In this guide
- What "dual citizenship" actually means
- Countries that allow dual citizenship without restriction
- Countries with conditions or restrictions
- Countries that prohibit dual citizenship for their own nationals
- Notification rules in countries that allow dual citizenship
- Who this matters for, and who it doesn't
- What this list doesn't cover, and where to go next
- Conclusion
Most lists of countries that allow dual citizenship are outdated the day they're published, and Germany proved it in the most public way possible. In June 2024, one of Europe's largest economies rewrote a rule that had stood, in some form, for over a century. If you're checking whether your target countries allow dual citizenship, the real answer is rarely a clean yes or no. It's usually "yes, but" or "no, unless."
That's the gap this guide fills. Instead of the flat allow/prohibit list most coverage still runs with, this is a three-tier picture: countries that fully allow dual citizenship, countries that allow it only under specific conditions, and countries that prohibit it for their own nationals, along with the notification rules that catch people off guard even where dual citizenship is technically legal.
Key Takeaways
- Roughly 75% of countries now permit some form of dual citizenship, though the real figure ranges 65-76% depending on methodology and definition of "permit."
- Germany's Act to Modernize the Nationality Act, effective June 27, 2024, ended a rule that had required most non-EU naturalizing citizens to renounce their prior nationality; the reform is not retroactive.
- A large middle tier exists between "allowed" and "prohibited": Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and South Korea all permit dual citizenship only under specific, narrow conditions that generic lists routinely flatten into "restricted."
- Legal permissibility and notification obligations are separate questions. Turkey and Israel both require dual nationals to take specific administrative steps even though dual citizenship itself is fully legal in both countries.
- This list answers "is it legal," not "what does it cost me in taxes." Holding a second citizenship carries separate tax and reporting implications that this guide deliberately doesn't cover in depth.
What "dual citizenship" actually means
Dual citizenship means holding legal citizenship status in two or more countries at the same time, with the rights and obligations of each. That's distinct from residency, which is a right to live somewhere, and distinct from statuses like an OCI card or long-term residence permit, which can look like citizenship on paper but aren't.
The question that actually matters isn't "does the world allow this." It's "do both of your specific countries allow it, in combination." A country that fully permits its citizens to hold a second nationality can still be paired with a country that prohibits dual citizenship on the other end, and in that case, the more restrictive country's rule usually wins for that individual.
Trying to separate legal citizenship status from where you actually pay taxes? The difference between dual residency and dual citizenship is one of the most common points of confusion we see, and it's worth clarifying before you go further into this comparison.
Countries that allow dual citizenship without restriction
These countries impose no renunciation requirement in either direction and no notification obligation tied specifically to acquiring a second nationality. This tier includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Italy, Portugal, and most of Latin America.
| Region | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| North America | United States, Canada | No renunciation required for naturalizing citizens |
| Europe | UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Portugal, Germany (as of June 2024) | Germany is the most significant recent addition to this tier |
| Latin America | Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina | Broad acceptance across the region, some notification variance |
| Oceania | Australia, New Zealand | No restriction on acquiring additional nationalities |
Germany's June 2024 reform is the single most consequential change in this tier. Under the Act to Modernize the Nationality Act (StARModG), which took effect June 27, 2024, Germany now allows dual and multiple citizenship in all cases. German citizens no longer automatically lose their citizenship by naturalizing in another country, and people naturalizing as German citizens no longer need to renounce their prior nationality. The reform is not retroactive: it doesn't restore citizenship someone already lost before the effective date.
What changed: Before June 27, 2024, Germany generally required non-EU, non-Swiss citizens to renounce their prior nationality to naturalize, with narrow exceptions. That default is gone. Verify your specific case against current Federal Foreign Office guidance (auswaertiges-amt.de), since exceptions and transitional rules can still apply depending on when your naturalization process started.
The United States takes a notably neutral position on this question. The U.S. Department of State's official dual nationality guidance confirms that the US recognizes dual nationality but does not require citizens to formally elect one nationality over another.
Countries with conditions or restrictions
This is the tier most lists get wrong, either by omitting it entirely or by flattening it into a single "restricted" label that doesn't tell you what's actually allowed. Four examples make the pattern clear.
