Sri Lanka To Offer Dual Citizenship Again
Sri Lanka is going to start offer dual citizenship again, for people of Sri Lanka descent (ie, those who migrated or their kids). Which is good. Still not an actual immigration policy, but getting, well getting back to the status quo. I got dual citizenship years ago.
Sri Lanka wants to be successful like Singapore, but we have no immigration policy. It doesn’t work like that. If you want to be the best you have to attract and retain the best talent. Every successful modern country has a policy to allow for immigration and Sri Lanka needs to get in that line.
At the least, as I’ve said, spouses of Sri Lankans need to be able to get citizenship or permanent residency, if we respect the institution of marriage and stability of family at all.
Sub-least, we need dual-citizenship for people like me who, incidentally, still have to pay over 2 lakhs for the privilege, despite the fact that I’ve paid that many times over in tax since, plus I actually care about the country and try to contribute.
To really be successful, though, we need to be a place where, say, an Australian engineer can come for a contract, like it, fall in love and decide to bring his business here because he can have a stable and secure future. Because he can be a citizen, have the same rights as everybody else, and not be potentially separated from his children. If we want world-class companies and universities, people that come need some potential conduit to apply their talents and energies here. Right now Sri Lanka just says no. All that matters is where you or your parents were born.
If we want to be the wonder of Asia we can’t be a genetically sealed zoo and, indeed, we never have been. Sri Lanka is an island built on immigration (from the Sinhalese to the Burghers) and to freeze that process at a random point is nonsensical. Have a process for sure, but at least have a policy. Dual Citizenship is a start, but Sri Lanka urgently needs a real immigration policy.
Posted on Friday, May 18th, 2012 in Law, Politics, Sri Lanka.
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Gotta agree with wot u r saying here. I have a nephew who is 4 years old. His father is an Indian but mother is Sri Lanka. We badly wanna bring him down and wanna make him to school in Sri Lanka but the immigration policies are hard here. I wish in future we can get my nephew here and let him school in Colombo.
Any idea when this law will become effective?
If his mother is Sri Lankan, can’t he get SL citizenship?
Yes she is. But he was born in India.
Hi this has always confused me, if you have dual citizen say from SL and the US, are you legally liable to obtain a visa on your SL passport although the US passport allows you to travel without a visa? Especially to Europe and the eastern bloc countries?
you can use US passport for arrival and departure at US ports and use SL passport in SL ports, no visa needed at each ends.
No visa needed, you need to travel on your US passport and get the US passport endorsed saying you are a SL dual citizen.
Amen
security first bro – gotta get that shit right before accepting people wether white , yellow or black.
Thankyou oll of you
I am selling property to a couple and one of them is from Sri Lanka…….now we are just coming up to exchange of contracts then suddenly it is discovered his Visa runs out on October 1st , and cannot apply for a new one until 28days before the exsisting Visa expires. Would it be quicker for him to obtain dual citizenship so we can sell the the property quicker ,rather than put it back on the market ?
Their mortgage broker was told of his Visa expiring in October and said it would not be a problem with the lenders (Nationwide) .Nationwide sent their valuer around and everything was fine ,they got their mortgage offer only now they will not pay the money because of his Visa…….He could obtain British citizenship but also wants , but he wants to retain Sri Lanka citizenship……………
What a waste of time for Solicitors, Estate Agents , ourselves, and them all because of some stupid mortgage broker.
I can’t advise you on this, you’d need to talk to a lawyer or someone in emigration. Getting Dual Citizenship takes years, or at least months. Foreigners can buy property in Sri Lanka, I think without tax. Again, you need to talk to a lawyer or some official.
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I have seen some news articles that new rules regarding dual citizenship have been approved by cabinet to be applied later this year. According to what I have read, there will be a waiting period of five years in Sri Lanka as a permanent citizen before becoming a dual citizen. I have been trying to find out if they still offer the option to apply to Retain Sri Lankan citizenship ( hopefully without the 5yr requirement) and have not applied for foreign citizenship yet as I did not want to lose Sri Lankan citizenship.
If u happen to be able to find out the details please publish them on ur blog, as I am sure there many Sri Lankans eagerly waiting to hear. The immigration.gov.lk site has not updated any info on this.
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