Two citizenship holder (Egyptian and French) , on my way to try and get a Japanese citizenship. (been living in japan for 7y)
I wouldn’t mind renouncing my Egyptian one, but would like to hold on to the french.
Should I even inform them of my french citizenship? I have always used my Egyptian passport while going abroad, although I might have mentioned my French passport in some documents over the years.. but not sure.
Also, I’m in the process of renewing my French passport as well ( doing it here in japan). is there any danger I’ll be found out?
In short, not sure how to play this.
Either
Be straight and tell them about it, and just not renounce it ( I see many people do this from stories online, but most of them are half Japanese so not sure it’ll apply to me)
or
Say nothing about it and there’s no chance it’ll hinder my process and I just worry too much.
Thanks for the help!
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/xh2nch/non_japanese_dual_citizenship_turning_japanese/
3 comments
Lying on government paper work never leads to problems for anyone, those soyboy Japanese immigration officers won’t do anything about it.
>Should I even inform them of my french citizenship?
Yes, a lie of omission is still a lie.
>Be straight and tell them about it, and just not renounce it
They will require proof that you have renounced it, and if you don’t provide it within two years of acquiring Japanese citizenship they will revoke your Japanese citizenship.
>Say nothing about it and there’s no chance it’ll hinder my process and I just worry too much.
This would technically be fraud. While I can’t comment on how likely the fraud is to be discovered I don’t think anyone can in good conscience recommend that you attempt it.
Seriously, if you want to keep your french passport just go with permanent residence. For nearly all intents and purposes it’s as good as citizenship.
I think you’re missing a third possibility: You don’t report your French citizenship and they don’t immediately find out about it, then you spend years with low-level anxiety about what happens if/when you get caught. I don’t agree with the law here, but this is not the kind of violation you can just get away with once and forget about.