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For an individual being a citizen of both France and Canada, is it possible to obtain a third citizenship ? Let's assume this third country allows 3 or more citizenships, I am not interested in listing these countries.

Do these two countries (France and Canada) allow their citizens to hold a total of 3 or more citizenships?

Vince
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2 Answers2

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I don't know of any country having a numerical limit on how many citizenships their citizens may have: either they allow multiple citizenships or they don't.

France allows it by not disallowing it in law, but it is also explicitly stated in various governmental sources that multiple citizenships are allowed. For example, on the Foreign Ministry's website:

La possession d’une ou de plusieurs autres nationalités, n’a pas, en principe, d’incidence sur la nationalité française.

[...]

Par ailleurs, la France ne fait aucune distinction entre les binationaux et les autres Français sur le plan des droits et devoirs liés à la citoyenneté.

Which translates into "Holding one or more other citizenships has no incidence on French citizenship. France does not make any distinction between dual citizens and other French citizens regarding rights and duties linked to citizenship"

And even though it does not address the issue directly, according to Canadian government:

In some situations, you might decide that you want to renounce (give up) your Canadian citizenship. For example, if you are or want to become a citizen of a country that does not allow dual citizenship, you may choose to renounce your Canadian citizenship.

which seems to imply that Canada does allow it.

Vince
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fkraiem
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  • The "numerical" limit you say doesn't exist appear in both your quotes: "binationaux" and "dual citizenship". That is enough to make me doubt it is a case taken care of. – Vince Dec 26 '14 at 19:46
  • For one thing, the first quote says "une ou plusieurs autres nationalités". But in any case, I have read the code de la nationalité enough times to know it doesn't exist at least in France. You can read it too, you know. Or simply ask your local embassy, since it seems you won't be satisfied by anything else. – fkraiem Dec 26 '14 at 19:52
  • Don't worry I trust you and your quotes are enough to show it. I am just saying I find your first comment not entirely true because if in fact multiple citizenships are apparently allowed, the wording used by both countries clearly shows it is a rare or ignored situation. – Vince Dec 26 '14 at 19:54
  • "either they allow multiple citizenships or they don't." Multiple nationality is not for any country to "allow" or "not allow". Multiple nationality arises out of the laws of multiple countries, and is not under the control of any one country. Some countries adopt rules for gain or loss of nationality to make it less common to have multiple nationality. But for all countries, there are situations, according to the law, that a person has that country's nationality and another country's nationality at the same time. – user102008 Dec 29 '14 at 23:08
  • @user102008, That's not true. Some countries are perfectly strict on the matter. Either you have citizenship of that country and no other, or you do not. There is no other option. One such country that comes to mind is India. – ouflak May 16 '16 at 12:21
  • @ouflak: Wrong. There is no country on Earth whose law makes it impossible to have that country's nationality and another nationality at the same time. There are several ways under Indian law to have Indian nationality and another nationality at the same time, e.g.: 1) Someone born in India to an Indian citizen parent and a parent of anther nationality, will have Indian citizenship automatically at birth, and may have the other parent's nationality at birth. This Indian citizenship is never automatically lost. – user102008 May 17 '16 at 04:48
  • @ouflak: 2) Someone born outside India to an Indian citizen parent and a parent of anther nationality, will have Indian citizenship automatically at birth if registered within 1 year of birth at an Indian consulate with the declaration that the child does not have a foreign passport (note: passport, not nationality), and may have the other parent's nationality automatically at birth, and may also automatically have the country of birth's nationality if it's a jus soli country. This Indian citizenship is lost at 18.5 if you do not renounce other nationalities, but it is dual before then. – user102008 May 17 '16 at 04:48
  • If the child has any other citizenship, they are not a citizen of India. And, rather unfortunately I think, India does not appear willing to reconsider this stance any time soon. – ouflak May 17 '16 at 06:35
  • Link to Indian citizenship law: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/262267/ch14annexh.pdf. Read through section 4. It is rather concise on the subject. Other countries have similar restrictions (I think, notably, China might as well be as strict as India). – ouflak May 17 '16 at 06:38
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While it's easy to see why and how a country might forbid or at least severely restrict dual citizenship (e.g. by requiring people to give up previous citizenship when naturalizing, stripping people who get another citizenship from that country's citizenship, limiting the scope of jus soli or forcing people born with several citizenships to choose between that country's citizenship and others, etc.), it's not quite clear why and how a country would care about a third citizenship.

As a matter of fact, some members of my family have the French, Canadian and Swiss nationality and never had any issue enjoying all three without doing anything to hide one of them to anybody. The main issue, for men, is that military obligations are quite extensive in Switzerland but that's not a big concern for the French and Canadian citizenships.

Gala
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