When did dual citizenship become legal in the US?
Actually, the Oath of Allegiance is still the same. In it you do renounce all other loyalties. http://bensguide.gpo.gov/9-12/citizenship/oath.html I don’t know that the US government actually follows up on this though-or that they ever did. I was born in the US and recently aquired Italian citizenship through Jure Sanguinis. I was able to reclaim this citizenship because my grandfather was born in America, but still an Italian citizen since his father had not yet naturalized when he was born. So my dad was Italian, and myself, and so on. I think that this, along with dual citizenship by marriage, is what is being seen more often. Since Jure Sanguinis is citizenship by birth, no oaths need to be taken. It’s sort of a workaround. US policy on this is basically that they don’t care how many citizenships you hold. You will be treated as if you are a US citizen alone. Italy’s is pretty similar.
Two Supreme Court rulings largely allowed the previously prohibited status of dual citizenship for US citizens (1967 decision, Afroyim v. Rusk, and Vance v. Terrazas in 1980). There are still some restrictions, however. Those seeking US citizenship through naturalization are still required to renounce their prior citizenship. It should be noted that in practice this renunciation is often ignored by the other country and is not actively enforced by the U.S. State Department. Dual citizenship isn’t even a major obstacle to obtaining a security clearance (unless you actively exercise the entitlements of the non US citizenship).
