Jason P. Says:
I have been looking into the possibility of getting a second passport. Is it true that getting one from Uruguay doesn’t make me a citizen?
IL Executive Editor Jennifer Stevens Says:
Hi Jason,
Great idea to look into a second passport. The freedom and flexibility it offers you makes living internationally so much easier.
Uruguay is an unusual case though.
While Uruguayan citizenship provides many valuable rights, it does not convey nationality. In many countries, when you become a legal citizen, you also legally adopt a new nationality. For example, if you become a citizen of Chile, you become a Chilean, and your passport will identify you as a Chilean.
However, in Uruguay, when you become a legal citizen, you do not also become a Uruguayan. That’s because in Uruguay, your nationality is always the country of your birth. And your Uruguayan passport will list the country of your birth as your nationality.
So, for example, if you were born in the U.S. and also become a Uruguayan citizen, your Uruguayan passport will list your nationality as the United States of America. As a result, many countries will not accept your Uruguayan passport as a travel document, and ask to see your U.S. passport, instead, since that is your only nationality, unless you prove that you no longer have another passport.
What a second citizenship in Uruguay does provide, is a type of insurance. You have a second “home country” waiting for you—a place where you have a legal right to live and work. It can allow you to make investments you can’t make with your “U.S. citizen” cap on. And, depending on how you arrange your affairs, you may be able to use a residence in Uruguay to lower your tax bill. So, it can make good sense, even if it doesn’t offer every benefit some other passports might.
If you’re interested in a second passport, another option is to obtain a European passport through ancestry—you may, in fact, be eligible for one and not even realize it. You can read an article about that in the IL archives here.
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