Spain: allowed only with specific treaty countries
Spain automatically preserves Spanish citizenship on naturalization elsewhere only for a defined list of countries: the Ibero-American nations, plus Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal, and France (under the Spain–France dual nationality convention in force since 2022). For every other country, Spanish nationals lose Spanish citizenship roughly three years after acquiring the new nationality, unless they formally declare an intent to retain it. This treaty list is specific and worth confirming against the current Boletín Oficial del Estado text for your exact country before relying on it.
Austria: allowed only in narrow circumstances
Austria's default position is restrictive, but named exceptions exist, including certain birth-related cases and a formal retention permit process (Beibehaltungsgenehmigung) that must generally be approved before acquiring the second nationality, not after. Missing that sequencing is one of the more common, avoidable mistakes people make with Austrian citizenship.
The Netherlands: prohibited by default, with named exceptions
Dutch nationals generally lose Dutch citizenship when voluntarily acquiring another nationality, but the law carves out specific exceptions, including being born in, and living in, the country of the second nationality, having lived there for five uninterrupted years before turning 18, or being married to (or the registered partner of) a national of that country. If you fall outside a named exception, the default rule applies.
South Korea: conditional dual nationality via pledge
South Korea's 2011 Nationality Act amendment introduced a middle path: instead of requiring renunciation, eligible dual nationals sign a pledge not to exercise their foreign nationality rights while in Korea, and Korean law treats them as Korean nationals only for domestic legal purposes. Men generally must renounce by March 31 of the year they turn 18 if they want to avoid South Korean military service obligations tied to citizenship, a deadline that catches families off guard when it isn't flagged early.
| Country | What's allowed | What's not |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | Dual citizenship with treaty-listed countries (Ibero-American nations, Andorra, Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal, France) | Automatic loss after ~3 years for non-treaty countries unless retention is declared |
| Austria | Narrow birth exceptions; pre-approved retention permit | General dual citizenship without prior approval |
| Netherlands | Exceptions for birth and residence in the other country, five years' residence there before 18, or marriage to a national of that country | Default loss of Dutch citizenship on voluntary naturalization elsewhere |
| South Korea | Conditional dual nationality via signed pledge | Full, unrestricted dual nationality exercise within Korea |
Say you held a Dutch passport, naturalized in Canada in 2019, and assumed your Dutch citizenship was safe indefinitely because you'd read a generic "dual citizenship allowed" summary. If you don't fall under any of the Netherlands' named exceptions, you may only find out when you try to renew your Dutch passport in 2023 that you automatically lost your Dutch nationality years earlier. The generic list you trusted never mentioned the exceptions requirement at all.
Considering Grenada citizenship by investment? Buying citizenship is still voluntarily acquiring another nationality, so your home country's loss rules apply to it exactly as they would to naturalizing anywhere else. Grenada lets you keep your existing nationality, but only your home country decides whether you keep yours.
Countries that prohibit dual citizenship for their own nationals
A smaller group of countries still maintains an outright prohibition for their own citizens, enforced either through automatic loss of citizenship on naturalizing elsewhere or a formal renunciation requirement.
| Country | Enforcement mechanism | Notable exception |
|---|---|---|
| China | Automatic loss on acquiring foreign nationality | None broadly available |
| India | No dual citizenship; Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) is a separate, non-citizenship status | OCI provides limited rights, not citizenship |
| Japan | Automatic loss on voluntarily acquiring another nationality; those dual from birth must choose (by 20 if dual before 18, within 2 years if dual at 18 or older) | None for voluntary acquisition |
| Singapore | Formal renunciation required, generally ages 21-22 | Renunciation can be denied for men with outstanding National Service obligations |
| Saudi Arabia | Prohibited by default | Rare, discretionary exceptions |
Under Japan's Nationality Act, a Japanese national who voluntarily acquires another nationality loses Japanese nationality automatically (Article 11), so citizenship by investment is not compatible with keeping Japanese nationality. People who are dual nationals for other reasons, such as from birth, must choose one: by age 20 if they became dual nationals before 18, or within two years if they became dual nationals at 18 or older (rules in force since April 1, 2022). Confirm your own situation with Japan's Ministry of Justice before you act.
Singapore requires citizens who hold another nationality to formally renounce it, typically between ages 21 and 22, through an Oath of Renunciation, Allegiance and Loyalty administered by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority. Renunciation requests can be denied for men with outstanding National Service obligations, which is a detail generic lists frequently omit entirely.
Considering citizenship by investment from one of these countries? A purchased passport is still a voluntarily acquired nationality, so the loss and renunciation rules above apply to it exactly as they would to naturalization. Check your home country's position before you apply to any program.
