Whats the greatest number of Citizenships/Permanent Residencies can one have?
 

I was always curious what's the greatest number of legal citizenships or permanent residencies can one have.


I noticed a relative of mine who is a Ukrainian citizen moved to Canada and got Canadian permanent residence, before moving to the US and getting US green card. With enough time I'm sure she could apply for both Canadian and US passports.


Is there a limit to this?

Yes, time and inability to be many places at the same time.

There are legal residency requirements to maintain permanent residence, as well as obtain citizenship.

For Canada, it's at least 2 years in the past 5 for the former and at least 3 in the past 4 for the latter.

Not that I've ever been told of. I have two citizenships and two permanent residencies right now, and I'm working on a third residency. The key is meeting the requirements to maintain the permanent residencies, although the countries in which I have residency do allow for periods away - I can maintain my Chilean residency simply by entering the country once a year, for as little as a day.

How many citizenships can you have as a right of birth?

To start the ball rolling

Born in the US to a UK citizen who was born in Northern Ireland which would also automatically give them Republic of Ireland citizenship...

From speaking with an Irish citizen a few years ago, just having an Irish grandparent is enough to get Irish citizenship. So each parent could be citizens of different countries, plus an Irish grandparent gets you 3 possible citizenships right there. Then depending on where the person is born, they might even get a 4th citizenship for being born on that country's soil.

Generally speaking (and with almost no exceptions), countries that don't prohibit in some way their citizens from holding another, second citizenship don't care how many other citizenships their citizens hold. Citizenship can be acquired in lots of ways (depending on the country) – birth in the territory, birth outside the territory to a citizen parent, having a grandparent (or sometimes a more remote ancestor) who is a citizen, marriage to a citizen, adoption by a citizen, naturalisation/registration/grant, a country dividing, a country annexing another... So you can work out scenarios in which a person could have a lot of citizenships indeed. (Of course, not all countries permit their citizens to hold other citizenships, and although a country cannot strip a person of another citizenship it can, in some cases, declare that a person is no longer one of its citizens).

Permanent residency is different in that, usually, there are residence requirements have to be fulfilled to maintain the status – e.g. so many days inside the country each year, not more than so many days outside the country per unit of time, not more than a certain period away, and so on. So in many cases, depending on the combination, it could be hard to hold more than one permanent residency at a time.

Certainly for some residencies, being married to a citizen of that country, and being with them overseas would count (e.g. Canadian PR married to Canadian citizen who lives in the US) as I understand it.

I had an experience at University, when I wanted to take a class abroad in Germany I was unable to travel there on a Ukrainian Passport + US Green Card.


I was advised by the German embassy that I could travel to Germany on US Green Card only if I went to the Ukrainian Embassy and told them I no longer wished to be a Ukrainian citizen.... So essentially I could have traveled to Germany as a Citizen of no nation + US Green Card.


I think this experience encouraged me to get US citizenship. I was always afraid of loosing the Ukrainian one, but its not like anyone came and took it after I got my US passport.

You might have trouble renewing your UA passport next time though.

A good friend of mine and her brother are both tri-national holding Passports (as citizens) for the USA, Canada and Germany. They were born in Canada to a Canadian father and German mother, then moved to the US and had green cards for a while, then automatically became US citizens when their parents were naturalized here when they were 14 and 15 I believe. My friend got her German passport last, applying at German consulate when she was 16 or so.

Considering both kids have three passports and both parents have two passports, we call them the Jason Bourne family...it's pretty funny to look at their pile of 10 passports.

I had a relative long ago who had passports for UK, France, South Africa, Mauritius and Israel. He ended up being murdered.

I know a number of people who have five nationalities, most of them from southern Africa with Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, UK and US always in the mix. I have no idea why I have so many such friends, but i met them almost all in the Middle east, in Bahrain or Dubai during the late 1970's. they all floated from one southern african country to another until they gave up and took Uk, then defected to the US.

the bigger the bribe, the smaller the trouble






interesting Jason Bourne comparison... I'm a big fan of the trilogy and have visited places portrayed in the movie, just for the sake of being there... Goa is high on my list of places to visit.

no, there is no limit. One country cannot dictate who another country can give citizenship to. I hold Canadian, American and German citizenships. The Americans say I can only have one, but really there is nothing they can do about it, and they probably don't even know anyhow. I was born American in Canada, aquring both at birth. In 1995 Germany reinstated all citizenships for people and their kids displaced during the 2nd world war, which was my father, sister and self.

Northern Ireland is not the Irish Republic, it is Britain. Therefore, being born in Northern Ireland does not get you Irish citizenship as far as I know.