Russian Passport Question?

Question

I was born in St Petersburg, Russia but was adopted when a was a little over a year old. i have a passport from when i was a baby. so its about 15 years old. I believe i still have citizen ship in Russia. the woman at the embassy told me i should. I have never renounced it.

So if i request a new passport from the Russian Embassy in DC... They will still have me on record??

Because i know in order to adopt a child you must register them through the Consulate. And they can issue me a new passport just by me sending in my one from when i was a baby, and my American one and the money and whatever else they need.

my parents lied to me i think, they said that when i was adopted and became a USA citizen all Russian citizen ship was gone, but i think they lied.

Am i right on this?

Is my passport to old for me to get a new one?

Do i indeed have citizenship??

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think you could apply for Russian citizenship since you were born there but when you became a U.S. citizen, your parents probably didn't get dual citizenship for you and your Russian citizenship was automatically lost because when you become a U.S. citizen, you lose your other citizenship if you don't apply for dual citizenship. So your parents are right. You lost your citizenship when you became a US citizen. I'm not 100% sure but I don't think you are a Russian citizen at the moment. Your old Russian passport is not valid so it doesn't mean anything. Your passport and citizenship are two different things. You could still apply for Russian citizenship though. I also have some documents from my country of birth but if I used them, they could see that I'm not in their database anymore.

Before you get a new passport, your personal data is sent to the State Department (if you are a Russian citizen then there through the consulate) and they will do a background check so if you're not a citizen, they will tell you soon that you cannot issue a Russian passport, which is very likely in my opinion. I'm sorry.

Mark K, you can hold a passport of the country of your birth but that doesn't mean you are still a citizen. This has nothing to do with the American authorities from this point. She will have to go to the Russian Consulate and ask there because in some countries dual citizenship is not possible. It is not so easy that you say you are a dual citizen because you have arrange stuff for that. If you read the US Oath of Allegiance, it becomes clear that you lose your citizenship (in case you don't want to retain it but she had no choice, her parents decided)

"I hereby declare, on oath that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen...."

So it depended on her parents and if they didn't say that they want her to remain a Russian citizen, she really didn't.

Answer 2

If you were born in Russia, and hold a Russian passport, you already are a Russian citizen. The problem that you have is that you need a new passport. I can't imagine what kind of Russian passport you have from when you were a baby; Russians get their first internal passport when they are 15 and as far as an international passport, they are listed in their mother and father's passports. They don't have a passport in Russia for babies.

    In terms of dual citizenship; this is allowed completely when you become an American citizen. There is no requirement to renounce your other citizenship and there is no requirement in America to delare yourself a dual citizen; you simply are.

   So, you need to work out the issues with the Russian Embassy or one of the Russian Consulates in the US, and good luck with that. You will find that they are not very helpful in many cases, but you should persist. You need to have them issue you a Russian passport. However, you also need to be aware that Russia only recognizes dual citizenship with other CIS countries, and the USA certainly is not one of them. So, the Russian Embassy may make you renounce and give up your American citizenship in order to get Russian citizenship, or perhaps better to say, a Russian passport. This is only a possibility, not a certainty.

    I'm sure that your adoptive parents were not lying to you; it's just a fact that most people don't know or undersatnd these various citizenship questions.

    Work with the Russian authorities in the US to see what you can do, and how.