Dual citizenship and becoming Australian: Australia allows it, your other country may not, and what the pledge does to each

MARN 1576536

Australia's position

Until April 2002 an Australian who acquired another citizenship lost Australian citizenship by operation of law; the provision was repealed, and since then Australia neither strips a citizen for taking another nationality nor requires a new citizen to give one up. The citizenship application does not ask whether the applicant will renounce, the pledge is a commitment to Australia and contains no renunciation, and a new citizen who holds another passport holds it as far as Australia is concerned. Australian law touches the other citizenship in two places only: a person with another citizenship cannot sit in the federal Parliament, and an Australian who travels on the other country's passport still enters and leaves Australia as a citizen on the Australian one. The citizenship guide covers the application.

Three kinds of country

• Automatic loss: the country's law provides that a citizen who voluntarily acquires a foreign citizenship ceases to be a citizen from that moment, so the pledge itself ends the citizenship, with paperwork afterwards to record it.
• Renounce or choose: the country's law does not permit dual citizenship for adults but does not strip automatically; it requires the person to renounce one or to choose by a date, and a person who does neither is in breach of that country's law, with consequences that range from nothing in practice to the cancellation of the passport when the dual status is discovered.
• Both allowed: the country permits its citizens to hold other citizenships, sometimes with conditions, registration or a declaration, and the new Australian keeps both passports.

The country's rule is the law of that country as it stands on the day of the pledge, and the person checks it with that country's mission in Australia before the ceremony; the lists below reflect the position as generally understood at the time of writing and the mission's statement governs.

Automatic loss: India, China, Nepal and others

India provides in its Citizenship Act that a citizen who voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country ceases to be a citizen of India, and the former citizen must surrender the Indian passport at the mission and obtain a renunciation certificate, with a fee and a penalty for use of the Indian passport after the pledge or for delay; the Overseas Citizen of India card then gives lifelong multiple-entry visa-free travel and most residence, employment and economic rights, excluding the vote, public office, government employment and the purchase of agricultural or plantation land, and the card is applied for with the Australian passport, the citizenship certificate and the surrender certificate. China provides in its Nationality Law that a national who has settled abroad and voluntarily acquires a foreign nationality automatically loses Chinese nationality, cancels the Chinese passport and household registration, and issues no overseas citizen card, so that a former national enters on a visa, with multi-year and long-term visas available to former nationals and their families. Nepal ends citizenship on the acquisition of a foreign citizenship, requires surrender of the citizenship certificate, and issues the Non-Resident Nepali card giving residence, business and limited property rights without political rights. Countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and several others in the Gulf and Africa end citizenship in the same way, often with no card at all. In each, the loss is on the day of the pledge and the paperwork records what has already happened.

Renounce or choose: Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia

Japan provides that a national who acquires a foreign nationality by choice loses Japanese nationality, and requires a notification of loss; a Japanese national who acquires another nationality at birth must choose by a set age. Singapore does not permit dual citizenship for adults, and a Singaporean who acquires another citizenship is required to renounce Singapore citizenship, with the government able to deprive a citizen who has not; the renunciation involves the Singapore mission, the identity card and the passport, and national service obligations are considered. Malaysia likewise requires renunciation and can deprive a citizen who has acquired another citizenship. Indonesia provides for loss of citizenship on the voluntary acquisition of another, with a procedure for recording it and a limited dual status for children to a set age. A person from one of these countries who takes the Australian pledge and does nothing is, under their own country's law, in a position that country may act on, and the honest course is the renunciation that country requires, done through the mission with the documents it lists.

Both allowed

The United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Pakistan for citizens of the countries with which it has an arrangement including Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka on an application for retention or resumption, South Africa with a retention application lodged before the pledge, Italy, Greece, France, Portugal, Spain for some countries, Germany since 2024, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Croatia, most of Latin America including Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Argentina, and most Pacific states permit their citizens to hold Australian citizenship alongside; some, South Africa and Sri Lanka among them, require a step before the pledge or an application afterwards to keep or recover the citizenship, and a person from such a country takes the step first. The United States taxes its citizens wherever they live, which a dual citizen reads before deciding whether both passports are worth keeping. The new Australian from one of these countries enters and leaves Australia on the Australian passport and the other country on its passport, and keeps both current.