The UAE's narrow 2021 exception
The UAE's Federal Decree-Law No. 3 of 2021 created a narrow, discretionary path to dual citizenship, granted only by presidential decree, for investors, specialists, scientists, artists, and their immediate family. It is not a general policy shift, and most UAE nationals still don't have a standing right to dual citizenship the way Germans or Americans do. Treat any claim that "the UAE now allows dual citizenship" as materially incomplete without this qualification.
Notification rules in countries that allow dual citizenship
Here's the category nobody else treats as its own decision factor: legal permissibility and administrative notification are two separate questions, and conflating them causes real problems.
Turkey requires citizens who acquire a second nationality to notify the nearest Turkish consulate, even though dual citizenship itself is fully legal for Turkish nationals. Skipping this step doesn't make you lose Turkish citizenship, but it does create documentation gaps that surface later, often at the worst possible moment, like a property transaction or military service registration.
Israel requires dual nationals to enter and exit the country on their Israeli passport, regardless of what other citizenship they hold. This is a border-control rule, not a citizenship-status rule, but ignoring it creates friction at passport control that a purely legal reading of "is dual citizenship allowed" wouldn't predict.
The general pattern holds across most of the world: legal doesn't always mean paperwork-free. If you're planning around a specific country, check both questions separately. Whether dual citizenship is allowed, and whether anything needs to be filed, declared, or used at the border once you have it.
Who this matters for, and who it doesn't
This comparison is the right starting point for:
- People evaluating citizenship by investment programs who need to know whether their home country will let them keep both passports
- People pursuing ancestry-based citizenship claims who need to check both their current country's rules and their target country's rules
- Anyone facing a naturalization decision where they'd otherwise assume they have to give up their existing citizenship, without checking whether that's actually true
Look elsewhere if:
- You already hold dual citizenship and have a specific compliance question. That's a job for an immigration attorney licensed in the relevant country, not a comparison list like this one.
- Your real question is about where you owe taxes, not your legal citizenship status. Those are separate questions with separate rules, covered next.
- You're treating any single country's entry above as the final word. Rules like Spain's treaty list and Japan's choice requirement are specific and change; verify against a primary source before making an irreversible decision.
What this list doesn't cover, and where to go next
This guide answers one question: is dual citizenship legally permitted. It deliberately doesn't answer a related but separate question: what does holding a second citizenship cost you in taxes.
Tax implications of a second citizenship are a distinct issue from legal permissibility. Citizenship-based taxation (the US model), worldwide income taxation tied to residency, and reporting obligations under FATCA and CRS all operate independently of whether your two citizenships are "allowed" to coexist. Our guide to the tax obligations that come with a second citizenship is worth reading before you assume legal permissibility settles the financial question too.
If you're a US citizen weighing a second passport, reporting obligations that come with holding a second nationality apply specifically to you regardless of which second country you're evaluating, since the US taxes citizens on worldwide income no matter where else they hold citizenship or residency.
Military service obligations tied to citizenship, not residency, are another separate category. South Korea's citizenship-linked service requirement is the clearest example in this guide, but it's not the only country where holding citizenship (rather than merely living there) triggers an obligation that a legal-permissibility list won't surface on its own.
Ready to figure out which route actually fits your situation? Get in touch with Atlasway to talk through whether a citizenship-by-investment program, an ancestry claim, or a naturalization path makes the most sense given both your current citizenship's rules and your target country's.
Conclusion
The picture on countries that allow dual citizenship in 2026 is three tiers, not two: countries that fully allow it, a large conditional middle tier that most lists flatten into meaningless "restricted" labels, and a shrinking group that still prohibits it outright. Germany's 2024 reform is proof that this list keeps changing, and Spain's treaty-country carve-out, Austria's retention-permit sequencing, and South Korea's pledge system are proof that the details inside each tier matter more than the headline classification.
If you're evaluating a second citizenship, start by checking both your current country's rules and your target country's rules independently, since either one can be the limiting factor. From there, the next questions, tax exposure, notification requirements, and whether a purchased citizenship-by-investment route or a naturalization path fits your timeline better, are where the real decision gets made.
Note: The information in this guide is for research and educational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice. Dual citizenship rules change frequently and vary by the specific combination of countries involved, so always verify current requirements with a licensed immigration attorney before making a decision.
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