Question

Asked by Ian B from united kingdom | Nov. 26, 2014 22:11

About:Dual Nationality

How does the Chinese Government know you hold dual citizenship?

If someone is a Chinese citizen and they successfully apply for dual citizenship in countries such UK or USA, how will the Chinese Government know about this and prevent the Chinese citizen from retaining their passport, ID card etc and using them as a regular Chinese citizen?

If a Chinese spouse moves abroad but retains their Chinese passport they should be able to travel back to China as a Chinese citizen. I guess the only issue would be that they did not need the visas in their Chinese passport to remain in the "foreign" country.

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Answers (2)

Answered by Kate | Nov. 27, 2014 00:42

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Ian, it's not a problem. When you acquire US citizenship, you will apply for a US passport. When you get back to China, you should apply for a Chinese visa with your US passport. When you submit your application, you are required to provide your Chinese passport too. Usually, they cut off a corner of your Chinese passport. Then this passport can't be used any more.

Yes, you may return China with your Chinese passport successfully. But you will have a problem when you exit. If you use your USA passport to exit China, the immigration officer will find out that there is no entry record of your USA passport. Then you have no choice but use your Chinese passport. In this case, you need to apply for a visa. But I don't think the US embassy will give you one because you are an American. See, this is the problem.

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Answered by Craig Reynolds | Dec. 02, 2014 10:55

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Ian,

I am in the same situation with my wife here in the U.S. How can she return to China with China discovering her U.S. Citizenship and cancelling her Chinese Citizenship? She should have stayed as permanent resident, but did not. That was easier because she just traveled using her U.S. permanent resident card and Chinese Visa.

Since becoming a U.S. Citizen she no longer has the permanent resident card to use. That means the only way for her to go back to China is to apply for a Visa at the Chinese embassy with her U.S. passport. At this point they will know she holds U.S. citizenship and was not born in the U.S. because her U.S. passport lists China as her birth country.

We thought about traversing via Hong Kong since U.S. passport holders do not require a Visa to enter. However a Mainland China resident does need a Visa/permit to travel to HK. So getting to HK is fine, but moving onward to the Mainland is not because a Visa is needed to enter the Mainland with a U.S. passport or Chinese passport. If she tries to use the Chinese passport they will see she did not have permission to enter HK and will suspect a problem.

Maybe it would be possible to enter China via train or ferry, but the return to HK would still be a problem without a HK entry permit or Visa with her Chinese passport.

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