What is lost and what the cards restore

• Lost: the vote and public office; government and some public sector employment; the right to own land of certain kinds, agricultural land in India and Nepal most commonly; some pensions, subsidies and schemes reserved for citizens; the citizen's passport and the visa-free travel it gave to third countries; and, in countries without a card, the right to enter without a visa.
• Restored by a card: the Overseas Citizen of India, the Non-Resident Nepali, the Overseas Pakistani and similar cards give lifelong or long-term entry, residence, work and business rights, most property rights, and education at domestic rates in some cases; they do not give political rights, and they can be cancelled for conduct the issuing country objects to.
• Unchanged: family relationships, inheritance under most countries' succession law subject to the foreign-ownership rules, bank accounts held as a non-resident, and the ability to sponsor family under that country's law where it exists.

Children

A child included in a parent's Australian citizenship application becomes Australian on the parent's pledge, and the other country's law decides what that does to the child: India provides that a minor child ceases to be an Indian citizen when the parent does, with the right to resume Indian citizenship within a year of turning 18 by declaration; China treats a child who acquires a foreign nationality through a parent's naturalisation as having lost Chinese nationality in the same way; several countries allow a child to hold both until a set age and then require a choice, Japan among them; and the countries that allow dual citizenship let the child keep both. A child born in Australia to parents of a country with the rule, who is Australian by birth because a parent was a permanent resident, may be a dual citizen from birth under some countries' laws and may not under others, and the child born in Australia guide covers the Australian side. Parents act for children in the renunciation and the card applications, and a parent who does not realise the child's citizenship has ended finds out at the other country's border.

Property, business and inheritance

The practical weight of the loss falls on property. India restricts the purchase of agricultural land, plantation property and farmhouses by non-citizens including Overseas Citizen of India card holders, while permitting other residential and commercial property; land already owned is kept, inherited agricultural land is kept in most states, and the position of a person who inherits after the pledge is examined under the foreign exchange rules, which the family's lawyer in India reads. Nepal restricts land ownership by foreigners more tightly, with the Non-Resident Nepali card restoring a limited right. China's household registration, which governs property, schooling and much else, is cancelled with the nationality, and property is held as a foreigner thereafter. Business interests held as a citizen may need restructuring as a foreign investor, with foreign investment rules applying to new acquisitions. A person with a sale, a transfer, a partition or an inheritance in train in the home country completes it before the pledge where the rules make a citizen's position better, and that is the commonest reason to use some of the twelve months.

Countries that changed recently

The direction of change has been toward permitting dual citizenship: Germany removed its general requirement to renounce in 2024, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands in part, and several African and Asian states have relaxed their rules in the last decade, while a few have tightened or begun enforcing rules that were ignored; a person whose country's rule they learned years ago checks it again before the pledge. The Department of Home Affairs does not advise on other countries' nationality law and does not keep a list; the other country's mission in Australia does, and its website states the renunciation procedure, the documents, the fees and the card that follows. The position stated in this guide is as at the date it was written and is checked against the mission's statement before any step is taken.

Timing the pledge

1. Before applying for citizenship, learn the other country's rule from its mission, and decide whether becoming Australian is worth the loss; a permanent resident who decides it is not keeps the permanent visa and the travel facility, which the resident return guide covers.
2. Complete any property, business or inheritance step that is easier as a citizen of the other country before the ceremony.
3. Take any retention or registration step the other country requires before the pledge, South Africa and Sri Lanka among them.
4. Attend the ceremony within the twelve months, and tell the Department if a date must be declined for one of these reasons.
5. After the pledge, surrender the old passport and complete the renunciation or notification the other country requires, within its time limits and before travelling there.
6. Apply for the overseas citizen or returning-national card where one exists, with the Australian passport and the citizenship certificate.

The ceremony guide covers the twelve months and the urgent ceremony.

What an agent can and cannot advise

A registered migration agent advises on Australian migration and citizenship law, and the consultation covers the Australian side of this question in full: the application, the pledge, the twelve months, the travel facility for a person who decides not to proceed, and the timing. What another country's law does to its own citizens is that country's law, on which the agent gives general information of the kind in this guide and not advice; the mission of that country, or a lawyer practising there, answers the particular case, especially where land, inheritance or a child's status turns on it, and the consultation says so and names the question to put to them.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The Australian Citizenship Act 2007, including the repeal in 2002 of the former provision on loss of citizenship on acquiring another nationality, and section 44 of the Constitution; the position of other countries is stated as generally understood at the date above from their published nationality laws and their missions’ statements, is general information and not advice on foreign law, and the relevant mission’s current statement governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.