Cub Driver wrote in message . ..
I don't think this has always been the case. There was a guy in the
1980s who resigned his British citizenship, so he could get US
citizenship, so he could join the USAF. He was eventually dismissed
from the USAF, and Britain deported him to the USA.

That's correct. The law changed quite recently--within ten years, as I
recall. Americans can now hold dual citizenship and twin passports. (I
do.)

It's probably more accurate to say that the law
was clarified recently. Americans were able to hold
dual citizenship, in certain cases, even as far back
as the 1950s, but it was also very easy to accidentally
or unwillingly lose US citizen by performing certain
actions related to that other citizenship. A
series of Supreme Court decisions followed by State
Department policy changes have all but reversed the
US's former "anti-dual-nationality" stance.

Still, many people believe that the US does not
permit dual citizenship or that US citizens who
also have another citizenship must somehow choose
only one when they reach a certain age, and that's
not true.

From the US point of view, a US citizen who holds
both US citizenship and another citizenship is treated
the same as any other US citizen without the other
citizenship being taken into account. They are required
to obey the laws that apply to any US citizen. But, then
again, that's how most countries handle dual citizenship
(at least those that don't prohibit it). They apply their
laws on that person the same as they do any other one
of their citizens.

Stephen Gallagher