[grecy]

At the very least, start the paperwork now to get your citizenship and passport. It only costs a few hundred dollars, and it's like having an ace up your sleeve.

You might never use it, but the beauty is it's there if you want it.

(I recently did ~18 months of paperwork to get my Polish citizenship and passport. I've never been to Europe, and really don't know if I ever will. But 10 years from now if I want to move there, I can)

[fapjacks]

I am VERY interested in what you are proposing, but I have no idea where to get more information. Can you please provide me with a couple of links you found useful in doing this?

[grecy]

It all depends on you and your family.

Find out where your relatives are from (which countries), then start investigating the citizenship requirements for those countries. Your embassy for that country will likely even have a "citizenship application" section on their website that lays out exactly what you need and how to go about applying.

In my case, Poland is a country that says you have the right to be a citizen if one of your parents is a citizen. Irrelevant that I've never been there, don't speak the language, etc. etc.

My grandfather was born there and was a citizen before he passed away, so I pressured my Dad endlessly until he got his Polish citizenship (I did half the paperwork for him because he was being lazy....).. then once he had his citizenship I could go ahead and apply for mine.

Obviously every country is going to be different, so it depends on where your relatives are from, and what the citizenship requirements for that country actually are.

Also note if you're in the US, I think the US doesn't allow you to have citizenship from another country (don't quote me on that, I'm not a US citizen - well actually, it looks really strange[1]. I have no idea.)

[1] http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/legal-conside...

[fapjacks]

Okay, thank you for the clarification. I knew this information previously, I was just hoping you knew of something I didn't. My ancestors came from Switzerland many years ago and using this sort of method wouldn't work for me. I have heard that in Switzerland it is relatively difficult to get citizenship, as I've been a few times and asked around while visiting.

I do know for certain (my wife is Swedish and American) that you are allowed at least dual citizenship as long as you don't present yourself at the border with your passport issued by another country. There are several technicalities which "rescind" your American citizenship, but they mostly are not enforced unless you make a big deal out of it (e.g. turning in your passport to an overseas American embassy and declaring that you are no longer a citizen), but presenting at the border your passport issued by another country has lately been interpreted to mean that you are declaring yourself citizen of that nation. IANAL but many of these kinds of things are not black-and-white and depend largely upon the border agent which you are dealing with.

Again thanks for your reply!

[grecy]

Can you get Swedish citizenship through your wife?

I'd be surprised if the two of you can't go and live there together and after a while I expect you'd be eligible to apply...

[fapjacks]

Yes, we are moving to Sweden soon, and I'll get my citizenship in a couple of years afterwards with the relative-of-citizen residency clause (i.e. married to and residing in Sweden with with a Swedish citizen). I was just always interested in Swiss citizenship specifically.

[grecy]

What does Swiss citizenship get you that Swedish doesn't?