Is it possible to get second citizenship as an American with a criminal record?

Yes, in some cases. Here’s a brief explainer of how the process looks, when possible. 👇

#dualcitizenship #criminalrecord #freedomofmovement #mobilitynostr

https://www.malakoutilaw.com/2nd-citizenship-for-americans-with-a-criminal-record

There are at least 3 parties to every person's bordered entry to a country:

1. The country the person is entering;

2. The person entering;

3. The country of citizenship of the person entering or the country that issued the travel document (or ID substituting for a travel document).

Party #1 and #2 are intuitive for most people, but why should one be dependent on their home country to be able to enter a different country?

A relic of the nation-state monopoly on issuance of passports combined with their multi-lateral agreement to only accept passports (with limited exceptions) as travel documents for lawful bordered entries.

If your country of citizenship won't or can't issue your passport, you'll likely be nailed to one place or borderless zone (see my list of passport attack vectors in the comments). This is why confiscating someone's passport is considered such a powerful tool of control, whether by an individual or an oppressive govt actor.

This phenomenon of dependence on the third party mentioned above results in one of the biggest (and little discussed) benefits of dual and multiple citizenship. If you can swap 2, 3 or more countries into that third party slot issuing your travel document, your dependence (and vulnerability to) any one country becomes more limited.

Note, I'm not referring to visa-free access granted by the 2nd or 3rd citizenship.

Even if the country issuing the passport doesn't have ANY visa-free access to other countries. The hypothetical "weakest" passport with zero visa-free access has value.

It removes the 3rd party (document issuing nation-state) involvement from human freedom of movement.

Of course, the tradeoff is that the person using it may have to reinvent the wheel by obtaining visas to enter as a citizen of that country whereas a different citizenship (with accompanying passport) may already grant you visa-free access to your destination country.

A potentially time-consuming hassle.

At present, the closest corollary (excepting the stateless and refugees who might be entitled to refugee travel doc.), would be citizenship in a country with very poor visa-free access, but that reliably issues passports to its citizens.

Would having such citizenship and accompanying "visa-needy" passport be worthwhile? For those interested in maximum freedom from state and contingency plans, I believe very much so.

This is why I often recommend people pursue adding citizenship in so-called third world countries if they qualify by ancestry, and also why I believe there would still be a market for citizenship by investment in a country with extremely poor visa-free access.

The citizenship granting the "visa-needy" passport as a canvas for visas has significant value for freedom of movement.

#citizenship #passport #dualcitizenship #visafreetravel #citizenshipbyinvestment

And yes, even if you are talking about only the travel-freedom aspects of a citizenship (like visa-free travel), you’re still talking about the citizenship, not a passport.

The passport is the tool used to exercise the benefit, but the benefit still comes from

the citizenship.

If you’re talking about “the best passport”, really you mean “the best citizenship.”

So why don’t you just say that?

#citizenship #passport

U.S. naturalization time limits - a cheat sheet for mobility lawyers.

#naturalization #uscitizenship #dualcitizenship

https://www.malakoutilaw.com/u-s-naturalization-time-limits

You can reliably get a second citizenship by investment in about 3-6 months from one of about 8 countries.

#dualcitizenship #freedomofmovement

Chandler Bolt says this and I agree entirely.

If you give away your best stuff (in articles and videos), people will pay you to tell them again, or do it for them.

#grownostr #contentcreation #dualcitizenship

https://www.malakoutilaw.com/the-basics-of-an-fbi-background-check-identity-history-summary

you're an American with a criminal record in California and you're pursuing second citizenship elsewhere, you're probably gonna need to get your California Department of Justice ("DOJ") background check.

Why?

Because the CalDOJ is the repository that reports CA conviction data to the FBI CJIS.

The FBI CJIS, in turn, issues your FBI IdHS ("backgound check") that you need to naturalize in most, but not all (Hey, shout out Hungarian simplified naturalization!) countries.

Here's a step by step guide on how you can request your own CalDOJ background check. 👇

Also, in the comments, is my breakdown of how criminal history information is reported to the FBI and the steps necessary to fix/correct/change an FBI IdHS WHEN possible. 👇

#dualcitizenship #backgroundchecks #freedomofmovement

https://www.malakoutilaw.com/how-to-get-your-california-doj-background-check-easily

😬

Pro tip: A great substitute for "cool story, bro" is

"Fascinating."

Knocks the wind right out of their sails. Unfortunately, some of my friends have turned it around on me now too.

So beware if you intend to implement.

What happens when the AI bots gas me up so much that I prefer their fawning praise over interacting with real humans?

Dear AI Bots: flattery gets you everywhere with me. 🤣

Perceptions about countries can change at a sloth’s speed.

Thinking of a long trip I made to Latin America in 2018 reminds me of just how long it can take information about countries to proliferate.

In the summer of 2018, I took a solo four country trip to the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico. I was expecting a little pushback from friends and family about the safety of traveling to Venezuela.

Upon hearing of the trip, my aunt had a concerned voice.

She asked: "Is it gonna be safe in..."

[I was anticipating the sentence would surely end with "Venezuela"]

"...Colombia?" she said.

I was stunned and amused at the same time.

At the time, Caracas was one of the crime and murder capitals of the world. Colombian major cities were (and probably still are) far safer for tourists.

My Aunt was likely thinking of a Colombia from 30 years prior - the late '80s and early '90s, whereas she hadn't gotten the memo of how much violent crime Venezuela had fallen into.

It was a great illustration of how long it can take country perceptions to change.

Mind you, my aunt is no ignoramus, or American isolationist. She (along with many other very intelligent people) just had a very outdated concept about these foreign countries.

Oftentimes that dissonance between perception and reality creates an information arbitrage for residence and mobility opportunities. Many are skating to where the puck was, while others are skating to where the puck is going, as my canuck colleague David Lesperance is fond of saying.

That's part of the fun and challenge of being a mobility advocate/lawyer/advisor.

#freedomofmovement #perception #colombia #venezuela #residency #latinamerica #grownostr

Here are 10 simply stated reasons I've seen that someone might need to naturalize URGENTLY. 👇

I've had clients dealing with 8 of the 10 issues (luckily not all in one client 😬).

#freedomofmovement #naturalization #dualcitizenship

https://www.malakoutilaw.com/10-urgent-reasons-one-might-need-to-naturalize-mobility-concepts

By “freedom of movement,” I’m including books on:

- citizenship

- dual citizenship

- immigration

- passport & other travel docs

- travel

- individual & nation-state

I read a decent number of books on human #freedomofmovement and I have opinions on them.

Might as well start posting some brief reviews. I’ll start next week with monthly book reviews on my website www.malakoutilaw.com.

#mobilitybookreviews #dualcitizenship #grownostr

It’s passport mania in 2023, brother. 😎

#feeedomofmovement #dualcitizenship

Good hypo. I’d say there may be a need to distinguish between the writing and the images in the declaration.

“Writing AI-free.”