I’m looking to apply for Japanese citizenship, but don’t want to give up my current one.
Since they require you to renounce two years after getting Japanese citizenship, but in practice never check (or are ok with you saying “I’m trying”) is there any way they can find out I would be keeping two passports? Obviously I’d only use my Japanese passport when exiting or leaving Japan
I know plenty of dual citizens keep Japanese and foreign nationalities indefinitely, but never heard of someone who naturalised as Japanese but kept their original and never renounced that
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Depending on your original country there are several ways to find out. For example if you still need to do tax declarations or very late in life, if you try to get pension calculated with your original countries times or payments.
There were cases where people who didn’t renunce got their Japanese citizen revoked so…
You can read this post on turning Japanese: https://www.turning-japanese.info/2014/06/revoked.html
Can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you get caught then you’re fucked. This guy is lucky immigration took pity on him And granted him a LTR visa
(Personally Quite glad to hear this guy got caught)
Only way to get around this is to become a citizen of a country that allows temporary renunciation (e.g. the UK) first
After you acquire Japanese citizenship they give you a 2 year deadline by which you must renounce. You must submit proof of renunciation to the 区役所/市役所 before that deadline and it will be recorded on your 戸籍. If it is not recorded on your 戸籍 you will be summoned to the 法務局 and will be made aware that your citizenship was voided and as you no longer have a visa (and would now have an extremely hard time getting one because you just committed a crome) would be given a deadline by which you must leave the country. And it’s not a matter of IF they check your 戸籍, it’s a matter of WHEN.
If you want to naturalize then do it right. If you don’t want to do it right then get PR. Otherwise as the kids say, “fuck around and find out” I guess.
Depending on what country you are from you may even have to renounce your former citizenships before you can even obtain Japanese citizenship and would technically spend a brief period stateless.
If you renounce and then later re-acquire foreign citizenship or newly acquire citizenship elsewhere and it is discovered your Japanese citizenship will be revoked.
If you’re American you’ll be busted through FATCA.
When you apply for passport, you also have to state if you have another nationality. Lying on official papers can be trouble.
If Japan revokes your Japanese citizenship, you’ll go to square one not your past residence . And with record of you violating law making it harder to get approved for perma. I think not worth the trouble.
If you aren’t absolutely sure you want to stay in Japan forever, then just get PR and have that option to return to country of citizenship if desired at some point? Seems frankly daft to risk being permanently deported if they catch you. Playing games with your passports seems like a good way to get caught too.