Originally Posted by Christopher

We need to be careful when we say that a country doesn't "acknowledge" dual citizenship, since this can have more than one meaning. A country like the USA, for instance, expressly does not attempt to prohibit its citizens holding another citizenship, but it will deal with US citizens only in that capacity (i.e. as US citizens). A country like Denmark, on the other hand, generally prohibits its citizens from holding another citizenship (there may be some exceptions) – so that, for example, a Danish citizen who naturalises as the citizen of another country automatically, by operation of Danish law, loses his or her Danish citizenship; and equally it is not generally possible to naturalise as a Danish citizen unless one gives up one's other citizenship(s).

Both these countries (and many others) are often said not to acknowledge dual citizenship, but obviously there's a huge difference in both the intent and the outcome in that lack of acknowledgement.



Malaysia does not allow its own citizens to hold another citizenship (again, there might be minor exceptions). We can't say that what you read about didn't happen, of course, but if it did I think most people would say that the Malaysian authorities were in error. A passport remains the property of the government that issues it or, sometimes, the issuing government authority. It is not open, generally, to other authorities, including other governments, to confiscate somebody's passport if it is legally held.

But sometimes people, even apparent experts, do get it wrong. On a more light-hearted note, I remember reading about someone applying for a driving licence in one of the south-western US states (it might have been Colorado, I think). In order to prove identity, applicants had to provide a certain number of documents from certain different classes. A primary document was listed as "a passport". A secondary document was listed as "a second passport of another nationality from the passport used as the primary document" – or words to that effect. Despite this being in the rules, the person behind the counter refused to countenance the second passport (legally held) as a legitimate document of identity because, she said, "It is not possible to have two passports of different nationalities." People often have very fixed erroneous ideas.