance of the declaration, ALL MINOR CHILDREN OF THE APPLICANT WOULD ALSO CEASE TO BE A CITIZEN OF INDIA under section 8(2), and that the surrender of Indian documents including the Indian passport applies to the minor children too. Families plan the adult's paperwork and are surprised by this: the children's status is not a separate decision that can be made later, and it moves with the parent whether or not anyone intended it to.

The undertaking on the mission's own form requires that once renunciation is accepted, the applicant WILL SURRENDER ALL SUCH DOCUMENTS THAT HE OR SHE IS NOT ENTITLED TO POSSESS AS A FOREIGN NATIONAL and which were acquired on the basis of Indian citizenship. That reaches further than the passport alone, and it reaches the children's documents as well. This is the administrative step that turns an automatic legal change into a completed piece of paperwork, and it is the one people put off for years.