Restore freedom of travel for US-born Indian citizen children

Children born in the United States to Indian parents are U.S. citizens by birth. They are also Indian citizens by descent, provided their birth is registered at the nearest Consulate within one year.

The Indian Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003, section 4. (1A) explicitly allows dual citizenship for minors - it states that "A minor who is a citizen of India by virtue of this section, and is also a citizen of any other country shall cease to be a citizen of India if he does not renounce the citizenship or nationality of another country within six months of attaining full age".

However, the Indian government, specifically, the Ministry of External Affairs, does not allow dual passports, even for minors who are dual citizens. We are told that acquiring a U.S. passport for our children will cause them to lose Indian citizenship.

However, the U.S. regulation (22 CFR 53.1) states that: "It is unlawful for a citizen of the United States, unless excepted under 22 CFR 53.2, to enter or depart, or attempt to enter or depart, the United States, without a valid U.S. passport." The U.S. also does not allow minor children to renounce U.S. citizenship.

So the upshot of this is that Indian children born in the U.S. cannot leave or enter the U.S. without either breaking U.S. law or losing their Indian citizenship. We have overcome this in the past by transiting through Canada, since children under 16 are allowed to enter the U.S. by land using birth certificates alone (22 CFR 53.3 (11)(i)). However, Canada has also refused to give our children visas since they are U.S. citizens, so we have had a tough time boarding the airplane for Canada, including being stranded at Hong Kong airport for a day and having to plead with Cathay Pacific to let us board.

Other parents we know have tried to break the law by bringing the child to the US without a US passport, and have been threatened with $600 fines and deportation.

In a world in which people give up their Indian passports to secure visa-free travel, we think that it shows a real commitment to India to make detours through Canada or risk being stranded in airports in order to retain Indian citizenship for our children, and we like to think that India will also show its commitment to us.

The Indian community came out strongly in support of the right of India's diplomats to be treated with respect. We would like to ask the community to also support the right of Indian citizen children to retain their Indian citizenship.

We ask the MEA to resolve this situation, and offer two suggestions:
- allow dual passports for minor Indian citizens by descent in conditions where their dual citizenship is otherwise allowed, or
- negotiate with the State Department to allow U.S. born Indian citizen children to enter and leave the U.S. on Indian passports. The US regulation 22 CFR 53.1 lists 19 exemptions to the passport requirement, including (10): "When the Department of State waives, pursuant to EO 13323 of December 30, 2003, Sec 2, the requirement with respect to the U.S. citizen for humanitarian or national interest reasons.". Is it so hard to ask the US for a national interest exemption for these children? Harder than securing the release of a diplomat who was charged with visa fraud?

If you care about the dignity of the state - and clearly many do, given the reaction to the case with the arrested diplomat - how do you feel about the prospect of all Indian citizens born in the US being told that they have to give up their citizenship in order to travel? Think of all those thousands of innocent children being deprived of their human rights and being treated as foreigners in their parents' country.