Change Citizenship on SEF GV Application

@jpgoldenvisa Apologies for a slight offtopic, but why would you want a US citizenship instead of a US PR? It seems like an anti-pattern to me considering the whole idea behind ā€œnomadgateā€ and the current prevailing PT GV applicants demographicā€¦

Yes, but donā€™t people typically justā€¦ not do that? And not let the original country know?

I thought that was the play for e.g. people getting Spanish citizenship, which tries to make you renounce your other citizenships, but you just donā€™t and itā€™s not a proble

There are various ways (family, job, etc) to acquire US permanent residence, but you have to reside continuously in the US to keep it.

Hi, Victor. I really canā€™t say what SEF is or isnā€™t doing with respect to your Russian citizenship. What I CAN say is this has been a long slog for everyone for the last couple of years. For example, we applied in late June 2021 and got pre-approval very quickly - 6 weeks. However, we didnā€™t get a biometrics appointment for another year, and didnā€™t get final approval for another 9 months. Total time for us - 2 years (3 months of which may have been avoidable, but thatā€™s a side issue). Meanwhile, we have friends who applied in December 2021, didnā€™t get pre-approval until about 9 months later, and just had biometrics last month. No telling when they will get final approval. Both we and our friends are US citizens.

My point is - this is taking a lot longer than advertised, so donā€™t lose hope. Your timeline MAY have something to do with your Russian nationality, or it may simply be the bureaucratic nightmare that everyone is facing.

This is definitely a question I would ask my lawyer on. On the one hand, having Russian citizenship is Pepys hinderance at this point, at best. Iā€™d be concerned about them changing the rules at some point to kick those with Russian citizenship out of the GV process.

On the other hand, changing citizenship on the application is probably going to slow things down for you in the bureaucracy.

Because a US passport is way better than that of many countries. TGunn - Americans are running from a future boggeyman - some people already have boogeymen as Pres.

Not worth trying to dodge as 1) fines are huge and 2) US and UK for sure have information exchange with certain countries.

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Hi, The only disadvantage of having US citizenhip (regardless of whether being resident or non resident) is taxation on world wide income. It has DTAA with most of the developed countries so one would end up paying the tax some where or the other. We can argue endlessly but america is still the land of opportunities when it comes to capitlaism, art,science, music and technology etc. We still want access to those.

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If youā€™re a US citizen entering the United States, itā€™s actually unlawful for you to use a different passport (22 CFR 53.1)

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